E1505 + Dell Wireless 5700 = No Workie :(

Question

When I try to install the software Package for the Dell Wireless 5700 on my Inspiron 6400 it says that “Not a Dell Compatible system”

I have a dell E1505 Inspiron 6400 laptop, here are the specs:

T2500 Centrino Core Duo (2ghz)

Embedded WLAN

1gb of memory

40gb hdd

I have purchased a Dell Wireless 5700 embedded mobile broadband adapter to install into the E1505 Laptop. Physically everything lines up, it has a mini-pci express port under the key board currently occupied by the embedded WLAN module. The Wireless 5700 embedded module requires a PCI-ExpressMini-port, so everything is compatible there. The BIOS detects the Wireless Module as “Unknown Device” this bothers me, but if the correct driver is installed in windows it should work just fine. The problem as I see it is not that the Wireless Card is Physically incompatible with the Inspiron laptop, but rather that Dell chooses to make the software incompatible purposefully. What I need are drivers for the Dell Wireless 5700 that aren’t a part of the software package. The software package does some sort of system check and comes back saying that there is no supported device installed. All I want are JUST the actual Drivers, I believe I can get everything else to work on my own. The Card is manufactured by Novatel and re-badged by Dell. The Novatel model for it is the Expedite EV 620. Ofcourse Novatel doesn’t offer the drivers, and extensive google searches have turned up nothing for me either. Before you assume that the install was done incorrectly, please know that I am a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator: Messaging, and I have A+ and Network plus certifications.

Please if you have any Ideas where I can obtain these drivers, or a suggestion on how I can circumvent the Dell software locks on the install please help. Thanks.

mcsapants · Answer

Thanks for the reply Steve.

The main problem I have is that I can't even get to the .inf file to do any edits. if you download the driver file yourself, you will see the problem I am having, the driver is part of an exe, and is not available outside of it. the only way to install the driver is to run the .exe, unfortunately the first thing the .exe does is check the system and when it does that it says that "this is not a dell compatible system" and cancels the install.

volcano11 · Answer

Since this a newly released device, it is not likely that you will find someone with a solution. Still, on other network adapters, the problem could be overcome by editing out the Dell specific entries in the installation .inf file. Someone had to experiment with it and once the found the proper entries that needed to be deleted, they posted their solution. You might want to try experimenting with editing the .inf file for this device.

Steve

john_doe1925 · Answer

5700 is an expresscard and it should be plugged on the expresscard slot that you have on the side of your computer Dell Wireless 5700 Mobile BroadBand
Express Card. is this the one you purchased?if yes plug it on your expresscard slot and yous provider should be verizon.

mcsapants · Answer

Its an internal pci express mini-card slot embedded module, not the external version, which is currently still un-available.

MojoRising · Answer

This will allow install of the Dell Mobile Broadband Utility and maybe a working driver for the Dell™ W5700 PCI Express Mini Card on Inspiron E1505. Hope this gets your card working!

Search Google for Orca_v3[1].1.4000.1830.zip,extract/install Orca.msi.

Click/extract the R121437.exe driver package,it autoruns,click OK/Finish when it refuses to install.

Open Orca from start menu and use for the following steps.

File/Open dmbcu.msi which extracted to C:\dell\drivers\R121437ed

Left pane Tables column highlight CustomAction.

Right pane click Action column header to sort,highlight AbortInstallation.

Right click and choose Drop Row from context menu,confirm removal.

File/Save,close out Orca or File/New to unlock dmbcu.msi

Click dmbcu.msi to install

mcsapants · Answer

Mojo, thanks for the help! I will try this on monday and let you know how it works. I think this is probably exactly what I'm looking for thanks again!

mcsapants · Answer

Mojo, Thanks a bunch! It worked like a charm!

MojoRising · Answer

Great news, glad to help. E1505 + Dell Wireless 5700 = Workie :)

GuardianXPS · Answer

Hi Everyone,

So let me see if I understand you all here. Your trying to use the Dell 5700 card aircard with the E1505?

I hate to bring this up, but the card your describing requires a SIM slot, and there is no such slot on this computer.

How are you going to make it work?

