S10-2 FN+F5 not switching WIFI ON/OFF, BIOS Issue? Broadcom

Question

Hi all,
I've spent the better part of the day researching this issue, and haven't seen much documentation.  I have a early 2010 S10-2, 6 Cell in white. 160gb HDD, 1G Ram.  Basically exactly as factory.  Over the last year the wifi card was not turning on, so I just kind of left it in the corner  and used my older macbook more.
Now I need another machine for someone, so I'm getting the lenova back up and on its legs.   On investigating what my wifi troubles seem to be, this is what I have determined.
Win 7 Recognizes card, and says is working normally
Win 7 Diagnostics recommend I 'switch on the card'
Installed driver from Lenova site (most recent)
Installed driver from Broadcom site (most recent)
All of this and the card remained 'off' with the Wifi status LED remained off (unlit).
The switch (physical) is in the correct position.  (I have tapped FN+F5 with no change) in Win 7.
I then, powered 7 all the way off, and booted to Quick Start.  The QS OS recognized the card, but said it was switched off.  Also the checkbox to activate the card was unchecked.  I checked it.  Then, pressed FN+F5 and the wifi card toggled on, saw my wifi networks, and I connected to one.
If I boot out of QS, and into Windows 7, the wifi card remains on, and I can scan, attach and use networks.  FN+F5 will not turn the wifi card off (change its state from on to off).  
If I power off, and remove the battery, and start back up, I get back to Windows 7 with the wifi card off, and FN+F5 unresponsive.  I have to go back through QS, turn the card on, then into 7.
I searched, and found the FN key is actually a function of the bios, not the microcontroller in lenovas, so I upgraded the BIOS, but that has not changed the issue.  Tech support told me that my warranty was out of date, so they can't help.
Any one else experienced a similar issue?  Of FN+F5 not changing the state?  Is there a fix?  I am bothered by this because this is supposed to be my rough and ready travel laptop, and also is used by the very basic users, who often have trouble with computers, so I'd like it to be as fool proof as possible (ie, not switching through QS to activate the card, then onto 7).
I am subscribed, and will reply.
Thanks in advance,
John
(Sidebar, anyone noticed a substantial increase from an SSD and 2gb ram in this machine?)

Answer 1

Right now I am preferring to keep QS supported and on for two reasons.
First, its provided an older user a very simple and safe interface for getting to a web browser.
Second, its allowing me to activate the wifi card on, since the QS session will register my FN+F5 keypress. 
If I exit QS to Windows 7, it will keep the wifi card on.
Though, on more testing, the card has practically no range, or reliability when being moved, and is having trouble making large downloads (trying to grab ubuntu wubi package right now).
Thinking this might just be hardware, though it still doesn't make full sense why I don't have toggle control in 7.  Do you have a recommendation for a wifi card?  All the cards I found on newegg seemed to be half as tall as needed, and subsequently would not mount in the case correctly.  I could not find a 'spec' on the card size, if you would call it that, to limit and filter my searches by.