Dell wireless 1390 WLAN mini-card malfunction

What happens if you try to use a different wireless network?  Also, what brand and model of wireless router are you using, and is it running the latest firmware?

mine is a Dell Inspiron 2501 with the same network cards, 1390 WLAN and Broadcom.

It does the same thing.. crashes my home wireless network after 5-10 min, taking out all the PCs connected to the network. All wireless connections fail. They recover after 2-3min, but it's very annoying. Seven other machines, running Win2000 and XP, work fine on the same network.

I upgraded Vista to XP, but the problem persists. I'm beginning to think the problem is in the 1390 card, since that's the only thing that is different between this PC and the others that work.

There's a list of other things to check for Vista on my weblog, see for detail:

http://dkretzmann.blogspot.com/2008/08/vista-wireless-networking.html

best of luck, hope something helps ;-)

trying a different network was today's effort.. it worked fine at the library, but their network is unsecured.

So, I went home and turned off WPA-PSK. Now the wireless works fine, didn't drop for 20min which is a new record for this machine. However I don't want to run without WPA so I'm still thinking about what the next step might be.

The router is a Dlink 514, with the latest firmware (first thing I checked). As noted a variety of other PCs with a variety of network cards, older and newer, all work fine with this router and WPA. It's only this laptop that has issues.

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19245137.aspx

Have you upgraded your Broadcom wireless driver as suggested in a similar thread?

It's not a Broadcom wireless driver, it's a Dell 1390.. the latest driver for this is 3/4/2008, according to the list at:

http://tinyurl.com/5j7noj

I have worked around the problem by disabling the 1390 Wlan card, and installing a Dlink USB wireless adapter. It's a bit slower, but it:

- stays connected indefinitely

- doesn't destroy my network on a regular basis.

Dell Wireless 1510/1505/1500/1490/1470/1395/1390 all use Broadcom chipset and therefore the Broadcom driver is correct...

Somms is correct that the Dell Wireless cards use the Broadcom chipset.

I did a quick check of the Dell Support site, and the latest Dell driver for the 1390 card is version A22 (for WinXP  or Vista), released on 20 Nov 2008.

I assumed that the link that Dell Support sent me (the tinyurl link in my last post), would have the latest drivers.

It shows the driver for the 1390 as being a Dell driver, not a Broadcom one, and it is dated as I noted, 3/4/2008.

There's no way I could find out that the 1390 is actually a Broadcom chipset, nor did I know enough not to trust Dell Support and to do my own searching of the website.

Oddly: when I do search the "Drivers and Downloads", it requires a product identification. If I use the service tag, it delivers the page as per the tinyurl, with the 3/4/2008 driver. If I use the model, it delivers a 2007 version of the driver as the latest.

To get the driver for 20 Nov 2008 - search the entire website by keyword "1390 wlan driver", narrow it to 'drivers and downloads', then order by date.

Thank you for the information. I'll try the latest driver, now that I know where and how to find it..

the new driver (dated December 4 2008, now) did not change the behaviour.

Larry- if you have access to TeamTrack please check to see if there is a RFI or PSE on this item.  We on the inside are always told to keep these BCOM issues on the down-low and just keep pumping them to IPS.

 I was asked to look at a friends computer, it is a DELL Inspirion E1505 with the 1390 WLAN MINI-CARD.  If it is wired by ethernet cable to my NETGEAR Router it works with no problems.  It finds my wireless signal but will not actually connect to the internet.  After installing new drivers that didn't work, I reinstalled the driver from 9/2007. This also didn't help so if you have the new driver don't rollback until you try what I did to finally get access to wireless internet. 

Try this it worked like a charm, not only could I connect to my wireless router but I also was instantly connected to the wireless at work the minute I walked into the building it connected immediately.

UNPLUG YOUR ROUTER

tune off your computers WIFI if you can

BRING UP YOUR CONTROL PANEL

CLICK ON SYSTEM

CLICK THE HARDWARE TAB

NEXT SELECT DEVICE MANAGER

CLICK ON THE + NEXT TO NETWORK ADAPTER

DOUBLE CLICK ON DELL WIRELESS 1390 WLAN mini card

a box will pop up

SELECT the ADVANCED TAB

click on MANAGE WIRELESS SETTINGS

under VALUE choose DISABLE

CLICK OK

this should revert your manager back to the windows one.

if you turned off your WIFI turn it back on

PLUG IN THE ROUTER and the signal should be picked up

try going on the internet, it should hopefully work now.

I have not beeen kicked off all morning since doing this.  I have restarted the computer and everything is still fine.

I HOPE THIS WORKS FOR YOU!

From what I see it isn't the card it's the DELL wireless manager that is causing the issues.

PLEASE HELP!  I have a similiar issue regarding no internet connectivitiy via my Dell Wireles 1390 WLAN Mini-card. I downgraded the OS on my Dell 6400 e1505 from Vista to XP. I installed all drivers as recommended by Dell; however, my Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card driver is not effectively connecting to the internet due to "Limited or no connectivity." The Error Message further suggests that this wireless network did not assign a Network Address to the computer. When I select "Repair", I received a mesaage that "Windows could not finish repairing the problem because the following action cannot be completed: Renewing your IP address. In Dell Community Support I had read that the Dell Wireless Modem was potentially the cause of this issue. In the Advanced Settings tab of the "Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card" in Device Manager, I have disabled "Manage Wireless Settings" to default to Windows managing the wireless settings; however, I still cannot connect to theinternet via wireless network. Any ideas on how to further troubleshoot/resolve this issue?

ElDuke:

if you plug your laptop into the router with an ethernet cable does it work?  what type of router is it?  I have netgear and there is a diff setting on it for vista. 

Hi, these message are very old, but anyway here is my experience with the same card and expensive dell inspiron. After 2 to 3 tears troubles with my wireless connection I myself replaced the card with a Intel card. Result: problem totally solved. By the way, in all those years Dell has not helped me, has not taken any initiative, nothing. If anyone wants specf of the Intel-card, let me know. 

Hello,

Can you tell me  which wireless card and aprox how much it cost? I'm tired of dealing with this problem Dell is absolutely no help and I cannot work without my wireless card. My laptop is completely useless and has been for over a month becuase of this STUPID issue.

Thank you

Sonny