Everything Wireless has Disappeared

[kalbifornia]

I am a college student who normally has his laptop online via a wired connection while at school. But I can also take my laptop home, where I have a wireless router, and have a good wireless connection. I have done this several times, and I have had wireless connections at school as well. Something happened to my computer, though, and I don't know what. It's as if I never even had a wireless adapter in my computer. When I view my network connections, there is not even an icon for a wireless connection. There is not a link that says "View Available Wireless Networks." Even the "Connect to" submenu from the Start Menu is gone (I used to be able to select the wireless option from that submenu). My wireless adapter does not even show up in the device manager. The HP Wireless Assistant says my WLAN is turned off or disabled. Unfortunately, I cannot find any option to enable it.

My laptop is an HP Pavilion DV6000. It has a built-in wireless adapter, and it has always worked in the past. I do not know what is causing this problem.

This is not a problem with the wireless router in my home. Another computer successfully connected via the same router.

Does anyone have any idea how to fix this so I can get my wireless back up and working again? Thanks in advance.

[CalcProgrammer1]

Look on your laptop's front panel (the keyboard) where it has power, volume, brightness, etc. Often times laptops have hardware buttons that turn the wireless card on and off. If the button was pressed by accident, the PC won't see the card because it's disabled in hardware. Look for a wireless button. My friend's HP Compaq laptop has an actual dedicated button, but yours might have a Fn+<key> that turns WiFi on and off.

[superdave1984]

Also open device manager and click the scan for hardware changes button. Maybe it has just forgotten that you have a wireless card installed. Failing that, physically remove the card and reinstall it if you know for a fact it is good.

[kalbifornia]

The wireless button is a sliding one with a light and the light turns blue when I switch wireless, just like always. So it is not that.

I also tried the "Scan for New Hardware" in the Device Manager, but it did not show up. The wireless card itself may not be working. I will probably find out where it is in my computer so I can take it out and try to re-install it. If the card itself doesn't work, it should still be covered by my warranty, so maybe I can get HP to send me a working one.

Thanks for your help everyone. If anyone else has any other ideas, let me know.