TrueMobile 1180 Mini PCI driver problems - freezes and blue screens

servus markus,

(österreich)i8200 + 1180...klinglts? *grins* jaja, de wolltn mir einen technicker schicken blablabla und i zahl und erst jetzt erfahr i was da grund für diese hänger is. Werds ihnen morgen mal sagen und fragen was sie gedenken zu tun.... Kauft ma sich extra diese Karte dazu, um ned imma eine PCMCIA externe mitschlepen zu müssen (de dann so und so heruassteht -> igitt) und dann wird das ganze notebook damit lahmgelegt.
Schön und gut, aber Dell sollte sich mit diesem Problem befassen... sonst gibt es hier offensichtlich einige die Dell für ihre i8200 1180 ein böses Erwachen bescheren.

Grüsse :-)

Message Edited by flanker82 on 01-12-2003 10:54 AM

Since I started this thread, I suppose it's about time I chimed in... After weeks of tinkering, I've finally given up. Dell sent me an 1150 card and I swapped it for the 1180. Everything works like it's suppose to.

Dell still doesn't seem to be aware that there are that many people with 8200/1180 problems. I went through two 1180 cards and hours of troubleshooting - those of you still suffering through this might try requesting that Dell replace you 1180 with an 1150. It worked for me... (Now, to get them to refund the cost difference...)

Good luck folks!

hi, what i want to know, whats the difference between the 1180 and the 1150? thanks

To Flanker82: The 1180 has a Broadcom chip and the 1150 has a Lucent chip. I initially went for the 1180 when I spec'd my 8200 because it's suppose to have a better range. Now, I have the 1150 which has the advantage of working properly.

Message Edited by overlyk on 01-26-2003 10:42 AM

To mbrtis: Yes, "this is ridiculous". I, for one, spent a great deal of time trying to find a solution. (The fact that I still read this forum tells you that I can't seem to let it go...) Ultimately, the solution for me was to get Dell to send me a 1150 card to replace the 1180. As far as I know, Dell hasn't "tuned in" to this issue in any real way. That's probably because it's only an issue for a relatively few machines and it's unclear as to what is the culprit. It could be a lot of things: the TI PCI card bus controller, the 8200's motherboard, the 1180 card, the driver... There's are probably just a few folks who have the fatal flaw in one of those components. I went through two 1180 cards, the first one caused the whole gamut of errors - freezes, BSOD, etc., the second only caused freezes when the machine has going into standby mode.

Message Edited by overlyk on 01-26-2003 10:41 AM

I have no idea if my problem is related, but my i8200 with 1150 freezes 1 - 4 times a day. I updated all drivers, bios, vbios, reseated the rams etc and now i am a bit helpless. Running the diag-cd gave no hint re-installing the oldest video-drivers made no difference (GeForce4 440Go 64MB).

Any ideas?

regards,
Stefan

I am one more user with the same problem.  I have a brand new Inspiron 4150 with the 1180 mini pci wireless card, running WinXP Professional as configured by Dell.  The very first day I received it and turned it on I saw the same error being reported on this thread: complete system freeze.

I rebooted and left the wireless link active, having no idea what was causing it. The next day I left on a trip and took the laptop with me.  I worked at a remote location  where there were *no* wireless access points in range.  I left my own wireless card active the entire time (one month). While on this trip I used the computer daily without once having it crash.  I connected to a local network at the location via the built-in ethernet port.  I emphasize that I did *not* disable the 1180 mini pci card at any time.  It never caused any trouble.

 Upon returning home, the very first time I used the computer while in range of my wireless router, it crashed. It crashes when in range of wireless networks at work and at home.   I see complete system freeze or a blue screen with "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" errors due to "bcmwl5.sys"

The only way I have found to avoid the crashes is to disabling the antenna or the card  itself. Repeatedly uninstalling and reinstalling the driver has had no effect.

Dell, where is the solution to this problem? 

p.s. As an aside, has anyone seen this problem while running any flavor of Linux?

I'll preface my comments by stating that the following worked for me but if you fry/break/rocket-launch your laptop and/or 1180 I'm not responsible.

About a week after I received my I8200 and using the wireless adapter continuously with no problems I started experiencing the blue screen of death (properly known as BSODs) and freezes during operation.  It occurred after I had gotten curious and removed some of the underside panels to see where my memory/modem/and wireless card were all located.  After getting VERY peeved, doing some troubleshooting, and reading this thread, (and also incidentally wiping and reinstalling the entire operating system because I thought it was something *I* had done earlier that day) I contacted Dell and asked for a replacement 1180 wireless card.  After I got off the phone I noticed something a bit peculiar.  The 1180 doesn't exactly fit real snug in its slot (i.e. it goes in to the AMP slot and clips in with VERY little resistance) which means that any kind of movement, jostling, whatever could potentially cause significant amounts of noise on the miniPCI bus and subsequently cause freezes, BSODs etc.  I also noticed that either on the underside panels or on top of the AMP connector itself, there were small rubber strips glued into place such that the panel would physically *press* onto the connector when it was in place (this is on both the SODIMM connectors and the miniPCI connector on my I8200). 

