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Inspiron 11 3168, adding a WiFi card to BIOS Whitelist?
TLDR (too long didn't read) summary:
I have an Inspiron 11 3168 (2 year warranty expired January 1, 2019) that is refusing to accept a new wifi card because the BIOS (as far as I can tell) is rejecting it. A simple tweak to the BIOS to whitelist the card would fix the problem. The card is newer than the latest BIOS update. It just needs to get in front of the right person who can get it done. The upgrade card is an Intel AX200.
Longer format:
Regarding an Inspiron 11 3168 2-in-1 I am trying to upgrade the wifi card on.
I can confirm the software works (drivers, etc) and the card itself works. I pulled the SSD and card from the laptop, put them in another machine, and it worked immediately.
The card I am attempting to upgrade it to is the Intel AX200 (AX200NGW). This card is newer than the BIOS, but it is also newer than the BIOS in the machine it worked fine in, so it has to be a BIOS whitelist issue.
Who do I contact about this? I was hoping to find a way to bypass the usual support staff and get an email to the engineering team since they'd be the ones who could update the whitelist and push out a new BIOS. The best I can get from the website is a phone number for their Basic Support and my hopes are really low about that. It won't even let me through to chat or let me get at an Email form.
The card this thing comes with averages 6 to 12 megabit/s download and upload speeds. Not megabyte, megabit. Absolutely terrible speeds.
However, a whole device upgrade isn't in the cards. Aside from the cost, this one actually meets my needs *better* than a brand new one. Currently there is not a suitable replacement device on the market that meets my needs.
I appreciate you taking the time to read my request.
60percentofthetime
6 Posts
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August 6th, 2020 06:00
I should add: I'd be perfectly happy with an "experimental" bios where they add the card to the whitelist and just send me that bios, with me assuming the consequences of an untested (untested by Dell that is) wifi card.
Or maybe a warranty voiding switch I can flip in the BIOS to disable the device whitelist.
I just need to get this thing working.
60percentofthetime
6 Posts
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August 21st, 2020 03:00
After doing some research, it turns out Dell very regularly enables a whitelist only function in the BIOS that won't allow any wifi card that doesn't come in the laptop from the factory. A fascinating approach, considering its a user-replaceable part and not exactly a security risk, and their diagnostics would tell them if it was not a factory card so warranty issues are not a problem either.
I'm posting this for anyone finding this thread because their laptop has the same issue thinking its just a bug. It is not. It is intentional and the response I've gotten from Dell to this point has been something along the lines of "we know, but we'll never admit it".
ejn63
10 Elder
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23K Posts
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August 21st, 2020 03:00
There are manufacturers that use whitelisting for wireless cards. I've never seen -- in well over 25 years -- any Dell system with such a whitelist. You've convinced yourself of a situation that doesn't exist.
If the card you've installed doesn't work, something else is wrong - could be a faulty or incompatible card, a mainboard issue or simply a driver or operating system issue. It's not a whitelist issue.
Look elsewhere.
q35ztq35a
27 Posts
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August 21st, 2020 03:00
are you sure whitelist is the culprit here? as far as i know dell usually does not enforce whitelist check. can also confirm i was able to put AR9462, QCA9862, QCA9880 v1 and QCA9880 v2 cards in my inspiron 5576 instead of default QCA9377 card and they all worked
it is possible the card is not compatible on hardware level. i had once some cheap intel card bought on aliexpress that i tried to put in HP laptop (where all the above mentioned cards worked) but with that one the system would not POST
60percentofthetime
6 Posts
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August 21st, 2020 07:00
There are manufacturers that use whitelisting for wireless cards. I've never seen -- in well over 25 years -- any Dell system with such a whitelist. You've convinced yourself of a situation that doesn't exist.
Thats great. However as I've indicated above, it is wrong. I'm glad you have managed to never run into this problem. It is a really silly problem that should never happen.
If the card you've installed doesn't work, something else is wrong - could be a faulty or incompatible card, a mainboard issue or simply a driver or operating system issue. It's not a whitelist issue.
I have put the card, and hard drive in another machine to verify that the card itself, and the drivers and operating system as a whole were not the problem. I tested it with a factory card to make sure there was nothing wrong with the port or elsewhere in the machine. Hey, guess what. They are not the problem.
