Problem setting up my wireless interface with an arch install

[Alpha90]

I am having issues setting up my wireless interface during the arch install on my cheap HP CQ60-419wm laptop. Unfortunately my wireless interface has always been weird and semi flaky and difficult to configure even with a hand holding OS like windows. What i have done so far is:

I start of stating i have two Ethernet controllers: One wired NVIDIA controller and one wireless Atheros controller

lspci |grep -i net 

00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP77 Ethernet (rev a2)
07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x / AR542x Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

I followed the beginners guide wiki

even though my hardware indicator light is lit iwconfig produces

eth0 no wireless extension.
lo no wireless extension.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point:Not-Associated Tx-Power=off
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:on

When i try to set up my wlan0 using

ip link set wlan0 up

which produces
RTNETLINK answers: Operation not possible due to RF-kill

So i use rfkill list all which produces the following:
(also note I am an intermediate linux user who wishes to learn more and i have never used wireless on linux and i do not know exactly what this information means i just can just view the results)

0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes

1:phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no

I use rfkill unblock all which changes the result of rfkill list all and allows the successful usage of ip link set wlan0 up which inturn changes the results of iwconfig

0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes

1:phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no


wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point:Not-Associated Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:on

now i use wifi-menu wlan0 and this is where i start to hit my head against a wall

running that returns either No network found or interface unavailable..
I googled this problem and tried to a few things such as rmmod hp-wmi to remove the wired controller driver, i have reloaded the ath5k driver and no matter what i can get the interface to work.. Also if my interfaced gets hard blocked i cant seem to unblock it with the physical button.

I would love some advice.

[electroman6913]

I've seen other threads like this and they had to blacklist the HP driver. if you do a little of searching around for this you should get it working.