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Dell Latitude D800 wireless network issue
I was recently given a Dell Latitude D800, and I have discovered that the wireless network will not work, but the Ethernet connection works fine. I saw an "Unknown device" under the "Network adapters" heading in Device Manager, and this had a yellow exclamation point beside it. Unfortunately, there was no useful identification about what this device really is. All I see is "ROOT\NET\0000" listed for the Device Instance Id on the Details tab. I have downloaded both the Broadcom 570x and TrueMobile 1300 adapter drivers from the Dell website and reinstalled those. The problem "Unknown device" is still there, and the wireless network will not work. Interestingly, I can run the Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility's diagnostics, and this passes with flying colors! I can also see my secured home wireless network by name. Does anyone have any idea what is going on here?!! Any thoughts would be appreciated
DELL-Terry B
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December 22nd, 2010 15:00
Aaron
It does look like the wireless card is at least functioning partially as it passes diagostics, and it would not be able to see your home wireless network if it was unable to receive. This also implies that the wireless card is turned on but you can take a look in the BIOS (start the system tapping F2) and look for wireless settings. Make sure that WIFI is enabled. Try booting to safemode by starting the system and tapping F8 and chose safemode. Once in safemode click view in device manager and click "show hidden devices". What else is listed in device manager under network adapters? It should have both the wired and wireless adapters listed. If not then they may be a different driver that needs to be installed, or possible Windows corruption.
Reboot the system. Then bring up an command prompt and running ipconfig. Simply click start, run (in Vista and Win 7 run may be found in the accessories folder) and type cmd and press enter. Then type ipconfig /all and press enter. Look for Wireless Lan adapter, wireless network adapter under that look for an IPV 4 address. If the address listed starts with 192.168.x.x then the system is very likely connected to a wireless router. If it is a 192.162.xxx.xxx type the address number in a web browser. It it is connected to a router it will bring the router control page up. If you have the password handy you will even be able to access the router. This will certainly verify that the wireless card is working correclty. If you still are having problems browsing the web then you may have a security problem with the router, or software issue with the browser.
If there IP address starts with 169.254.xxx.xxx address, this is typically known as an Auto IP address. typically it implies that a network connection is possible, although you may not have access to the internet. Try the system is safemode with networking and see if the system shows a different IP address. Certainly if you have been receivng a valid IP address try a browser now, if all of a sudden you are able to access the web then you likey have a program running in the back ground that is interfering with browsing while in normal mode.
The following link will have extra steps.
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kcs/document?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&docid=DSN_361597&isLegacy=true
I hope that I have been of help here and you will be able to get online shortly.
TB
aaron_D800
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December 22nd, 2010 19:00
Hi Terry,
Thanks for all the detailed suggestions! Unfortunately, the ones that I deemed appropriate and which I have tried have proved fruitless. Here's some additional information that could give you further insight into the problem -- but which just leaves me more puzzled and confused.
First, I did find that the Wireless network card was enabled in BIOS, so that doesn't appear to be a problem.
More interesting, though, was what happened when I tried to boot into safe mode with networking enabled. Initially, the boot appeared to be progressing normally. I saw a long list of all the drivers being loaded. After a subsequent extended pause, at the point where the safe-mode Windows screen should have been displayed, I instead got a totally unviewable screen. There were clearly visible multiple horizontal blue-hued bands, each about an inch high, and if I moved the mouse, I could see some evidence of the cursor moving through the bands. At this point, I was stuck and couldn't interact with the laptop, so I held down the power button to shut down. At the outside chance that this was only a one-time issue, I again tried starting in safe mode with networking. Same result. Trying tostart with just safe mode also yielded the garbled screen. So, it appears that no safe mode is currently an option for me.
The laptop is running WinXP Professional, and I have IE8. Running the IE8 troubleshooter soon yielded a statement that "Windows is not managing your wireless network".
I also tried running ipconfig. With this, the IP address listed for the WLAN card is 0.0.0.0.
I don't think I have specifically mentioned this before, but every time I boot up the laptop, I get a "New Hardware Found" message, and the wizard lists "Net" as the device that has been found. If I could only figure out what driver to supply when the New Hardware Wizard runs and lists Net as the device, that would likely solve my problem. Obviously, my problem is deciphering exactly what the "Net" device really is. At one point, I even tried connecting to the web via Ethernet and letting the wizard look there for the driver - but to no avail. I don't know if this is significant, but I thought I'd pass that tid-bit along as well.
I guess that's about all for now. If you have any further thoughts, please pass them along. Meanwhile, I'll continue to check any possibilities that come to mind. I may also check into what could be preventing me from having a viewable screen image in safe-mode.
Aaron