So I got to thinking about whether or not this was a tolerance issue in the connectors themselves.  Sure enough, I folded a small strip of paper and stuck in behind my 1180 card, snapped it into place with a reassuringly snug click, tightened the panel down nice and snug (not The Hulk tight but good and snug) and voila!  Through jostles, moving around, etc I haven't had a single lock up, nor a single BSOD.  My suspicions were further reassured when I received the replacement for my 1180... an 1150 that fits VERY snugly into the miniPCI slot.  I complained to Dell tech support that this was not the card I had purchased, was promptly sent a replacement 1180 and had the SAME EXACT PROBLEM  until I put that little piece of paper back in there to get it nice and snug fitting again.  Essentially the key is to prevent the card from moving around at all... or at least that's my suspicion.

 

Good luck!

Rob

Rob,

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

I too had been uninstalling and reinstalling drivers, repairing Windows, etc., all to no avail.  When I wasn't getting the BSODs, I was having incredibly flaky and nonsensical wireless connections that were so frustrating I was practically pulling my hair out.  I came close to calling Dell and asking for an 1150 replacement, when your post rolled in.  Sure enough, that did the trick!  I was skeptical at first, because the 1180 didn't seem to be that loose in the AMP slot (in fact, it seemed a little tighter than my SODIMMs are in their slots), but I folded up a third of a sheet of paper, placed it under the card, popped it in... and all of my troubles have gone away.

I tip my hat to you, good sir.

Matt

Oh man!   Now I want my 1180 back from Dell...

Dell?  Dell? Are you listening??????????

Well, this thread has certainly been enlightening. Mostly I just wanted to confirm that I am seeing the same issues in case anybody from Dell is still reading along and finds the information useful.

My event viewer is filled with errors saying...

\DEVICE\{AEFD762D-7A4E-448F-9DF6-4A3FC9AD881B} : Has encountered an internal error and has failed.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

0000: 00 00 04 00 02 00 5c 00   ......\.
0008: 00 00 00 00 8d 13 00 c0   ....�..À
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0028: 1b 00 00 00               ....   

Which is exactly the same as somebody posted earlier. This error is usually associated with an inability to connect to my wireless network and sometimes associated with a BSOD or lockup. This behaviour has persisted through a fresh install of Windows XP Pro, and has occured with multiple brands of basestations. I'm experiencing these issues on an 8200 with the 1180 MiniPCI. My roommate has the same configuration and is also experiencing these issues occaisionaly, but not as often as I.

I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the suggested paper shim solution, but I'll take a look in there tomorrow, and if I end up trying that out, I'll be sure to post my results here. Good luck all.

Question:  For those of you who have reseated your cards to fix the problem, which interestingly enough, was Dell's first suggestion to me before sending an 1180 replacement, did all your BCM43XX errors disappear from your system log?  In my case, I still get an error each time I boot my 8200 with my 1180, but this does not appear to affect the operation of the machine.

doctorjay

The error always looks like this in the system event log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: BCM43XX
Event Category: None
Event ID: 5005
Date:  12/8/2002
Time:  7:27:18 AM
User:  N/A
Computer: LAP1
Description:
\DEVICE\{405891A4-3F6B-49BF-AD12-5E04E09C3C12} : Has encountered an internal error and has failed.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 00 00 04 00 02 00 5c 00   ......\.
0008: 00 00 00 00 8d 13 00 c0   ....�..À
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0028: 1b 00 00 00               ....   

I get that error every day. I never had any problems so i never really checked the logs when i bought the machine but they have been going on ever since day 1. Same as everyone else:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: BCM43XX
Event Category: None
Event ID: 5005
Date:  2/2/2003
Time:  5:40:59 AM
User:  N/A
Computer: SCOTTLAPTOP
Description:
\DEVICE\{4FB17BFE-6E7A-4B8C-9851-537B07EB11B1} : Has encountered an internal error and has failed.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 00 00 04 00 02 00 5c 00   ......\.
0008: 00 00 00 00 8d 13 00 c0   ....�..À
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0028: 1b 00 00 00               ....   

 

Seems to only happen on bootup. Kind of odd.

Hey...

I just got my Inspiron 4150 w/ internal 1180 TrueMobile wireless adapter yesterday. I have also been experiencing problems with the card.

The problem is not BSOD but rather powering up from a stand-by. What happens is when I close the lid on the notebook and it goes into stand-by and then powerup when I need to use it, the 1180 is not in the Network Connections folder anymore. Even in the device manager, it gives me a yellow exclamation mark where the device is. I will ocassionally get a memory address error as well.

I talked to a Dell Tech rep and he led me through disabling this and that and format and reinstall .. etc, etc... but there was no solution. This really peeves me! I JUST GOT MY LAPTOP YESTERDAY!!!

So, reading through the threads I found that I am able to request a swap for a new Internal Mini-PCI. I think I am going to try for a 1150 since it is a Lucent/Agere card. I was totally unaware that the 1180 was Broadcom.

I already have an ORiNOCO GOLD and a 3Com Wireless PCMCIA adapter and they both work beautifully with the notebook.

Thanks!