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June 20th, 2005 03:00
Dell Wireless LAN Utility doesn't work!
My Inspiron 8600 has a Dell Wireless 1350 WLAN mini-PCI card, with the latest driver 3.100.35.0 (made by Broadcom but downloaded from Dell). I also have the latest utility/control panel for this, a file named BCMWLCPL.CPL version 3.100.41.0.
The obvious problem is that when I attempt to run this configuration utility, I get the message:
"Incompatible driver version found. Unable to load application."
Please, before giving me inane useless advice like "Install the latest patch file,"
READ WHAT I WROTE. I already have the latest versions of both driver and utility. These are exactly the versions that the latest patch file advertises. The problem is very obvious:
This version of the utility does not recognize this version of the driver. I don't understand how this patch could have been released without ever testing the utility to see if it actually runs.
Using the built-in Windows XP-SP2 Wireless Configuration is no longer an option for me because I need to use WPA encryption, and the WinXP Configuration doesn't believe that this miniPCI card and driver can run WPA (even though they can).
When can I download a corrected Wireless Configuration Utility?
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volcano11
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June 20th, 2005 03:00
lgmayka
14 Posts
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June 21st, 2005 09:00
Your suggestion, volcano11, was indeed useful. I uninstalled the Dell Wireless LAN Utility. Doing so automatically removed my mini-PCI card, but after the prompted reboot, the mini-PCI card was redetected (and still didn't work). So I removed it, then ran the patch file you suggested (again, because I had run it before). This miraculously resurrected the Wireless Utility.
That wasn't my only problem though. It turns out that both WinXP-SP2 and the Wireless Utility do support WPA-PSK, but the way they present it--even if technically correct--is so different from the way other devices and utilities support it that the two had fooled me.
Moreover, my USR router apparently has bugs and gets confused easily by experimentation, so I had to power-cycle it a few times throughout my attempts.
And even when I finally got the mini-PCI card to connect properly to the router, I got a false failure stating that "the ARP cache could not be cleared."
It is working now, but getting there was very painful. Perhaps someday Wi-Fi configuration will be more user-friendly.
Thank you again for your suggestion.
Message Edited by lgmayka on 06-21-2005 05:52 AM
Message Edited by lgmayka on 06-21-2005 05:53 AM