This post is more than 5 years old
3 Posts
0
2038237
Inspiron 11 3000 - No Wifi?
Ok, just got my new Inspiron 11 3000 a couple days ago. Wireless has somehow been turned off. The Wireless button on the keyboard only toggles between Airplane Mode on or off. It doesn't change the status of Wi-Fi as it still says Off regardless of how many times I hit the Wireless button. Very frustrating... From the quickstart and the manual, it looks like that one button it all I've got.
This is coming from an IT professional who knows his way around windows device settings, etc. I've looked for updated drivers, uninstalled the device and let windows re-install. Searched through the device settings for anything that might look like it vaguely applies to this...
Also of note... Bluetooth is in the same situation, off and no response to the button. The toggles under PC Settings to turn either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth are both grayed out.
Do I need to RMA this?
ragefury32
2 Posts
5
December 3rd, 2013 08:00
Oh, I had the exact same issue after a RAM upgrade, and I was able to fix t:
Do the following:
a) Grab the Inspiron 11 3137 Owner's manual - you'll need it "just in case"
ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_inspiron_laptop/inspiron-11-3137_Owner%27s%20Manual_en-us.pdf
b) You'll need to open up the machine. You'll need a Philips head screwdriver, a narrow flat-head screwdriver, and a plastic card (one of those discount cards from your local pharmacy chain will do just fine). Take out the 7 screws (3 facing the front, 2 in the back, 2 in the middle underneath the silver looking plastic covers, use the flat-head to carefully dig out the sticker first). Insert the plastic card on the back edge (where the LCD is connected to the chassis), push inwards and around to disengage the clips. Look at page 10 of the manual.
c) Pull the battery power cable from its socket. It should be on the middle right of the laptop, near the cooling fan. Look at page 12 of the manual. Do not pull the battery out. Flip it over, hold down the power button for 6 seconds to ground the battery.
d) Pull the coin battery (between the RAM slot and the cooling fan) Page 25.
e) take the Wireless card out of the MiniPCIe slot but leave the antenna leads attached. Page 21.
e) Put the wireless card back into the slot, put the screw back in place. Page 25/26.
f) Reconnect the battery cable to the socket. Page 13.
g) Reinstall the base cover, pop the clips back on, but do not put the screws back in yet - just in case it does not work.
h) Flip it back over, power it back up. It'll beep non-stop in quadruples and then tell you that the clock is wrong. Hit F2, go into the BIOS setup, set the clock, save and exit. The machine should cease beeping.
At this point, wait until it boots back into Windows 8 - your Wireless card should now be working. Once this is done, power it back down, flip it back over and put the 7 screws back on.
MariaJS
2 Posts
0
October 21st, 2014 17:00
A solution not mentioned here is to press the Function and wireless key (Fn+PrntScr)
This enabled all the buttons that were previously dimmed: bluetooth, wi-fi and airplane mode
For Dell Inspiron 11 3000 series 2 in 1.
Dell-Rajesh R
3.3K Posts
0
October 17th, 2013 14:00
Hi Ninermac,
Check if the issue persists in Safemode with networking.
http://dell.to/GYyaPD
Refer the following link for more troubleshooting to isolate the issue:
http://bit.ly/GX2Gco
Awaiting your response!
Ninermac
3 Posts
0
October 17th, 2013 15:00
Safemode with Networking has the exact same experience except teh Wireless key on the keyboard no longer toggles Airplane mode. It has no change at all with pressing it. The Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth toggles are again grayed out. The Wireless card is detected and reporting as running fine in Device Manager, but the system thinks it's turned off... The other site didn't bare any fruit either. If I run the Windows diagnostics(won't run in safemode) the system tells me to look for the switch to turn on wireless and switch it to on.
It just seems as there is supposed to be a toggle somewhere and there is not.
Dell-Rajesh R
3.3K Posts
0
October 22nd, 2013 19:00
Hi Ninermac,
Kindly private message me the service tag of the computer. To private message click Here, then click "Send a Private Message".
Awaiting your response!
seanZi
1 Message
1
December 27th, 2013 10:00
First of all, thanks to RAGEFURY32
I am confirming RAGEFURY32 's fix for this problem.
Couple of notes for those doing the same fix,
I am an IT specialist as well. A friend brought in her brand new Inspiron 11 3000 series touchscreen Win 8 laptop.
If you are unsure if you are having the same issue, here is the process I went through to confirm.
It seems the BIOS didn't initialize the hardware correctly. Ragefury's solution is basically re-initializing the BIOS.
After booting back up, it works perfectly.
niemann1
1 Message
0
December 29th, 2013 20:00
Have u tried calling up the Windows8 charm bar on the right side of your screen, go to settings / general / wireless /, and check that both WiFi and Bluetooth are switched on?
Good luck!
ragefury32
2 Posts
1
December 30th, 2013 06:00
Did you actually read the description to the problem above? The charm bar button didn't and wouldn't do anything to solve the problem - this is not an OS level problem - this is a BIOS/Firmware issue that requires a reset, like powering down the machine and pulling the batteries out to reset the state.
androiddd
1 Message
1
January 18th, 2014 01:00
Brilliant! I had the same issue, and it worked perfectly to fix it. While in there I stuck an 8gb Ram stick. Thanks, this saved me a huge problem.
jbat70
1 Message
0
April 20th, 2014 16:00
Thank you!!! I followed this exactly and it fixed the issue I had with the wireless card showing it was turned off; with no way to turn it on. it was easy to follow and a simple fix.
Theonekitten
1 Message
0
August 13th, 2014 16:00
I also followed these steps exactly! Only difference was that my wireless card wasn't even connected to the wires.. smh lol. I'm glad that unplugged wires were all that my problem was. :) Thanks for the steps! I also downloaded that owner's manual, never know when I might need that again! lol
sheehan1
1 Message
0
June 12th, 2015 13:00
Worked Perfectly in June 2015 Thanks very much. It took weeks before I found this fix.
Jessie2477
1 Message
0
July 14th, 2015 22:00
I have a dell Inspiron 11 3000 and suddenly the wireless devices are disabled - I have tried the function key and the wireles key (prtscr) but the airplane mode goes from on auto
Off, however the wireless devices continue to be disabled.... What can I do? Please help!
comitatus1
1 Message
0
October 22nd, 2015 17:00
This solution worked for me.
Chris
omegaXD
1 Message
1
January 20th, 2016 21:00
hello I have recently gotten this computer and so far it will only work with an Ethernet cable I can not use the wifi this computer is using windows 10 and the wifi button is greyed out it keeps telling me to look for a switch on the front of the computer there is not one I would just really like to use this laptop for its intended purpose