That leaves one remaining possibility: A whitelisted BIOS.
Look elsewhere.
I've done my due diligence and eliminated all other potential causes of the problem.
Do some searches on these forums. I am not the only one who has run into this very same issue across a range of models. Pick through the greater web. This is a known issue.
I wouldn't be so frustrated if it were documented *anywhere* in Dell's materials. Then I could have had at least a chance of knowing ahead of time. As it stands, it is simply an anti-consumer move. Perhaps it is a default setting in the AMI BIOS they use that they didn't realize they need to disable. Who knows. But there is no way they don't know about it by now with how many instances of it I found on the forums here alone, not to mention my own attempts to direct them to the issue (not including this thread of course).
60percentofthetime
6 Posts
0
August 21st, 2020 07:00
are you sure whitelist is the culprit here? as far as i know dell usually does not enforce whitelist check. can also confirm i was able to put AR9462, QCA9862, QCA9880 v1 and QCA9880 v2 cards in my inspiron 5576 instead of default QCA9377 card and they all worked
I am sure. There are long-standing petitions for Dell and other manufacturers to stop using whitelists that are backed up by unpacking and inspecting the code in the BIOS. I am glad *yours* worked, and some of the brand new models do work, too. However many do not.
it is possible the card is not compatible on hardware level. i had once some cheap intel card bought on aliexpress that i tried to put in HP laptop (where all the above mentioned cards worked) but with that one the system would not POST
I understand. I spent significant time making sure there would not be a hardware compatibility problem.
U2CAMEB4ME
4 Operator
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6.2K Posts
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August 21st, 2020 07:00
Welcome to the Dell Community @60percentofthetime
What message did you receive saying that the card was not aloud?
In the past there was restrictions "Whitelist" for WiFi cards to follow FCC regulations.
Especially when shipping to countries with different regulations.
But 4-5 years ago the FCC changed the regulations for short range devices. "WiFi"
Now there is no need to have "Whitelists" any more.
Best regards,
U2
jphughan
4 Operator
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14K Posts
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August 21st, 2020 08:00
@60percentofthetime I've worked in various IT roles over the last 15 years in addition to being a tech hobbyist, so I've done more my fair share of hardware swaps, and I have never once come across a WiFi whitelist issue on a Dell system. I know that at least at one point, Lenovo went so far as to invert the pinout configuration on their WiFi card slots and WiFi cards compared to the industry standard so that Lenovo systems physically wouldn't work with WiFi cards not made specifically for Lenovo, and WiFi cards made for Lenovo wouldn't work with non-Lenovo systems. But every time I've ever installed a WiFi card in a Dell system, it's been fine -- except for two cases.
1. I had an Inspiron Studio 14z that had an NVIDIA motherboard chipset (for the brief period where they made those), and I tried 3 different models of Intel WiFi cards, and none of them ever worked. They'd show up in Device Manager but always have some sort of error. I finally tried a Dell Wireless card, which used a Broadcom chipset, and that worked fine.
2. Installing a WiFi card that only has drivers available for Windows 10 into a system that is running an older Windows release will obviously not work.
I haven't worked with your specific model, but I would be surprised if Dell had a WiFi whitelist on what would be an extremely low end model in their lineup (consumer-oriented Inspiron, low-end 3000 Series, and 11" display) while not enforcing that on their higher-end and more profitable models. I may be wrong of course, but while you may have found results on the Internet about WiFi card whitelists in the BIOS that mention Dell, a little bit of research will ALSO surface many confirmed reports of people upgrading the WiFi cards in their Dell systems of various models. But I do know that the fact that you've simply validated that the card and drivers work in another system is not proof positive that there is a whitelist issue on your Inspiron. In Case #1 that I described above, the Intel WiFi cards I initially bought all worked in another system, but not in the one with the NVIDIA chipset. That wasn't a whitelist issue. It was a chipset issue. And there are some Intel WiFi cards (admittedly not the AX200) that rely on the host system supporting CNVio. If you install those in a non-CNVio system, they won't work either -- but that won't be a whitelist issue either. There are more possible causes of this problem than you seem to be considering.