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November 10th, 2009 15:00
Help please: Wireless 1395 card / Windows 7
Hi. Bear with me as I give as much details as I can.
I have an XPS M1530 that has a Dell wireless 1395 WLAN mini-card in it. I'm using the Dell wireless WLAN utility that came installed on the computer when I got it about 7 months ago. At that point Windows Vista HP 64 was installed. I installed Windows 7 HP 64 on its release date. Seeing as the computer wasn't that old and I take good care of it, I opted to do an upgrade to 7. The only Dell program it said to uninstall was something for the web cam and I did that. Upgrade went fine after fixing a few small issues (none related to networking). Everything worked as normal for 2 weeks. Then our entire home network started disappearing.
Note: Husband's laptop is the same model although a little older, I believe his wireless card is Intel and it's wireless n whereas mine is wireless g. I also upgraded his laptop and all was fine for about a week before the above problem started.
Checked with our ISP and there was no problem there. Called tech support for our router without much help. After 4 days of dealing with this, we bought a new router. Connected it and all was well with the world again for over 48 hours.
Sitting here earlier (both of us on our laptops), my internet went out (the net stayed though). His kept working fine. I rebooted and then it wouldn't connect to the network even though it was in the list and had an excellant signal. Plugged an ethernet cable in and got connected and checked all my settings to be sure nothing had gotten changed on either my laptop or the router. Nope, all is correct. While doing this, the wireless connected again so I unplugged the ethernet cable and all has been fine for a few hours.
I'm now worried this is going to keep happening. I sent an email to tech support to see if they have Windows 7 drivers for this wireless card and got a response. They didn't answer my question and referred me to Dell on call. Well I assume that I'd have to pay for that as it wasn't included with the system to my knowledge, so that's not happening.
Question 1: I've tried to see if I can download Windows 7 drivers for this model laptop and I can't as it's not an option. Seems kind of rotten to me if they don't as this computer is less than a year old. Does this mean I can't get any drivers/software for this model (XPS M1530)? Just checked my current driver and it says it's version 5.10.38.26. Is this the newest driver that I can get?
Question 2: Should I just uninstall the Dell wireless WLAN utility and let Windows take over? Could this be part of the problem I'm having?
Question 3: Is there a way we can change the wireless card in this laptop? I'd like to have a wireless n.
Lisa
Davet50
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November 10th, 2009 15:00
First I would try reinstalling the VISTA Driver Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell> (note this is either a 32 bit or 64 bit driver) as most Vista drivers will work with 7 .
If that does not work I would next try uninstalling the DWU and then reinstalling the Vista driver as it might uninstall it.
You can also upgrade your card to THIS ONE, if you are running a N router or it will fall back to G if necessary
lisabeauregard
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73 Posts
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November 11th, 2009 07:00
I have downloaded the Vista driver and will think about trying it later. When I turned the computer on this morning, it connected wirelessly so I'm sort of waiting to see what happens.
I did see that wireless n card yesterday but wasn't sure it was the right one. Now I have a question....it says it has WEP encryption. Does that mean it doesn't have WPA or WPA2? We're using WPA2. So if it isn't capable of that, I won't consider it. Can I find one elsewhere with WPA / WPA2 that will work? If so what do I look for to ensure it fits/works. I live in an apartment building with routers all around me. I want to be sure we're as secure as possible.
Lisa