My computer was working fine!  What happened?

This column does not have a single author, but is submitted by a number of experts that contribute regularly to our news source.  Some are in Canada, some in the UK and one is in the far east

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One of the complaints we hear all the time is:  "It was working fine, but now it's not working at all!"  We didn't do a thing!

You have to remember that your computer and the software that makes it productive are among the most complicated creations ever by the human mind.  But, as the experts say 'stuff happens'.

Recently we had a wireless user contact us about a Dell Laptop that mysteriously quit being able to use the Internet using some wireless hubs.  It worked fine using cable or DSL connections.  What happened?

We fixed the problem, but it was not easy.  It was a real puzzle.  First we looked for a solution to the problem by doing a Google Search for the same problem. We like to find people with the same problem and at least one with a solution.

Guess what?  There were hundreds of references to the problem, but the proposed solutions ranged from silly to dangerous.  Trying to install some of the 'fixes' could destroy all your data and make you have to reload the factory delivered settings.

Even the Dell support blogs were not helpful.  So how did we solve the problem?  We went to Dell Downloads and put in the factory designation for exact machine that we were trying to fix.  That gave us a set of recommended downloads for device drivers (software that runs your computer ... e.g wireless card).

We downloaded the wireless driver and guess what?  Everything worked?

What were the symptoms? 

• The computer ran broadband access just fine.
• The computer would connect to a wireless router, but not to the Internet via the router. 
• Other computers would connect to the router AND connect to the Internet.
• The Dell Laptop would not ask for the User ID and password when trying to connect.  We wanted it to ask.

So what the heck caused the machine to work and then stop working?  One possible answer is that some service pack update by Microsoft caused a flaw in the wireless driver to make it no longer function.  It's not Microsoft's problem and it is unavoidable.  These machines have to be updated for other reasons, but sometimes the updates expose a flaw in the driver software which is not under the control of Microsoft.  This software comes with  your machine and is loaded by Dell, HP, ACER ....

So how did we solve the problem?  What process did we use? What insight did we have?  Sadly, it amounts to intuition through experience.  Here was the process;

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24/05/2009 09:46 PM

• We examined the router by looking at the software on it directly.  We turned it on and off and reset it with the tiny red button held down for 30 seconds.
• We tested the router with other machines to see if we had a router problem.  We did not.  Other machines connected perfectly.  The target machine did not connect via any router to the Internet.
• We looked on the web to see if this was a problem seen by others.  It was.
• We looked for a consensus and a  clearly written solution.  We found none.  In  fact we found a 'Tower of Babel" of ill phrased questions and answers.  This raised a red light for us.  Don't start down a path that will cause more trouble.  After all the machine is working perfectly and can access the Internet via cable or DSL.   The first rule of fixing something is "Don't make it worse!"
• So the art of debugging came next.  What could have caused this problem?  Maybe it is a defective wireless card?  Yes, it could be, but why the rash of complaints by others that had the same problem.  We could have a hardware failure in the wireless card, but we opted to look at the Dell downloads first.

Now the Dell support site did not have any words of wisdom about this problem.  In fact their user Blogs were much like the total Web Blogs.... confused and complicated.

Well, as you may have guessed now, we solved the problem by using our intuition and experience.  Much like a Doctor examining a patient, we 'sensed' that an update might have exposed a flaw in the driver software and maybe Dell really had a solution for it, but did not know it themselves!

Yes, we got lucky, but it was experience driven luck.  Is there any process that you can use hidden in this example?

Here it is:

1. Don't try complicated solutions at least at the start.
2. Try to eliminate as many variable as possible.  In the above example, we were down to only the solution described and a faulty wireless card.  If the solution had not worked, we would have tried a replacement card next.

Does another solution exist?  Probably a simpler solution exists, but we did not find it and the World Wide Web has not surfaced it yet.  Will we notify Dell of our solution?  Probably not. 

The tech support people will eventually post it someplace.  It's hard to penetrate large companies support structure.  Maybe some people will Google the problem and find us.  The solution works for DELL laptops XPS 1530 and probably other Dell Laptops running Vista and using the same wireless card.  On to the next puzzle.....