1300 wireless connection slow again

Question

I have an inspiron 8500 with the dell truemobile 1300 card. Today my wireless connection dropped and now it's very slow. I know that this has been a problem, I have done many searches on this forum. Last time this happened (a couple weeks ago) I formatted my computer. I had tried updating the drivers and firmware, also changing the settings but nothing helped. Before I format the computer again, is there another fix for this problem?

DELL-BobT · Answer

jesst7,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

Please try the following:

Update the drivers and firmware for the router and also for the wireless network card.
Try changing the channel on the wireless adapter.
Remove all sources of interference, like cordless telephones, microwaves, etc.
Disable WEP on your router.

A customer came up with the following items to check for an intermittent connection with wireless:

Make sure that there is not any devices operating on the 2.4GHz frequency, i.e. portable phones, baby monitors, ect. If you have a 2.4GHz phone, remove power to the base station itself. The base station is always broadcasting out a signal, hence the reason you can get a call while the phone itself is not plugged into a cradle.
Make sure that there is not another wireless network nearby operating on or near the same channel as your wireless network. The 802.11b spectrum is divided into 11 channels, but the only non-overlapping channels are 1, 6, and 11; which allows three different wireless networks to operate without interfering. To be kind to others around you, use only those three channels. Unfortunately, the PROSet's scanning utility does not show the channel that the other networks are operating at; so your are left to either correct by trial-and-error or find a site monitoring/wireless scanner that will work with this card.
If the connection seems to drop every 3 (sometimes 5) minutes, make sure that 802.1X is not enable in the wireless profile. If you are using XP to configure the wireless, open the entry for your Preferred Network, go to the Authentication tab, the first option will be "Enable 802.1X Authentication". Remove all the checks on this tab from the bottom up, so that nothing is checked off.
if the connection is using WEP, make sure that the box is not check for "The key is provided for me automatically" on the Association tab and that you are entering the ASCII or Hexadecimal key. This card does not support "PassPhrase", a technology commonly used in Linksys routers. If this does not resolve the issue, disable the WEP on both the router and card for testing purposes. If the card will associate, then there is a possible issue with the router's firmware, consider updating to the latest release.
The card supports Open Authentication by default, change the router's Authentication type to Open also; some are set to use both Open and Shared Key Authentication by default.
The 802.11b specification uses Long Preamble, as does this card. If the router is set to Short, change it to Long.
The card does not support the "Turbo" modes (22Mbps) that some routers advertise, just those of 1-2-5.5-11Mbps. Set the router's TX (or Transmission) Rate to the 802.11b specification.
Since the card is part of the "Centrino" specification, the card has the ability to go into a power saving mode, sometimes dropping the connection or not being able to transmit data. The power setting can be adjusted in the PROSet Utility by going to the Adapter tab -> Configure button in the Power Settings -> choose Manual and set the slider bar to Maximum Performance. The option can also be access by going to the Advanced tab of the wireless card's properties in Device Manager. The option will be listed in the properties box.
Make sure that router that the card is associating to has the latest firmware. Some manufactures of the non-Dell routers have name Centrino specifically as a component to the routers update.
Make sure that the card has the latest drivers installed. Also try removing the drivers in Safe Mode and reinstall the drivers, even if the latest is already installed.
Disable the Wireless Zero Config in the Services in Administrative Tools inside of Control Panel and only use the PROSet utility to configure the wireless network.
Manually reseat the card and antennaes. Instructions can be found in the Service Manual for your particular system.
If the system uses a Dell style BIOS (black background with teal blue letters) reset the BIOS by doing Alt-F, this reset the BIOS back to factory defaults. Readjust the time and date to reflect the current. Save changes and reboot.

jesst7 · Answer

Thank you for your help, I'm trying these fixes but I still can only get a slow 56k modem connection even though I have a 700k cable connection to road runner. The only thing I can think of is my cordless phone that I placed close to my laptop yesterday. Could it of been that and is there a way to change the wireless card, perhaps get something better? Message Edited by jesst7 on 05-20-2004 11:14 PM

jwatt · Answer

As BobT said, if you have a 2.4GHz cordless phone nearby, it will interfere with your wireless network. You can try other channels on your wireless router. For most wireless routers, the default channel is 6. Try 1 or 11. Which wireless router do you have?

Jim

jesst7 · Answer

I have the Linksys BEFW11S4 4port switch router. For now I resolved the problem by changing the PLCP header from auto to long. Will this eventually cause a problem? I'm not sure what the PLCP header is. Thanks.

jesst7 · Answer

Well even though the plcp header is set to long I have a slow connection again, this time it happened while I was watching a streaming program on the internet.  I tried setting the header to auto then long again but no help. ???   Message Edited by jesst7 on 05-24-2004 11:57 PM

jwatt · Answer

jesst,

Have you tried changing the channel, as described in BobT's post? If the problem occurred suddenly, look for external factors that may be interfering. If you test your connection withÂ DSL Reports' speed test, do the results vary in the same way that other connections do? If so, the problem may be external to your location.

Jim

jesst7 · Answer

Yes I've changed the channel, that never worked. Now I tried going downstairs and connecting my laptop directly to the cable, then I disabled and enabled the wireless internet connection, it worked but who knows for how long. I don't have a cordless phone in my room anymore so that shouldn't cause any problems. Any way to replace the 1300 card?

jwatt · Answer

Hmmm, I wonder...I found a review of the 8500 at the UK ZDNet site, and it said this: "You can load up the system with the fastest Mobile Pentium 4-M processors at speeds from 2GHz to 2.4GHz."

Could the source of interference possibly be the processor's clock speed??? What happens if you adjust the processor speed with the SpeedStep utility?

And yes, the TM1300 can be removed. It's a mini-PCI card that's accessible from the underside of the machine.

In case the problem is that the antennas aren't securely connected to the card, you might want to take a look using this information from the 8500 Service Manual. Be sure the power's completely off before opening the panel, and carefully reseat the antenna leads.

Jim

jesst7 · Answer

I tried to adjust the speed and it didn't make a difference, I think the problem is when I open high bandwidth streams. After a while, the connection gets overloaded and drops. Next time this happens I will reseat the antennas or I'll replace the card. Thanks a lot for your help.

jwatt · Answer

I tried to adjust the speed and it didn't make a difference

That's a relief! It would be disturbing indeed if the processor speed (2.4 GHz) were the source of the interference!

Next time this happens I will reseat the antennas or I'll replace the card. Thanks a lot for your help.

You're welcome! Also make sure that the board's properly seated when you're checking it out.

I wonder if something's overheating.Â I8kfanGUI can't directly measure the temperature of the TM1300, but it might provide more information about the internal temperature of the system. I heartily recommend it!

Jim

jesst7 · Answer

Thanks, the I8fanGUI program seems very useful.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

1300 wireless connection slow again

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