Inspirion 15 5000, Wireless AC-3160, Fluctuating signal and extremely slow

Really wish I saw this thread 2 weeks ago. Just got a brand new Inspiron 14 5547 in the mail yesterday and having the exact same problems. The wifi signal is noticeably worse than my 6 year old Dell Precision. I consistently got 17-20 Mbps with that machine. My new machine is all over the place, but I'm lucky if I get 15 Mbps. Webpages frequently hang and any tasks requiring a connection seems to lag. For comparison...my wife's MacBook Pro consistently gets 70-80 Mbps on a wireless connection. To say I'm frustrated and disappointed would be an understatement. Never had any complaints with my past two Dell's...but this may turn me off from Dell if there's no reasonable solution.

What's Dell's return policy? Are there any Dell laptops that don't seem to be having this issue?

I agree, if I had seen this forum before buying the laptop I would have steered clear of it. I'm absolutely floored on why this laptop is even being sold. I could understand a few isolated incidents but it looks like over 50% of the units sold have this problem. Dell really screwed up and their silence seems to be admitting their guilt. I wonder how far this as to go before we can call someone that can bring a lot of public attention to this and force Dell to either do a recall or patch a driver or something. Really surprised this laptop even made it passed quality control. Sad to because the laptop is nice only flaw is the wireless.

To be honest...the speed doesn't bother me as much as the not being able to hold the signal. 10-20 Mbps is fine for most of what I do, but the problem is the signal is constantly going in and out so in reality I'm constantly fluctuating between 0-20 Mbps which is what causes websites to freeze in the middle of loading. Even as I run speed tests I'll watch it come to a grinding halt as the signal is lost.

I did just order a wireless adapter through Amazon which should be here tomorrow or Saturday...so I'll see if that helps out enough to make me happy. If not I'm contacting support directly and will look into returning and getting something else.

Let us know what the end verdict is (if the usb adapter works) I get the feeling this thread will help a lot of people with this issue.

usb adapter was quite a bit faster for me...still not as fast as my other laptop but i was using a very cheap adapter.

I uninstalled the Intel PROSet/Wireless software that came preinstalled on my machine and the laptop seems to have useable internet now. Websites load and no longer hang or freeze on loading. Connection is stable, though speed varies, even at full bars.

Though Netflix quality is trash since my Dell's wireless speed is no where near my old Thinkpad T400's wireless speed. But atleast it doesn't keep stopping needing to buffer.

Notes: Dell Inspiron 14 5000 Series 5447 with Windows 8.1.

This is my first and will be my last Dell purchase. I will stick to trusted brands now.

What did you reinstall after unistalling the PROSet drivers? I tried doing the same...but when I reinstalled (which wasn't as easy as I had assumed it would be) I'm pretty sure it just reinstalled the same drivers...so there was no improvement whatsoever.

I got my wireless adaptor in the mail today (link below). I tested my speeds immediately before installing and immediately after. I went from 13 Mbps without to about 70 Mbps using the adaptor! I put an espn live stream and was able to watch 15 minutes with terrific quality without the stream having to buffer once! Don't want to jinx it...but not even on my wife's Macbook Pro that gets great wireless speeds have I been able to get that stable of a stream on espn. 

So initial results are that the $9 I spent on the adaptor is well worth it. It's a tiny little thing that supports speeds to 150 Mbps. My only gripe is that I really shouldn't have rely on an additional device taking up one of my USB slots to get decent wireless speeds. So I still plan on e-mailing Dell Support and voicing my complaint. 

Details on the adaptor: 
TP-LINK TL-WN725N Wireless N Nano USB Adapter

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008IFXQFU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

What did you reinstall after unistalling the PROSet drivers? I tried doing the same...but when I reinstalled (which wasn't as easy as I had assumed it would be) I'm pretty sure it just reinstalled the same drivers...so there was no improvement whatsoever. I got my wireless adaptor in the mail today (link below). I tested my speeds immediately before installing and immediately after. I went from 13 Mbps without to about 70 Mbps using the adaptor! I put an espn live stream and was able to watch 15 minutes with terrific quality without the stream having to buffer once! Don't want to jinx it...but not even on my wife's Macbook Pro that gets great wireless speeds have I been able to get that stable of a stream on espn.  So initial results are that the $9 I spent on the adaptor is well worth it. It's a tiny little thing that supports speeds to 150 Mbps. My only gripe is that I really shouldn't have rely on an additional device taking up one of my USB slots to get decent wireless speeds. So I still plan on e-mailing Dell Support and voicing my complaint.  Details on the adaptor:  TP-LINK TL-WN725N Wireless N Nano USB Adapter http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008IFXQFU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I uninstalled the Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi software and installed ONLY the latest drivers for the Intel 3160 from the Intel site. It gives me a stable connection now but my speed is incredibly slow. According to speedtest.net it is only 3 Mbps making Youtube and Netflix frustrating. (My Windows 7 Pro Thinkpad T400 gets 40 Mbps).

