Customer had a new PC, purchased from Harvey Norman (HP media center PC hobbled with VISTA… He doesn’t like VISTA… as many of my customers tell me… and I agree with them).

He also has a new ASUS WL-520GC wireless router, so he asks me to setup the router to work with both his old PC (wired), and his new PC (wireless).

I setup the router, and the wireless security, and make sure the old PC works via ethernet.

I then move to the VISTA PC… and after some looking, I find the wireless antenna socket at the back (in an unusual place, just below the power supply…).

I plug in the surprisingly short 2 inch antenna, and wait to see if VISTA detects any wireless networks.

Nothing.

Ok, restart VISTA, then:

Nothing.

There is a wall between the wireless router and the PC antenna, so I stretch the PC antenna to the door, and then stretch the wireless router to be within sight (2 meters away).

Nothing.

While puzzling over this, I hit the vista “rescan for networks” button a few times, and explain to the customer how unusual this is.

At one point, I see the routers SSID, but with a signal strength of zero bars out of 5.

This is looking like either a bad antenna, or a bad router, or a bad PC.

I try some of my spare antennas, but I get a similar situation.

I test out my spare router, and it also cannot be seen.

At this point, its obvious the fault is within the PC.

Whats disappointing, is that these type of PCs can often go for years before some of the more advanced features (like built-in wireless) are used (by individuals who don’t often make use of all the bells and whistles).

Since its still under warranty, I don’t open it, and I tell the customer to get Harvey Norman to fix it… I can’t do anything without voiding the warranty.

Customer is disappointed, since his old PC is also a HP, and it also had a fault (which took a few weeks to repair)

Update: Harvey Norman sends out a tech (from AWA), who opens the case, and reconnects the antenna cable… but he has no network knowledge, so I’m called out again… and there starts another story.