Tried everything... can't find wireless networks

Hello everybody; I have this Compaq Presario V2000, with Windows XP Home Edition (SP3), that was detecting and connecting without any problem to any wireless network available. For some reason, it doesn't detect any networks anymore. Turning the wireless switch on and off makes no difference. Turned off Windows Firewall. No difference. Restarted the Windows Zero Configuration, to no avail. Enabled and disabled the Wireless Network Connection, and tried "Repair". Nothing. In the device manager, there are six things under Network Adapters: 1394 Net Adapter Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN (!) Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN - Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC (!) Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC - (!) WAN Miniport (IP) - So there are those three (!) signs. I installed Network Stumbler and it does find the wireless networks' signals. WZC does not. If I put ipconfig /all in the command window, all I get is Error: unrecongnized or incomplete command line. Any ideas at all? Any help would be appreciated.

i think the first thing i'd do is in device manager un-inistall all the devices under network adaptors and then restart the pc and let windows find and install them again.. you should only have 1 of each there.

Hello there. I agree absolutely with what terry has mentioned. Your wireless adapter should be this one Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN. Now the exclamation mark could mean several things such as windows has errors using that device, conflict (which could be the case). Now if Windows does not automatically find a driver for the adapter, you can manually download one from a working machine from HERE

Can you connect any other devices to this wireless network?
Do any other devices see the wireless network?

Although this may not be the case, but when you cannot see the network, it could be that there maybe something interfering with the signal, the router location, the channel it is running on also. It may also be that the router has hidden its SSID broadcast.

If all fails, I would reset the router, if you could give us the make and model, we can find the instructions for it.

Generally though, while the router is on, at the back there is a little hole, where you have to push a pin and hold for 30 seconds, once done, this will reset all the settings such as log-in - encryption - configuration.

I also agree with uninstalling and rebooting letting the system reinstall again to cure the issues in the device manager, but one thing to take note of, the connection manager can be 1 of 2 possibles, you will be asked at first use about this, you will be offered the devices own manager, usually recommended by the prompt, OR, let the m$ manager deal with it, I have had situations where the m$ option was far easier than the hardwares own manager. But the point in mentioning this is because if you select the hardwares own manager, then the m$ manager will NOT see anything, because you have given control over to the hardwares own manager, if this has happened, you need to launch the hardwares manager to view and connect to wireless networks, my guess is between the device manager issues, and this, that is why you can't see other wireless connections, hope this helps a bit.