Inspiron 8600 Wireless Drivers

Question

Yesterday I reformatted my Inspiron 8600 Laptop. I installed the correct Ethernet drivers to get my wired connection to work, however - I'm having trouble getting the Wireless working. My system specs show the following information relevant to the wireless card: CARD (CIRCUIT), WIRELESS, MINI PCI CARD, INTEL2100, NOT APPLICABLE I've tried installing several of the wireless drivers shown on the 8600 drivers page, none have made my wireless card appear under network connections. Can anyone direct me to the correct file to install? As I mentioned I've already installed several wireless drivers, none of which have caused it to work. Do I need to do anything with them? Thanks! Nathan

Atr.3yu · Answer

I ran the 'belarc' program I see people mention in the forums ... under 'communications' it displays the following information: BCM V.92 56K Modem 1394 Net Adapter Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller primary Auto IP Address: 10.10.0.179 / 24 Gateway: 10.10.0.1 Dhcp Server: 10.10.0.2 Physical Address: 00:0D:56:A8:B0:8A Networking Dns Server: 10.10.0.2 ... none of which is my wireless adapter.

volcano11 · Answer

Did you install the chipset drivers before even attempting to install other device drivers.  Without the chipset drivers,  Windows will not be able to recognize or install drivers for many devices.  Try installing the chipset drivers now then try installing the drivers for the Intel wireless adapter.   If this doesn't work, you may have to start over, reformatting, reinstalling Windows, and then installing the drivers in the correct order.   Steve

Atr.3yu · Answer

Nope, I didn't. I'm not sure what the chipset drivers are ... do you know which I should install?

volcano11 · Answer

On the download site for your computer model there is only one installation file listed under chipset.  That is the one you need to install.   Steve

volcano11 · Answer

The drivers for you wireless card are at   http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R105328&SystemID=INS_PNT_P4M_8600&servicetag=&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=4155&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=6&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=5&fileid=135925   But, as I said in my first reply, if the drivers were not initially installed in the correct order, you may have to start all over again and do it correctly.   Steve

Atr.3yu · Answer

Neat. I installed the 'Intel Mobile Chipset' drivers. Wireless card still not showing up. Belarc still does not show an uninstalled wireless card. Is there anyway for me to figure out what wireless drivers I should install now?

Atr.3yu · Answer

Awesome, thanks so much man! That fixed it, those were the correct drivers. It's working great now. Thanks thanks thanks! :)

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

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