WHY does the "factory restore" partition when used, destroy EVERYTHING on the disk platter? Why not JUST THE WINDOWS PARTITION? Using the factory restore partition means a L O O O N G session of backing up (unless you have recently imaged all your other partitions), then reinstalling every app, finding all the passwords, setting all preferences, losing much information and wasting an inordinate amount of time.
So, rather than taking the blunderbuss universal fix universally prescribed by Dell and Microsoft for any Windows product or Dell computer, I eschewed the idea of nuking the hard drive and starting over. So I uninstalled the nonworking wireless drivers using normal device mangler. Then quickly shut down before any of the "automatic" or PnP stuff could act. Or so I thought.
Booting to "safe" mode, I removed ZoneAlarm, AVG Antivirus, a couple of apps I no longer use, a couple of hardware drivers no longer used (USB to serial adapter, a couple of external wireless adapters which I tried to install after the internal unit failed.) Uninstalled ALL Intel wireless drivers and programs except the Bluetooth stuff. then I booted normally.
The Intel driver for the wireless then showed up in device mangler AGAIN, unbidden and not installed properly. I uninstalled it again using Windows uninstall, and as soon as that finished, I suddenstopped the machine by holding the power button. It was "cure it or kill it" time.
Rebooted to "safe" mode and went through all the drivers, network adapters, etc and I once again deleted all the Intel stuff. Then I ran CCLeaner and let it clean up everything it could find, and ran the CC registry cleaner three times until it came up with no more errors found.
Rebooted normally and no sign of Intel drivers or problematic adapters. Rebooted again, and noticed that the system had found the wireless hardware and was asking for the driver. Pointed it to the latest driver package from Dell, and shortly thereafter noticed the wireless adapter was announcing there were wireless connections available. Connected, and found it to be working once again.
Cleaned out all previous restore points and created one anew. rebooted to test and all well, wireless working as before. Bluetooth working (in its own stumbling, retarded way). reloaded ZoneAlarm and AVG Antivirus. All well. Created a new restore point, and here we are.
Total time wasted on this whole affair, including long wait times on the phone, and attempting to understand heavily accented Dell support people, repeating the problem several times, listening to all the overpolite "It will be my pleasure to help you fix the problem, may I know your name?, what is the problem? I understand you are having a problem, what is the problem with your computer? crap, arguing over warranty and who shot John, OVER 14 hours!!!
Whose fault is it? Intel? Dell? Microsoft? Zone Labs? AVG? A riddle for the ages. I'm buying a Linux book this morning.