Regards,

CJ2KSI · Answer

Guardian XPS beat me to this one...   I hope you haven't wasted a lot of time working on this...   Ok, so the got the card recognized, all of the internal cards (5500, 5700, ect) require a seperate SIM card slot which this system does not have.   So, in short   B-series/E-series + Dell Internal Wireless 5500/5700 = No Workie :smileywink:

mcsapants · Answer

Actually, it does work, I did spend a lot of time on it, and everything on the hardware/software end worked perfectly after Mojo's suggestions. First, let me address the hardware end. The laptop in question is a Dell Inspiron 6400 E1505. The Dell Wireless 5700 requires a PCI Express mini card slot and 2 antenna connections. The Dell inspiron 6400 E1505 has a PCI Express Mini Card slot which is occupied by the built in WiFi 802.11b/g card that comes with the laptop. If you remove the 802.11 b/g card from the laptop that frees up space for the Dell Wireless 5700 Card which fits perfectly into the PCI Express Mini Card slot, and the antenna connectors also connect perfectly and are compatible, contrary to what dell will tell you if you ask. The laptop recognizes the card in the slot as an unknown device in the BIOS, and in windows device manager it recognized the card as a  'Data Transfer' device of some kind.   This brings me to the software side of the compatibility issue. The Dell Drivers packaged with the Dell Wireless 5700 will not install on an Inspiron system, this is due to a line in the MSI installer which aborts installation if the unit is not a precision or latitude model. With the Help of Mojorising, I was able to edit the MSI and remove the offending line of code, at which point the Drivers installed successfully, and the device detected in device manager as a Dell Wireless 5700 Modem.   I was able to use the internal card attached to the 'incompatible' internal antennas to pick up cellular signal from Verizon. Also of note, the fn+f2 key also still toggled the antenna on and off as it did previously with the WiFi card installed.   The only reason this project failed for me, and it did fail, was becuase I didn't want to use Verizon as the service provider but instead sprint. Unfortunately the card I purchased bore an ESN not compatible with Sprint. If I had wanted to use Verizon Data Services it would in fact have worked.   If you have any other questions on how I was able to get this to work, I'm more then happy to answer them, but to those that said it would not work, guess again. It did work, and it does work.   so, E1505 + Dell Wireless 5700 = Workie!! :smileyhappy:

GuardianXPS · Answer

So with any type of file altering, you understand and realize your not going to be supported by Dell right?

This should be understood before you make this type of alteration, and any damage that might occur by doing so.

Lately, I have noticed on other forums that Dell has been on its game in catching those who use files or alter existing files to use hardware not designed for their computer.

Folks must understand, and a close friend learned recently, that your on your own if you try something not supported by the OEM company the computer came from.

Just some lessons learned comments.

Regards,

Message Edited by GuardianXPS on 06-28-200608:18 AM

mcsapants · Answer

I completely understand if Dell was unwilling to support me, however your warning is appreciated. That being said, I believe that something being called 'incompatible' should be related to technical difficulties, not marketing decisions. There is no reason that the Hardware for an E1505 should be incompatible with the internal Dell Wireless 5700 aircard, I can however see marketing reasons why they wouldn't want it to be compatible. If Dell let the user decide which kind of card they wanted in the PCI Express slot, instead of trying to block it from working with Software locks, this would not be an issue. I don't really feel what I did was hacking or altering, more likely it was removing software locks that should not have been there in the first place.   That being said, procede at your own risk, and if you do try and do this, don't expect any dell support, hardware or software. And if you do try and call technical support, to ask for a driver or something like that, they will tell you 'no' and lie and say the antenna is incompatible or something like that.

DDTDDT · Answer

I was able to get by the Not a Dell Compatible system error by using the Orca adjustment suggestion. The installation runs but then I get error 1721 and the install stops. Any thoughts?

mcsapants · Answer

I highly doubt dell has any Vista drivers out for the wireless 5700 yet. I think that is probably whats holding you back. I might be wrong, but most of the problems with Vista and Devices are that drivers not available yet for a lot of devices. I don't have any suggestions on how to get it working in its current environment. The only thing I can say is to wait until a driver becomes available for Vista.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

E1505 + Dell Wireless 5700 = No Workie :(

Was this post helpful?