Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

[bela1950]

Hello

I have a 15r inspiron laptop with Windows 8. My newest problem surfaced today.  Suddenly my laptop kept disconnecting my wireless connection and turning on airplane mode.  Finally it is stuck in airplane mode and I am unable to connect wireless. I have a Dell Wireless 1705 card.  I tried everything including restoring to factory default settings.  It also states my Ethernet connection is unplugged.  It is not since I have my tablet connecting fine.  This all started when I tried to check for windows updates. Any help is appreciated.  I never experienced so many problems with a computer. It seems that I am always fixing something.

[Jrock975]

That did it for me.  No problems till updating today.

[muhannad1957]

For the last couple of days I was stuck with Airplane Mode - ON. I couldn't turn it OFF to ON my wireless connection the usual way. Only through keyboard (Fn+PrtScr) as per your detailed explanation I did it. Thanks a lot.

[tarasula]

Hello, 

In my Dell Latitude E7440 was the same problem.

I don't have WiFi icon on my keyboard, but I solved it with by turn on the WiFi button on the right side in my laptop near the audio and USB connector.

[Boleslaw_Chroby]

Dell Precision M6800

Dell Support Web Page instructs to download "Quick Start Guide"; ok, easy enough. Except the page that they direct you to does not have that document.

After rolling the laptop over and over several times, noted a small slide switch on the side on the right front corner. Toggling it back and forth does enable/disable the WLAN & BT radios.

Kudos to Tarasula for the idea to investigate physical switches.

Double kudos to Dell for being absolutely absent...

[Jim Coates]

Dell Support Web Page instructs to download "Quick Start Guide"

It should have said "Setup and Features Information". If you need that document in the future, go to the Precision M6800 support page. Click the blue "Manuals" near the top of the page.  That will reveal the list of documents.

The "Setup and Features Information" is pretty skimpy but it does show where all of the physical features are located.

[Albro359]

I have the same laptop computer and the exact same problem.   I've spent endless hours on the phone with Dell Tech Support and even my wireless provider and also spent today restoring everything back to factory settings. I'm using Ethernet for now.    Even Dell was unable to TURN OFF the airplane mode which in turn would turn on the Wi-Fi.  No one knows how to fix it.   All possible paths and possible solutions do not work. It's just plane broken.    You can't  talk to someone other than in the Philippines which really irks me.  My warranty is up sometime in October.  This first started on Sept 9th & it's still not resolved.   Dell has the worst Tech support I've ever encountered.  I would never buy another.  

I have the same problem...Airplane mode turned itself on and it is not possible to turn it off. Spent hours with Microsoft remote diagnostics and they cannot fix it. Their only suggestion is to do a complete reinstall of Windows 10 which would wipe out all my programs, some of which I cannot reinstall now.

Microsoft say it is a Dell driver problem...probably caused by a Win10 update for which this driver is not compatible. I have the latest driver for the Intel 6205 wireless on my Latitude 6430...

It seems to me it is a software problem and nobody can fix it 

C'mon Dell you have to help us here

[ronash02]

This happens when you accidentally hit the Fn key and the PrtScr key at the same time. It goes to airplane mode and won't go back through the normal ways.

The way to get back to wifi mode is to press the Fn key and at the same time press PrtScr. Works like a charm.

[Albro359]

I finally found the cause....there is a tiny switch underneath my laptop that turns wireless on and off....It must have been bumped somehow...I didn't even know this switch was there.

Fn+PrtScrn doesn;t do anything for me.

[sim01]

I am having the exact same problem on a M6800. It started after dell replaced the mother board and graphics card. Nothing so far has fixed the problem. The things I have tried are.

stopping the switch on the side from controlling wireless

re installing windows 10 on to a new HDD

FN + F2 and FN + PrntScrn does not work on this Laptop

When I click on the Flight Mode tile it immediately switches back on.

I have checked the registry settings.

The only thing so far that fixes it is by re installing Windows 7 on another drive and booting to that when I need wireless.

I think that in my case it must be related to the motherboard change but Dell says not.

[sim01]

As an update to my previous post.

I decided to strip my Laptop down to examine the wireless switch and found that the Dell engineer who fitted the motherboard forgot to connect the switch to the motherboard.. My problem is now fixed which makes me very happy.

I am however very unhappy with Dell customer support for getting me to waste about 5 hours of my time changing various  settings and installing different versions of windows. (I did suggest to them that I thought the problem was the switch)