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19809
Wireless adapter
I got a second hand Dell Inspiron 1525 about 2 years ago, it was working fine till the hard drive stopped workinga few months ago. i got a new hard drive and put that in and loaded software and Vista OS.
Now thewireless card won't recognize the adapter.
I have tried all different ways and adapters and it still won't work.
Can any one help please
Thank you
ejn63
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December 30th, 2014 12:00
Go to support.dell.com and locate your system model by service tag. Look under "original configuration" to find the model wireless adapter you have installed. DO NOT guess - look up the exact mode. Alternatively, remove the hatch cover at the bottom of the system and visually identify the wireless adapter.
From the drivers page,
Under chipset, download and install the chipset driver. Reboot.
Under System Software, download and install the Dell notebook system software. Reboot.
Under Network, download and install the driver for the wireless adapter.
VAVB05_Site_Rep
71 Posts
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December 30th, 2014 22:00
If the wirless adapter does NOT show up within Device Manager, like the one I am working on right now for a different model, then is may have "died". The wireless adapter half minicard is not much larger than a (U.S.) postage stamp, and the one in the system I am working on WAS showing earlier today and I did download and install the HIGHEST version number Driver software for it.
The device showed up at first, but now has disappeared completely from the Device Manager listing; regardless of the position of the physical Wifi ON/OFF switch (located on the right side of the laptop).
Ah, wait! It is back!! Yea.
HERE IS WHAT I DID:
I did remove the system battery, flipped the laptop right-side up and pressed the Power button to discharge all electrical charges.
Let the laptop sit uncharged / unpowered for several hours.
Flipped the laptop upside down and carefully removed the three screws on the bottom (2 for the hard drive, 1 captured screw in the middle that retains the bottom plate). The "captured" screw will not fall out - this may vary depending on the laptop model.
Then carefully slid the bottom cover forward using a small bladed screw drive. GENTLY.
Located the WLAN 1397 (BCM94312HMG) card near the back of the laptop (it has two wires, one black, one white). CAREFULLY unsnapped these using a needlenose plier. The brass or gold plated connectors are VERY delicate, so (once again) be GENTLE.
Unscrewed the single retaining screw for the minicard and carefully lifted it out of the socket.
(at this point I examined the minicard's edge using a magnifying glass to see if there was corrosion or other OBVIOUS damage. None was noted.)
I carefully reseated the minicard, re-installed the retaining screw, re-attached the two connector wires, re-routed them around the edges of the minicard and "tucked" them down a little bit. (NOTE: the re-attaching of the wires is with a tiny "snap" noise and the connection "portion" of the brass / gold plated tip is VERY close to the end of the wire. These are like teeny, tiny Cable Television connectors, only instead of "pushing" on or twisting on, they go "snap".)
Replaced the laptop's bottom panel, replaced the two hard drive screws, and re-screwed down the single (captured) plate screw, reseated the system battery and powered the laptop on.
After logging in to Windows 7 and opening the Device Manager, the Wireless device has reappeared!
(and is showing the same high version number driver that I installed earlier today)
Best of luck with your issue!
wildwolfpdw
6 Posts
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January 4th, 2015 13:00
I have tried both. Both dont work.
my comp details as follows: Service Tag:<ADMIN NOTE: Service tag removed per privacy policy> | Express Service Code: <ADMIN NOTE: Express service code removed per privacy policy>,
Computer Model
Inspiron 1525.
OS Version
Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Ultimate.
I looked at it and it does not show the wireless card Broadcom BCM94312MCG.
is there anything else you could recommend.
ty
VAVB05_Site_Rep
71 Posts
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January 21st, 2015 13:00
WildWolf,
When you wrote the 'wireless won't recognize the adapter', what did you mean?
The reason I ask this is because just last night on Windows 7 I was troubleshooting a wireless issue where the Device was showing up under 'Device Manager' but every attempt to manually create a connection to a wireless network triggered an error of, 'An unexpected error occurred.' (that is it, nothing more).
So, when you are troubleshooting it is helpful to others if you explain everything you did in detail and ANY error messages you have seen word for word. The descriptions do not have to be painstakingly detailed, but they should be enough so that we know where you went (on the system), what you clicked and the response (if any; rare does Windows display a spinning hourglass and nothing at all happens - but it is not impossible).
In my case even connecting an external Wi-Fi adapter by USB Port did not help! Same error, 'An unexpected error occurred.' - and I tried everything that I could think of to resolve it.
It used to be that certain wireless software could "take over" the job of managing a system's wireless connections, and Microsoft Windows built-in functionality for this (sometimes called Zero Config) got shoved to the side. This is not typically the case with ordinary Wi-Fi these days, but you may still see such behavior when using Mobile Broadband such as a major communications vendor's 3G or 4G 'On the Go' type devices. In most cases you must install the vendor's software for these devices and interact with some sort of 'Dashboard' or 'Console' for signing on and off the WWAN.
To determine if Windows is seeing the wireless Device, there is a "netsh" command that might help.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770948(v=ws.10).aspx
The "netsh" command is run from a Command Line and is 'interactive', meaning that the User issues commands to it while being within netsh and the netsh program responds to you turn by turn. For example, I can type each of the following commands and work my way deeper and deeper into the program's options:
netsh>int ipv4
(..advances one level deeper and adds "ipv4" to the prompt BEFORE the '>')
netsh interface ipv4>show
(..shows the command available at the current level of depth)
netsh interface ipv4>show config
If you have a wireless interface showing up on the system, it will be listed as a result of this command.
I see the wireless Driver for the Inspiron 1525 is as follows:
"Intel Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection, (R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN, v.11.1.1.3 (TIC146561), A12" and "Intel_multi-device_A12_R164255.exe".
Does this look like the Driver previously installed on the system?
wildwolfpdw
6 Posts
0
January 23rd, 2015 03:00
I got a new Wireless nerwork mini card and it works now. for those people who have the same problem just get a new card.
thanks