broadcom....or asus?? wireless card issues..need an answer fast!

Question

I hate to double post...but I know the thread I posted in is a couple months old...so it may not get looked at for a while..and I need an answer regarding my inspiron 530 desktop and its wireless card..and I need it fast!..the entire post (of which my post is at the end of) is here http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=netwkint&message.id=17251#M17251   but I have extracted the most relavent info ..here is quoting yogaman28734   'Symptoms: Computer goes through states where (1) it can't see any wireless network, (2) it sees the network with good to excellent signal strength but won't connect, (3) it connects to the local network only but can't quite identify it, (4) it connects to the Internet briefly but webpages never finish loading. It behaves like this even when the router is two feet away. It behaves like this even when you try to set up an adhoc network between two computers that are close together, without the router.   Diagnosis: This 'Broadcom' wireless network adapter, supplied to Dell by Microsoft, is not a Broadcom card at all. The manufacturer is ASUS, model WL-138G V2.  The driver installed by Dell has an INF file, netbc6.inf, and if you read it, you find that this is a Windows 95/98/2000 driver with XP-specific information dating to June, 2006. There is no Vista-specific information at all. I think Microsoft meant this card to be used with Dell's XP systems. Dell figured that Vista has such a great compatibility mode that the XP driver should work, no problem. WRONG. Especially since this isn't even a Broadcom card.'   That was the first post in the thread. Now here is what I posted at the end of that thread:   Just got an inspiron 530 and I am having the same issue, however my physical card, (i took t out and looked @ it) does not say asus on the it says broadcom 4318KFBG, however I recieved doumentiation (and an antenna) for as asus WL-138G_V2 w/ my computer I have the BCMWL6.SYS and the netbc6.inf I read the inf and it is exactly what u described a Windows 95/98/2000 driver with XP-specific information dating to June, 2006. I am having the exact symptoms u described tho. so I followed ur steps anyway, figuring i could always format the hd and do a clean install of vista, to get back all the default files...it didnt work...I ended up opening the comp. 3 tims before I actually did it, the first time I took off the side of the chassis, but I missed ur part about the retainer clip so I was like 'how the heck do I get this out??' then I saw ur part about the retainer clip and I opened it again, but when the card said broadcom, I put it back in and close the chassis again...then I thought 'wait a sec, I am having the exactt symptoms yogaman is describing, I got asus documentation (and an antenna) w/ my computer this has to be the problem!' So I opened it back up, followed ur steps closed it and turned the comp back on, but it didnt work for me my situation was exactly like the one songsoph describes a couple posts above this one. so then I read on in that post and saw fnemd's revisions to the original steps, but by this time I had been working on the problem for 20 hours straight (w/ no sleep) and I was so sick of opening my computer I gave up. do the steps w/ fnemd's revisions really work? Because like songsoph, the orginal steps as they were written by yogaman did not work for me. If you are sure they wrok, then I might give it a go again, but I was so fed up, I just disabled the wireless card in device manager, and bought a wireless usb adatper for $25.00. but do I really need an asus driver? - since my card did not say asus anywhere on it, but yet like i said, I received documentation for the WL-138G_V2?? I'm confused, b/c obviously the driver is not meant for vista. i looked on broadcom.com for a BCM4318KFBG card (b/c that it was my card says on it) but no suc card exists. There is a BCM4318E, but noBCM4318KFBG. So why the heck does my card say broadcom on it, and not asus? Does broadcom own asus (or vice versa) or something?? anyone's help would be appreciated, I know this thread is over a month old, but if any of you are still reading it, I need help! Message Edited by cduval04 on 11-22-2007 07:13 PM

best-try · Answer

Hi,   Wireless Card and Router manufacturers like Asus, D-Link, Netgear and Dell use Broadcom Wireless Chips. Its like having a 'Mercury Motherboard with an Intel Chipset' where Mercury is a famous manufacturer for Motherboards and is based on Intel Chipsets. Click on link here to get the Vista Compatible Drivers for Asus Wireless 138g V2 from the Asus Website. Also ensure the antenna for the wireless card is connected as per the link here.   I have also added a picture of how the Asus WL 138g V2 card should look like.     Regards Chris

cduval04 · Answer

thanks for clearing that up. as for your links, they both lead to the same page (the antenna one) - I am assuming that was a mistake. I am assuming the first link was supposed to lead to here http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us - am I correct??   note when I click USA, to get the usa drivers, i get a msg box saying, 'the file server for the file you selected is busy now, please download it via other servers' I have gotten this msg for 3 days straight now.   So I clicked the 'global' one and it worked fine...does that matter? or do I need the usa one??

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

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