Recently for an unknown reason the wireless CARD on my laptop has been unable to pick up any networks, my best assumption was that the wireless card was turned off via the 'wireless switch', although the inspiron 1525 has no visible wireless switch on the exterior. Clicking the 'diagnose and repair' option tells me to turn on my wireless card via the wireless switch because its turned off. I've tried the 'fn' + 'f2' hotkey to turn the card on, nothing. I've gone into the mobililty center and tried turning the wireless card on from there, but for some reason the "turn wireless on" button is greyed out, won't let me click it, why would this be? The device is enabled and working correctly according to device manager. I've tried re-installing drivers from dell but still the same problem.

Could this be a hardware problem that i'm gonna have to send away to get fixed?
This has me puzzled.

I'm running 32bit Vista Home Premium SP1
The device is a Dell Wireless 1490 Dual Band WLAN Mini-Card

This could be an infection, try running your computer in safe mode with networking and see if that works.
Also download Hijackthis http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/_download/HJTInstall.exeonce you have installed it RENAME Hijackthis.exe to Anything.exe and run it and create a log and post it here. (This should be run in normal boot mode (not safe mode))

It may be that the network adapter is failing have you tried connecting with a plug and play adapter like a USB one?Thanks for the reply.
Tried safe mode with networking, no difference.
Here's the HijackThis log file:






Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2
Scan saved at 13:55:06, on 17/01/2009
Platform: Windows Vista SP1 (WinNT 6.00.1905)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v8.00 (8.00.6001.18241)
Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:
C:\Windows\system32\Dwm.exe
C:\Windows\system32\taskeng.exe
C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE
C:\Program Files\DellTPad\Apoint.exe
C:\Windows\System32\hkcmd.exe
C:\Windows\System32\igfxpers.exe
C:\Program Files\Creative\SBAudigy\Volume Panel\VolPanlu.exe
C:\Windows\system32\igfxsrvc.exe
C:\Program Files\DellTPad\ApMsgFwd.exe
C:\Program Files\Google\Google Desktop Search\GoogleDesktop.exe
C:\Windows\vsnpstd.exe
C:\Program Files\DellTPad\HidFind.exe
C:\Windows\VM303_STI.EXE
C:\Program Files\DellTPad\Apntex.exe
C:\Windows\System32\WLTRAY.EXE
C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\msnmsgr.exe
C:\Program Files\Google\Google Desktop Search\GoogleDesktop.exe
C:\Program Files\DAEMON Tools Lite\daemon.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmpnscfg.exe
C:\Program Files\RocketDock\RocketDock.exe
C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis\anything.exe

