inspiron 8200 wireless switch not on?

Assuming the 1150 card is showing up in Network Connections, and all the required drivers are installed, all you should need to do to enable the radio is to press Fn+F2 (this also turns the radio off, which can be useful if on battery but not planning to connect to the network).

Check in the BIOS (F2 at startup) to make sure the Wireless setting is set to "Fn+F2/Application" (or something similar) as that insure the Fn+F2 key combination and any software control settings work correctly.  It is possible it is set to something else (or even disabled) which could prevent the radio from being enabled.

I have tried the fn+f2 and that does not seem to work.  I also installed the client manager from the driver download support page.  I can use this software to turn on and off the radio but still no available networks.

 

I have checked the device manager and the 1150 is "enabled and working properly".

 

any other suggestions?

Are you running Win2K or XP on the 8200?

 

In the Client Manager there should be an option to have it display all networks it can see.  Unfortunately, I don't remember exactly how to get to it.  If you are in WinXP you should be able to use the Wireless Zero Configuration (WZC) service instead of the Client Manager (and WZC is in most ways easier to use, if not better) and have it display available networks that way.

 

Lets see (thinking 'out loud' as it were) ... if the card isn't seeing any networks either the antennae aren't connected (easy to check by accessing the miniPCI card bay on the bottom of the system), the card isn't seated correctly (which usually has other problems showing up as well, like not seeing the card at all), the radio is disabled (enabled via the Client Manager "Enable Radio" option or Fn+F2), or there are no detectable signals present (ruled out by having a known good wireless system pick up a signal in the same locaton as the problem machine).

 

 

 

PS: this is making me access memories I haven't had to touch in years.  I last helped a customer with an 1150 back in 2005. ;)

In the bios the only thing I could find is:

 

Mini PCI Device       wireless

Mini PCI Device       enabled

 

The only option I had was to disable the device or enable the device and I made sure it was set to enabled.

 

I tried it again and this is what I get:

 

No Wireless networks were found in range

Please make sure your wireless switch is turned on.

 

oh, btw, Thank you for all of your help thus far.

 

What should I try next?

The antennae?  ok that is an unexplored option.  Where do I look and how do I get to it?  All I see are screws.

 

I see an infrared port on the right side.  Is that the card?

OK....I have taken the plate off and unattached the antennae and removed the card.  I then reseated the card and snapped the antennae back on and resecured the plate.

 

Still no available networks.

 

There was only one antennae wire that I could see.

 

Any other sugestions?

yes,  an intel pro/wireless 3945abg net card works great.  It is currently installed in a gateway m465-E laptop running windows xp service pack 2.

 

 

I am trying to connect to a Motorola wireless router/cable modem if that information helps.

Do other wireless adapters work at that location?

Sorry, I should have included that in my post.  The service manual for the 8200has the instructions for removing and installing the wireless card 

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

.  Connecting the antenna leads to the card are part of that process (should be two of them, might only be one, depending on when the system shipped).

 

When disconnecting and connecting the antennae please keep in mind they are snap-on co-axial connections, even if they appear to be soldered into place.  When disconnecting them, don't pull on the wires if you can help it but instead hook a fingernail between the connector and the card to pop it off.  To put them back on just line up the connector on the wire with the one on the card and press down firmly until it snaps into place.

 

 

I'm trying to dredge up the info I used to have at the ready when I worked in wireless support (getting the 1150 miniPCI working was about 90% of my calls for the first year I was there).  I remember the 1150 could be real picky about connections sometimes.

 

Lets try this from another tack.

 

Have you tried an unencrypted connection to see if that works?

 

For WEP encryption, are you limiting yourself to the ASCII character range for the individual hex pairs (42 - 7A, iirc). The 1150 doesn't like hex pairs in the encryption key outside that range so, e.g., a 64bit key of 0x0245454545 fail to work because the first hex-pair is 0x02, whereas 0x4545454545 would work fine because all 5 pairs are in the "accepted" range for that card.  If you are not sure if the pairs are in the correct range, try using a 5 (or 13) char ASCII key instead of a 10 (or 26) char hexadecimal key and see if that makes a difference, since the ASCII keys are automatically a subset of the hex options (00 - FF for each pair).  If this didn't make sense, let me know which part I confused you on. :)

 

I don't think encryption is the problem when it doesn't see any wireless networks at all.  That seems like a device/antennae/radio type problem.  It doesnt see any available networks.

I may just try that anyway just to see if it would have worked.

 

I went out and bought a usb wireless adapter and it seems to be working great.

 

Thank you for all of your help.

 

The 1150 must be just played out or something.

:smileyvery-happy:

Yeah, I don't blame you. ;)

 

The 1150 is a great card ... when it works. :|

 

Glad to hear you got a solution, even if it isn't a fix.