1 (edited by DynamoBen 2020-10-13 18:57:07)

Topic: Not seeing any WIFI networks

Well my beloved Chumby One has finally had it's first failure. The wireless dongle has a MAC address but it doesn't see, and can't connect to, any WIFI networks. To troubleshoot I did a factory reset and reseated the dongle, no change. I also threw the dongle into a PC where it was recognized but again the networks list didn't populate.

Are there any next steps to get this up and running again?

Re: Not seeing any WIFI networks

Would swapping in a TP-LINK TL-WN321G (assuming it fits in the case) get me up and running again?

Re: Not seeing any WIFI networks

There's actually two possiblities here:

1) The Wifi dongle is dead
2) The USB subsystem is dead.

If it's the first problem, then I might be able to find you a replacement dongle.  I don't recall if the C1 has drivers for other Wifi chipsets compiled in, but it's worth a try to use an external dongle.  In any case, it will want something pretty old, something with 2.4GHz 802.11b or g, not the newer a/n/etc devices, ie circa 2005-2010.

One way to test the second case is to plug a USB keyboard into the back USB port after the device is powered on.  If the USB subsystem is working, you should get a console on the display.

Re: Not seeing any WIFI networks

Thanks Duane for the troubleshooting steps. Looks like the USB subsystem is OK which leaves the WIFI dongle.

I'd be interested in a replacement dongle if you have one.

Otherwise I will poke around on ebay and see if I can find something that might work.