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69644

July 4th, 2012 23:00

Can't Install WiFi Driver - Latitude D520

Windows XP Pro, 32-bit, SP3

Dell Latitude D520 Laptop, this is one of my work laptops. Had to wipe the hard drive and reinstall Windows for a variety of reasons. Anyway, since reinstalling Windows I am unable to install the driver for the built-in WiFi. Everything else works and other drivers installed fine.

I downloaded the program "Speccy" to correctly identify what WiFi hardware the system has so I could be sure I get the right driver. Speccy identifies "Dell Wireless 1490 Dual Band WLAN Express Card"

I downloaded the following driver from this very website:

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails?driverId=R219871&fileId=2731128341

...which is supposedly the driver for this WiFi adapter.

The first time I tried to install I got a "SETUP.RUL 380" error. After some research, I found out I needed to install .NET 2.0 in order to run the installer. Fine. Done that, now I get: "No compatible hardware found. The software you are attempting to install is not supported on this system. Setup will now exit."

At this point I thought I'd try to outsmart the system and install the driver manually through Device Manager, clicking on the "Network Adapter" with the yellow question mark and then telling Windows the specific location of the driver files. No go. I get the message "The specified location does not contain information about your hardware."

I've been playing around with this for a week or more now and I'm pretty much out of ideas. The WiFi worked fine under the exact same version of Windows before I reformatted the hard drive. I'm no newbie to Windows XP, in fact I'm a career I.T. guy. I'm officially stumped on this one, the only thing I can think is that the driver I downloaded must not be the correct driver for the Dell Wireless 1490 Dual Band WLAN Express Card, despite the fact that the driver information on the web page says it's for that very adapter (among others) *and* the Dell Latitude D520.

I'm hoping someone else has either run across this or can tell me what the correct driver is that I need to download.

(As I mentioned above, I'm an I.T. guy, so you can skip the standard script "Reboot your computer" etc responses... :) Also, please read my entire message before responding. It irks me when people read two sentences into a problem and then declare a resolution that is mentioned further down has already been tried.)

Thanks in advance.

2 Posts

July 5th, 2012 00:00

Hmm, I may have found the answer to my own question here. After posting I was cruising through other people's issues and I found someone having a similar problem, on a different Dell system, and it was suggested that drivers needed to be installed in a certain order in order to work properly. I'll have to give that a try.

Assuming that's the solution, it'd probably be a good idea to have this information attached to the drivers themselves or posted on the main driver download page rather than buried on the tech support forum. It seems to me to be pretty critical information to be aware of.

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July 5th, 2012 10:00

nat__,

 

When you reinstalled the operating system, did you install the Desktop/Notebook system software and the chipset drivers first? If not, the rest of the drivers will fail to install. How to Download and Install Drivers in the Correct Order

Start with the Desktop/Notebook system software and the chipset drivers and follow the list.

Since the operating system was re-installed did you remember to go to drivers and downloads, enter your service tag(DO NOT POST SERVICE TAG here or your post will get deleted, since it contains your personal information), and install these drivers in this order.

:emotion-55: Hint :emotion-55: When downloading the drivers, make a folder for each drivers and name it with the device it belongs with to make it easier to install them in the proper order.

Desktop System Software or Notebook System Software(if applicable)
Chipset or SMBus driver
Processor Driver (if applicable)
Video
Audio (sound)
Input Drivers (keyboard/mouse)
Modem
Network Card

QuickSet(Laptop only)

 

Rick

2 Posts

September 18th, 2012 00:00

no

2 Posts

September 18th, 2012 00:00

get me driver

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