Smart Network switching off wireless card

[rokilne]

VAIO Smart Network is keeping the wireless card off in my NR10E/S laptop with Vista HP. The indicator light is ON when the laptop boots up but goes out when I go into Vista. When I look in Smart Network, Settings, WLAN tab the Profile Selection box is empty. I can select my profile from the drop down menu and click OK, but when I exit the dialog box and go back into it the profile is missing again.
I installed the latest update for Smart Network a few days ago and it's been working fine until today.
If I disable Smart Network by going onto the General tab and deselecting "Launch VAIO Smart Network on Vista startup" then reboot the laptop the card stays on and I'm online OK.
Can someone please tell me how I get Smart Network to retain the profile.
Also do I really need this utility, which has given me problems before (e.g. my posting on 19-12-07).
TIA

[rokilne]

Further to my previous post, I now find that even with Smart Network disabled the wireless card indicator lamp is remaining out after the laptop awakes from sleep. It's OK after a reboot. The only way I found of fixing this was disable VAIO Power Management. I'm sure I shouldn't need to disable both Smart Network and VAIO Power Management, and I'd be grateful if someone can suggest why this seems to be the case. Also it seems to me I can manage the power settings from Vista alone, so can anyone please tell me why we need these extra complications?

[rich912]

Hi pictup,

Sorry to hear that you are still experiencing problems.

Also it seems to me I can manage the power settings from Vista alone, so can anyone please tell me why we need these extra complications?

Yes you can manage wireless networking using just Vista and I did a while back when there seemed to be problems with the Sony Wireless Switch Setting Utility. The only drawback is that if your notebook is Bluetooth enabled you will not be able to deactivate this at a click of a button.

I am unfamiliar with the new Smart Network utility but as a general guide I suggest that you have a look at Task Manager and disable any task under Sony that seems to relate to Sony Smart Network (possibly SSN?)

To do this start Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Task Scheduler > Expand Task Scheduler Library > Expand Sony, look for any events that relate to Smart Network and disable apply and re-boot.

[rokilne]

Thanks Rich – there's nothing in the Task Scheduler but I'm wondering if there's something being started from the registry at each windows start that's causing problems. Task Manager isn't clear enough. I've got a useful utility called Startup Control Panel on my XP desktop which is great for this sort of thing – must see if it runs OK on Vista. Anyway thanks for giving me something to think about.