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://www.google.co.uk/ig/dell?hl=en&client=dell-usuk&channel=uk&ibd=4080819
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant =
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch =
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Window Title = Internet Explorer provided by Dell
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar,LinksFolderName =
O1 - Hosts: ::1 localhost
O2 - BHO: Adobe PDF Reader Link Helper - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
O2 - BHO: Winamp Toolbar Loader - {25CEE8EC-5730-41bc-8B58-22DDC8AB8C20} - C:\Program Files\Winamp Toolbar\winamptb.dll
O2 - BHO: SSVHelper Class - {761497BB-D6F0-462C-B6EB-D4DAF1D92D43} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_05\bin\ssv.dll
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {7E853D72-626A-48EC-A868-BA8D5E23E045} - (no file)
O2 - BHO: Browser Address Error Redirector - {CA6319C0-31B7-401E-A518-A07C3DB8F777} - C:\Program Files\Dell\BAE\BAE.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Winamp Toolbar - {EBF2BA02-9094-4c5a-858B-BB198F3D8DE2} - C:\Program Files\Winamp Toolbar\winamptb.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Apoint] C:\Program Files\DellTPad\Apoint.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [IgfxTray] C:\Windows\system32\igfxtray.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HotKeysCmds] C:\Windows\system32\hkcmd.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Persistence] C:\Windows\system32\igfxpers.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [VolPanel] "C:\Program Files\Creative\SBAudigy\Volume Panel\VolPanlu.exe" /r
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [UpdReg] C:\Windows\UpdReg.EXE
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Google Desktop Search] "C:\Program Files\Google\Google Desktop Search\GoogleDesktop.exe" /startup
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [snpstd] C:\Windows\vsnpstd.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Wireless Manager] "C:\Program Files\Virgin Broadband Wireless\Wireless Manager.exe" startup
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [BigDog303] C:\Windows\VM303_STI.EXE VIMICRO USB PC Camera (ZC0301PLH)
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Broadcom Wireless Manager UI] C:\Windows\system32\WLTRAY.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [msnmsgr] "C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\MsnMsgr.Exe" /background
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [DAEMON Tools Lite] "C:\Program Files\DAEMON Tools Lite\daemon.exe" -autorun
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [WMPNSCFG] C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\WMPNSCFG.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [RocketDock] "C:\Program Files\RocketDock\RocketDock.exe"
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /detectMem (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [WindowsWelcomeCenter] rundll32.exe oobefldr.dll,ShowWelcomeCenter (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-20\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /detectMem (User 'NETWORK SERVICE')
O4 - .DEFAULT User Startup: Dell Dock First Run.lnk = C:\Program Files\Dell\DellDock\DellDock.exe (User 'Default user')
O8 - Extra context menu item: &Winamp Search - C:\ProgramData\Winamp Toolbar\ieToolbar\resources\en-US\local\search.html
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_05\bin\ssv.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Sun Java Console - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_05\bin\ssv.dll
O13 - Gopher Prefix:
O16 - DPF: {20A60F0D-9AFA-4515-A0FD-83BD84642501} (Checkers Class) - http://messenger.zone.msn.com/binary/msgrchkr.cab56986.cab
O16 - DPF: {C3F79A2B-B9B4-4A66-B012-3EE46475B072} (MessengerStatsClient Class) - http://messenger.zone.msn.com/binary/MessengerStatsPAClient.cab56907.cab
O20 - AppInit_DLLs: C:\PROGRA~1\Google\GOOGLE~1\GOEC62~1.DLL
O23 - Service: AffinegyService - Affinegy, Inc. - C:\Program Files\Virgin Broadband Wireless\AffinegyService.exe
O23 - Service: Creative Labs Licensing Service - Creative Labs - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Creative Labs Shared\Service\CreativeLicensing.exe
O23 - Service: Google Desktop Manager 5.8.809.8522 (GoogleDesktopManager-090808-172447) - Google - C:\Program Files\Google\Google Desktop Search\GoogleDesktop.exe
O23 - Service: SigmaTel Audio Service (STacSV) - IDT, Inc. - C:\Windows\system32\STacSV.exe
O23 - Service: Dell Wireless WLAN Tray Service (wltrysvc) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\WLTRYSVC.EXE
O23 - Service: XAudioService - Conexant Systems, Inc. - C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\xaudio.exe

--
End of file - 6037 bytes










I've not tried any plug and play adapters as this is the only wireless device I have.


Well, I can't see anything malicious there, and it didn't work in safe mode, I guess it's not an infection... I think it may be a fault with your network adapter. Hopefully someone like Broni can help with the issue, you could try the following in the mean time.

Go Start>Run (Start search in Vista), type in:
cmd
Click OK (in Vista, while holding CTRL, and SHIFT, press Enter).

In COMMAND Prompt window, type in following commands, and hit Enter after each one:
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /registerdns
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

Restart computer.

If that doesn't work...
Go Start>Run (Start search in Vista), type in:
cmd
Click OK (in Vista, while holding CTRL, and SHIFT, press Enter).

At Command Prompt, type in:
netsh int ip reset reset.log
Hit Enter.
Type in:
netsh winsock reset catalog
Hit Enter.

Restart computer.


If that doesn't work...
Download, install, and run WinSockFix: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Network-Tweak/WinSockFix.shtml
Restart computer, and check again.Tried everything you suggested with no success. I'm wondering if this could be an OS related problem which is just refusing to let me turn on the card, I might give a windows reinstallation a shot, couldn't hurt. If I still can't get a response from the card then it's probably faulty.Aye I know, to be honest I didn't think any of that would work SINCE you can't even get a connection in the first place... Maybe the adapter is just bummed. Hopefully it's a software issue, let me know if re-installing the OS worked. According to the manual: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1525/en/index.htm, you do have wireless card switch.So it does! I can't believe it didn't notice it beforehand. But it was still turned on. I'm trying a fresh OS just now.Let us know...New OS seems to have done the trick, bit of a pain but at least its fixed now. Thanks guysCool