Unable to activate WiFi (FN + F5) / Win7 / N500

[messo]

There is no way of activating the WiFi under Win7 on Lenovo N500 (Model nr: 4233). All drivers are up to date and working, the interface is showing up in Network Connections, but the FN+F5 does not work as a hardware-switch. Bluetooth is activated by default. The physical radio switch that is located on the front of the computer only (de)activates bluetooth, not WiFi. I have tried:

1. Installed drivers for Vista and XP (power management++) without luck.
2. Installed software made for similar models, that controll WiFi and power management - still no luck.
3. Installed Intel's offical driver for the card, and there management software. Everything works, but no way to activate WiFi. Tells me to activate it with a hardware switch (FN + F5). No option to activated it by software.
4. Reset BIOS.
5. Find a option in the BIOS to make the WiFi be turned on by default when computer boots - does not exist.

Anyone who has a clue what to try next?

Suprised that it exists computers on the market, without these elementary functions!

[yigit]

is it possible that your wireless adapter is defective or dead?

[messo]

No, that is not the case.

It shows up at all the right places, but without the possibility of activating the WiFi at hardware / BIOS level. I should also mention that it worked under Vista before i had a clean install of Win7. In between I also tried a installation with XP, and the WiFi worked excellent.

This seems to be a generall problem with Win7 and N500, judging from other threads at this forum.

[yigit]

did you install power management and/or hotkey drivers?

[messo]

There is no PM or hotkey drivers / software for Win7 for N500. I did try to install drivers for Vista without luck, and drivers for "sibling" models do not work either.

Thanks for the effort to help me, but I start to believe that a fix for this elementary problem doesn't exist – which I frankly find quite incredible. Hope someone at Lenevo reads this and finds a fix for this simple problem

[yigit]

i was gonna suggest that to use vista drivers instead of it, apparently not working.

your system doesn't support windows 7 and to be honest i don't think lenovo will publish drivers for window 7.

[messo]

That is what I was afraid of. What I find incredible is that a company can release a machine with Vista on, and choose not to support the next OS update.

I am fixing this N500 for a friend. I have a MacBook Pro myself from 2006, and I just installed the newest OS (Lion) without any problems – a reminder to myself why I choose to leave the PC / Windows platform a decade ago, and why I should stick to that desition in the future

[yigit]

it's microsoft's fault