D610, why doesnt wireless disable in hardware?

Question

I just got a new D610 as my company laptop, and I'm already frustrated with how it apparently works. To that end I've coem here to see if I can't get some insight and help about some issues, this one having to do with the wireless card.

When I disable my wireless card on this laptop it just turns off the software apparently, but it doesn't actually "disable" the card... is there a reason for this? If I turn off my wirless card it means I don't want it on, which means I don't want it passively scanning for networks, which means I don't want it su_cking down my battery life at a rapid clip.

Every other laptop I've had has had an "Off" button for the internal wireless card, but this Dell doesn't seem to have anything like this...? Is this just a gross oversight by the design team? Is there a problem with my laptop specifically? Is the off button, in fact, not supposed to do anything at all but disable the wireless' ability to get online via the network card?

This seems really stupid if this is the case, so I'm assuming I must be missing something because no one would make an "Off" button that didn't actually turn OFF a power hungry, battery draining leech like a WiFi card.

Any insight is appreciated.

Thanks,
Rick

Short_Bus · Answer

Normally you can switch off the wireless radio by pressing Fn-F2, but if you wanted to completely disable the wireless card you can do it in the BIOS. Reboot the system and press F2 to enter the BIOS. In most systems, you can navigate through the screens by pressing Alt-P and you should come across one with information about mini-PCI devices and you should be able to Disable it from there. Press ESCape to exit the BIOS and it should automatically save your changes.

NOTE: You'll have to repeat these steps to enable the wireless again as the Fn-F2 sequence only turns the radio on and off.

rtilghman · Answer

That was kind of my point. On most high-end or even budget laptops there is a specific button that totally turns off the internal wireless device... this means it KILLS the hardware, cutting power to the device and resulting in it dissapearing from your network devices list.

In the case of the previous laptop which I had (a Compaq Evo n610) the "fn" shortcut accomplished this, but I've also seen it in the form of a sliding button on the side of the laptop (Toshiba), etc.

The reason for this is exactly what you imply in your post; if you don't provide a specific control to handle this users have to go into the BIOS to disable the device, and that is both tedious and unrealistic.

And why do you WANT to disable it? There are a MYRIAD number of reasons, including:

1. An active wireless card is, by its nature, insecure

2. An active wireless card drains battery life like you wouldn't believe

I must say I'm really irritated and frustrated by this. In my line of business (consulting) this type of control and ability to preserver battery life (when on the road) is CRUCIAL. I wouldn't have recommended we get these laptops had I know this basic feature wasn't included.

Thanks for the reply.

Best,
rt

BBraxton · Answer

I have a contrary problem which is to get the TrueMobile 1150 to work at all.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

D610, why doesnt wireless disable in hardware?

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