Win 7 laptop cannot see Netgear router

[AlienBZ]

I just restored my Acer Aspire 5745G laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium) back to factory settings, and I tried to get it connected to the internet using our wireless router (Netgear WGR614 v7) all afternoon/evening in vain. The laptop does not detect the router, even though our router is always powered on. But before I decided to reset the laptop back to factory defaults, it was able to detect our Netgear router, yet it was unable to connect - that's why I decided to reset the laptop back to factory settings.

In the Network and Sharing Center box that appears on the lower right corner of my laptop's desktop, I see that the computer has detected several other wireless networks (owned by complete strangers) except our Netgear network.

How do I get my laptop to detect our netgear network/router?

My laptop's wireless (802.11) WIFI is turned on.

Thanks in advance.

[LochLomonder]

Have you tried connecting the laptop using a Cat-5 cable? Do you have other equipment connected to the router, and are they able to access it properly? If so, do they have wired or wireless connections, or a mixture of both?

Have you tried inputting the details manually, i.e. inputting the SSID of the router and associated passkey without actually going through the detection process?