Trying to get a faster speed I too got the TP-LINK WN725N nano adapter. It gives me a stable connection but my speed is still slow, speedtest.net says it is 3 Mbps as well (The TP-LINK Wireless Configuration Utility  says the connection rate is 90 Mbps?).

I think the problem is something to do with Windows 8.1 itself and/or the wireless drivers for Windows 8.1.

Is anyone from Dell going to help out in this thread or are we on our own with our expensive paperweights?

I uninstalled the Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi software and installed ONLY the latest drivers for the Intel 3160 from the Intel site. It gives me a stable connection now but my speed is incredibly slow. According to speedtest.net it is only 3 Mbps making Youtube and Netflix frustrating. (My Windows 7 Pro Thinkpad T400 gets 40 Mbps). Trying to get a faster speed I too got the TP-LINK WN725N nano adapter. It gives me a stable connection but my speed is still slow, speedtest.net says it is 3 Mbps as well (The TP-LINK Wireless Configuration Utility  says the connection rate is 90 Mbps?). I think the problem is something to do with Windows 8.1 itself and/or the wireless drivers for Windows 8.1. Is anyone from Dell going to help out in this thread or are we on our own with our expensive paperweights?

Forgive me for asking the obvious...but you were sure to disable the Intel Adapter when you switched to the TP-LINK adaptor, correct? I find it very odd you did not see any pickup whatsoever with the external adaptor...seing how it increased my speed by a factor of 6. I do wonder if you have something else going on with your machine/connection. 

And I would ignore the speed in the configuration utility. I feel like that's a theoretical max based on CPU/memory usage and not on actual connectivity. Mine fluctuates between 120-135 with the new adaptor...and our Comcast package is only rated for 50-100 Mbps...so there's no way the number is reflecting any actual speed.

Forgive me for asking the obvious...but you were sure to disable the Intel Adapter when you switched to the TP-LINK adaptor, correct? I find it very odd you did not see any pickup whatsoever with the external adaptor...seing how it increased my speed by a factor of 6. I do wonder if you have something else going on with your machine/connection.  And I would ignore the speed in the configuration utility. I feel like that's a theoretical max based on CPU/memory usage and not on actual connectivity. Mine fluctuates between 120-135 with the new adaptor...and our Comcast package is only rated for 50-100 Mbps...so there's no way the number is reflecting any actual speed.

I disabled the Intel adapter it in the network connections (Right click > Disable). Should I have uninstalled it?

Uninstalling wasn't necessary for me. As long as it's disabled and your connection is using the external adaptor...that should be it.

Right there with you. I purchased the Inspiron 14 5000 series laptop from costco a week ago. I am experiencing the same wifi adapter issues reported in this thread,

This is a showstopper for me and I'm going to return the laptop to Costco ASAP. I'm looking at a similar replacement machine (non-Dell) and have found a decent deal at Best Buy for a Toshiba Satellite 14" touchscreen with similar specs as the Dell. 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/toshiba-satellite-14-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i5-6gb-memory-750gb-hard-drive-satin-gold/6128128.p?id=1219191185727&skuId=6128128&st=i5&cp=1&lp=3

Shame on you Dell for putting out such a sub-par piece of hardware. I'm not impressed.

Setting HT mode to Disabled fixed my problem getting the laptop to work when I'm further away from the router and only have 2 or 3 bars.

However I have another problem now in that when the laptop goes to sleep, and I wake it up, it says my wireless adapter is having a problem and has been disabled.  I figure it's another configuration error but I don't have any more time and am sending the laptop back to Dell today.

"Setting HT mode to Disabled fixed my problem getting the laptop to work when I'm further away from the router and only have 2 or 3 bars.

However I have another problem now in that when the laptop goes to sleep, and I wake it up, it says my wireless adapter is having a problem and has been disabled.  I figure it's another configuration error but I don't have any more time and am sending the laptop back to Dell today."

I got around that problem by looking it up from Microsoft but in my opinion that isn't a permanent fix.  I think it might be a problem with the new driver Dell support downloaded from Intel's website on my laptop or it could be another configuration option.  But I just don't have time to try different things.

From Microsoft:

Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)

Updated: January 9, 2013

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012, Windows Vista