How can I enable the wireless access in Lenovo?

Question

In a Lenovo G585 with Windows 8 installed, I can not connect to Wi-Fi networks.  I see that there is no button to turn on the Wi-Fi.  After googling I found that Lenovo's don't offer such a button and I need to press Fn+F5.  Pressing Fn+F5, I see the option to enable Airplane Mode On/Off and it says that there is no wireless access enabled but there is no option to connect to a network.  I checked BIOS and the Wi-Fi access is on.  I can connect to the internet with cable only.

Is this a known issue for Lenovo?  How can I enable the wireless access in Lenovo?

Solution

[Solution to Fn+F5 not working]

I faced the issue of Wi-Fi not being enabled in May 2016 (suddenly Fn+F5 stopped working and I could not reenable the Wi-Fi on my Lenovo Y580) after many of the forum posts had been written. None of the proposed solutions I came across solved my problem.

Now I found a solution and am here to share it:

1. Go to Lenovo support page http://support.lenovo.com/br/en/ and select your laptop (mine was IdeaPad Y series (ideapad) Y580 model bought back in 2012)

2. select your operating system (mine is Windows 7 (64-bit))

3. download and install the BIOS update

I don't know why, but flashing (updating) the BIOS worked, once computer restarted Fn+F5 worked again, as well as the "A" symbol on the screen when Caps Lock was pressed started appearing again as well.

Below I will list all the things I tried from forum and Lenovo pages to solve the problem that did not solve it (but may solve your problem in case updating the BIOS won't do):

• Going on Control Panel/Network and Internet/Change adapter Settings and enabling the Intel wireless connection: Windows cannot enable it, it actually recommends you use a physical switch or use function keys when you use the "diagnosys" function.
• Going on Win+R \msconfig\startup and enabling all "Startup Item"s named "Lenovo ...". (Strangely, my "startup" list does not contain "Lenovo Utility" item as I have seen on the internet, not even now when all is working well.)
• Going on BIOS (restarting computer and pressing F2 when Lenovo icon appears) and disabling the Wireless connection, then restarting, going on BIOS again and enabling the Wireless connection.
• Uninstaling and installing again the other software for download at the support page for my laptop model, "Lenovo Onekey Recovery" and "Power Management", or installing the "HotFix" listed there.
• Plugging my computer to a monitor, using "extended option" to extend desktop to both screens (laptop and monitor) and trying Fn+F5.  (I thought the dialog box was opening on a hidden area of the desktop as I sometimes use a monitor.)

Comments

[Prasanna]

Did you check your device manager? under network adapters do u see any question marks? Is the hardware available in the first place?

[Jim]

@Prasanna:I see an exclamation mark (in yellow background) next to WAN Miniport (IP), WAN Miniport (IPv6) and WAN Miniport (Network Monitor). The rest seem OK. Does this show an issue?

[Prasanna]

forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo-3000-and-Essential/…. In this forum see the post of "TechManCan"

[AFH]

Turning Airplane Mode on disables all wireless functions, including BlueTooth and WiFi: make sure it is off. The electronic manual on my G580 has a page describing what requires to be done. I will be surprised if your G585 does not have equivalent documentation.

[Jim]

@AFH:The mode is off.But it is the only thing I can configure if I press Fn+F5.The manual says that pressing these keys I should be able to see the networks but I can't.

[AFH]

I guess you'll have to check the community support, as provided in the link from @Prasanna.

[Prasanna]

or try this Youtube video youtube.com/… - if you haven't tried this before

[Jim]

@AFH:My mistake.It is Windows 8.I always confuse this

[Jim]

@Prasanna:Something strange.I just noticed that the F5 has only an airplane icon and none of the F buttons have an icon that indicates wifi as in your video.Trying to update the wireless adapter driver it said that I have the latest software installed

[AFH]

@Jim - I was mildly surprised when you said you had W7, as my G580 came with W8. Unfortunately I can't get into it (any attempt to boot or recover gives UEFI errors), so I can't check what happens in Windows when I turn Airplane Mode off and on. For what it's worth it works as I would expect in Ubuntu, exactly like turning Wireless off and on with earlier laptops.