Why does my built-in laptop wireless adapter not work on my user account?

Question

I have an admin account and a user account in this laptop (Acer Aspire 5570Z) and my built-in adapter (Atheros AR5007EG) only works on the admin account. Just started happening out of the blue yesterday. I noticed for some reason the adapter isn't as reliable on the weekends but this thing hasn't been working since yesterday. It's happened once or twice before and in a day or two it comes back. But I'm still just curious. I compared both accounts and all the settings are the same as far as I can tell. We had Time Warner come in last week to install Internet but they didn't know what they were doing and didn't finish installing it. It was working fine until it tried to connect to the Time Warner connection and I stopped the attempt and ever since it hasn't worked. Is this just something I have to wait out?

Answer 1

First: Sounds like part of the issue is that when you tried to connect to your ISP, you stopped the process. Could be an issue with that. Re-try that process.

Second: Since it usually happens on the weekend, you may have a low "thruput" & since many people in your area are home & probably online, those who are closer to the local loop will get a better signal & cause a bottleneck that is causing you to time out.

I would 1st go to Device Manager & DELETE the adapter. Then restart the pc so the pc finds & reinstalls the device. Go to the manufacturer's website & search for a newer/updated driver.

Finally, restart the process to complete the installation process the tech (& YOU)didn't complete.

If you can wait til Tuesday, it may go much faster, since most people will be back at work.

If this is a laptop, & you can't do it on Tuesday due to work, bring it to work if you can. Then do this process there. You'll  then know if it is due to Time Warner or not.

Answer 2

If your second user account is not an admin account you can try that, or if you are using Vista, check the UAC settings.  If you are able to connect with the Admin account to time warner all your accounts should be able to as long as you do not have any restrictions placed in it.

On the second account, try openning the wireless utility and view wireless networks.  Once you find the one that is yours, choose it as a preferred connection.  Maybe you have a lot of wireless networks around and it keeps jumping or choosing the wrong SSID.  If you set a preference, it will always choose that one first over all others.