Linux no longer "sees" wifi card. Wifi Card suddenly disappears!

[tfj]

!

Here's my question, short and sweet:

My Dell mini 9 no longer detects my wifi card. No matter which of several gnu/linux distros I'm running,
the card no longer shows up with <lshw> or <lspci>. It's quite possible I have corrupted some necessary
file somewhere. What do I do?

When I search for info on 'wifi card undetected', I mostly get general wifi-setup discussions, which routinely
tell you to first check if your card is detected, but rarely say what to do if the answer is "No". So I
think my question has less to do with wifi, and is more a basic pci/hardware issue - "Why no card detection?"
I am placing mucho maybe-relevant info here now, because I only have once-a-week internet access, and back-and-forth will be very slow. (I have removed info because the site erroneously claims I included photos/videos)


================================================== ================================================== ======================
Here's various system info:
================================================== ================================================== ======================

#### The kernel is usually 2.6.35-22-generic, or near-abouts. ####

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#### (lshw -C network)
#### (lspci -vnn) # The card no longer shows up with either of these commands. ####

------------------------------------------------------

#### (lspci): # card normally shows up at 03:hh.h ####

0
------------------------------------------------------
.

[jayd512]

Hello and Welcome!

What exact distro are you running? Is your card detected if using a LiveCD?
Please post the output of lspci -vnn in its entirety.

[MikeTbob]

It's possible that the card has transmitted it's last byte. How old is it?

[tfj]

Please let me clarify my question - I'm not asking the common question, "My wifi interface is
undetected, how do I setup my wifi?". I'm asking a more primitive, pre-wifi-setup, hardware question:
"My machine no longer detects the pci-wifi-device; how do I fix it so the wifi card is recognized
again?" Neither <lshw> nor <lspci> reports the card now, no matter which version of Linux I'm running.

It's always possible the computer has blown a fuse or something, but because the wifi device
'vanished' while I was struggling with the Linux/b43 wifi issues, it seems likely I corrupted some
vital file, apparently one that persists between distros - the BIOS, maybe?
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Thanks for your replies ...

Here's "lspci"
#### (lspci): # card normally shows up at 03:hh.h ####

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 02)
02:00.0 System peripheral: JMicron Technology Corp. SD/MMC Host Controller
02:00.2 SD Host controller: JMicron Technology Corp. Standard SD Host Controller
02:00.3 System peripheral: JMicron Technology Corp. MS Host Controller

I've run several ubuntii, slitaz, wattOS, crunchbang, others, all loaded on the main flash drive with unetbootin. The main, installed distro is a slightly-corrupted Ubuntu 10.10.

I'm not sure about running a "live cd"; so far I've been unable to get unetbootin-loaded OSes to boot completely from the thumb drive, only from the main flash drive. I don't know if the above OSes are running as live-cds or not.

I originally used a B43 card, and have replaced it with an newish ath9 card - still no detection.

I can run a ubuntu-rescue-mix that is loaded with diagnostic software, but I am ignorant about the topic of pci-devices going undetected.

If you have a list of info you need, please make it as thorough as possible, as it may take up to two weeks for me to post the answer to questions.

[jayd512]

Driver installation will not affect hardware detection in different distros, nor will it affect BIOS.
Even if wireless is disabled through a BIOS selection, the hardware itself will still show up in lspci.
If your card is not detected from Ubuntu, Slitaz and all the others, it's most likely a hardware failure.

If you truly suspect that your Ubuntu is corrupted in some way, download and burn a LiveCD. This could be Ubuntu, Mint, or even Partedmagic.
From there, run lspci again. If your card goes undetected, it probably dead.