I've Lost My Wifi - And I'm Clueless

Hope someone here can help me.
I just made the move to Linux and and am still very bewildered. But deep down I believe its the right thing for me to do.

Anyway... bought the acer, loved it's speed, especially the way it connects to the internet. But oh no! My wifi internet connection has gone. It happened while downloading updates for the acer. The screen went blank. When I switched it back on all was fine apart from the Wifi. The connection manager icon on the task bar is just a pale ghostly outline of itself and doesn't do anything when I put the cursor over it. And when I go the the connect section from the desktop it looks as though (but I can't be sure) that there aren't as many icons there as there used to be. I've still got
Browser
Messenger
Email
Rss Reader
Wikipedia
Google Maps
and Hotmail..

But I think something has dissapeared. Clicking on browser opens firefox but of course it can't connect because the Acer doesn't seem to have any wifi connectivity.

Please help. And if you can i will need to be lead by the hand. I'm not familiar with command line computing.

Thanks

 

There's a little switch on the front that turns the card on and off. Also turning the power off the laptop will reset the card too.

 

Thanks for suggesting it but I had already tried that. And rebooting. My newness is to Linux not computers in gerneral. It's like the wifi card has been disabled. When I go to preferences and click on network centre.... absolutely nothing happens.

 

What updates were you downloading? Live updates?
You can restore the factory system anytime. This is one of the simplest and quickest solutions for any problem, especially when you don't know what happened. Create usb (it wil take about 15-20 min) or use external ODD. The restoring itself will take for about 15-20 minutes.
(if your version is old, a more recent version of linpus is here: http://ftp.twaren.net/Linux/Linpus/Aspi ... overy_DVD/
you perhaps will not need to dowload a lot of updates, because it already has them; however, I am not sure it is compatible with all modifications of AA, if there are any)

 

Yes i was downloading live updates. It was the first time i'd done that so there was a long list of updates. It was half way through when then it went blank.
I figured restoring factory settings would be an option but not a simple one for me. I don't have an external ODD. But I could create a USB. But I thought some one might suggest some way of going into the code and changing a setting that would get the wifi and the computer talking to each other again

 

I guess, your laptop wanted to suspend while it was downloading or installing downloaded files. It broke your system somehow. (tell it you are here by touching the trackpad, or better turn off autosuspend by clicking the sign besides your clock, choose "kpowersave settings", then click autosuspend (it is clickable), and turn it off)

 

That's a bummer. I just cracked open the Recovery DVD that came with my Acer. Using the windows laptop that I'm typing Is there a way for me to use the DVd to Create a Recovery USB Drive? The instructions that come with the DVD confuse me. It says I need a 2nd computer but then doesn't make it clear what computer the instructions are refering to. Specificaly line 2) Enter the BIOS setup and set the first boot device to ODD. Save the changes and exit.
And line 3) Allow your computer to boot up.

 

You should boot from that DVD on your second computer, insert flash drive in that computer. It's size should be at least 2 GB. After 15-20 mins you will have the boot flash drive for restoring fabric system. Watch or a similar video.

 

Thanks. I'll try that when I've got some time.
But thanks for pointing me in the direction of help vids on youtube. Very neat.

I still wonder if there is a way to reactivate the network centre without having to go down the recovery route

 

I think no (most likely) because your computer didn't finish installing updates, so you don't even have a working network center. Don't forget to turn off autosuspend next time you will install updates (at least when you are in AC mode).
( viewtopic.php?f=24&t=7703&p=50282&hilit=autosuspend#p50282
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6173&p=54518&hilit=autosuspend#p54518 )

 

just one more tip:

i've experienced (and i'm not alone) sudden shutdowns of the WiFi which i can only relate to overheating of the WiFi ..

Dont block the ventilation holes in the bottom of the AA1, i.e. it's not a Laptop!, use it on a nice flat surface and make sure nothing is blocking those little ventilation holes in the bottom.