PLEASE HELP!!...damsel in distress...I'm not a computer expert!....but...?

Question

I've just bought a dell latitude d505 laptop from a trusted computer shop on e-bay. Now, the listing said that it was wi-fi enabled, specifications said that it has a 10/100 LAN card built on motherboard and wireless.
it has xp pro .
I understand that maybe this computer is probably re-furbished, but when i turn it on i can't connect to the internet, it doesn't search for a connection to the router, there's no switch anywhere to turn it on, and nothing displays in the icon tray.
I can only use the internet via ethernet cable at the moment.
I'm not sure if it tells me in the system (control panel) if the hardware is even there!!
as i know nothing about computers, only the very basics.

If anyone out there can help i'd be very grateful
many thanks

Answer 1

when you turn the computer on.press ( it could be anyone of these)Esc/ or f1/or f2/ or f5/ or delete . you must press one of them constantly as soon as you have pushed the go button. one of them will take you to the bios screen ( this is a blue screen with white writing on it /or it may be a black screen either way it is your bios setup.

you will not be able to use your mouse on this screen only your keypad.so use left and right keys to look for onboard lan .and see if it is enabled if it isn't then use the arrow keys to highlight and enable it ,also look for ethernet and do tha same with that .and now to finish look at the bottom of the screen to see which key is ,save and exit.you must press this or you will have to do it all over again.you now should have on board lan and ethernet.

Answer 2

See if there is a blue symbol like an aerial or a satellite dish on any of the F keys, usually F2, F4 or F5. If there is, hold down the Blue Fn Key and press the appropriate F Key

Answer 3

I am not familiar with that particular model - but all the wireless laptops I have had have had a switch (either software or a physical hardware switch) to enable/disable the roaming feature which lets it go off and look for available networks,

Answer 4

Right Click on the My Computer icon and select manage. Select Device manager - if there is a yellow question mark then click the link to install the wireless driver. Click the network button and look for wireless.



http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&ServiceTag=&SystemID=LAT_PNT_PM_D505&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=

Answer 5

If you go to Start > Run and enter ncpa.cpl This will open your network connections. From here right click on the Connection to enable/disable it.

Answer 6

Check device manager through my Computer to see if your WiFi card is there and enabled.

Answer 7

chat to dell online at www.dell.com/pmsl/roflwop they can give you the stuff you need