Inspiron E1405 Wireless Connections Help

Question

I've been doing research on the Dell site for hours via a landline and still cannot find a solution to my problem.   Recently, my wireless internet function has not been working on my Inspiron E1405 computer that I purchased in June 2006.  The Intel Proset/Wireless shows the networks in range, and then is unable to connect.  I don't think it is a security issue because I have been able to access those networks in the past, as recently as last week.  I think maybe one of my drives or programs got uninstalled, but I'm clueless how to fix it.  Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Gina Q · Answer

To help solve this can you answer the following questions:

System information

1)      What O/S - (XP, Vista, 2K)

2)      Was the system upgraded? If so, from what to what?

3)      What kind of a card is in the system (Intel, Dell Wireless, etc.)

4)      What driver version is currently installed?

5)      If in XP what wireless utility version is installed?

Router/AP info

1)      What is the make of the router (Linksys, Netgear, Belkin)?

2)      What model number?

3)      Has the Firmware been updated? If so what is the firmware version?

Additional Info

1)      Was it working before? If so, when did it stop working?

2)      If you upgraded your system did it work in XP?

3)      Have you tried in another location?

4)      Do you get any error messages?

5)      Has any hardware been replaced?

6)      Can it see any networks?

7)      Security, if so what kind, is it WEP, WPA, WPA2, MAC Filtering, etc.?

8)      Is the SSID broadcast or hidden?

9)      Have you set up the profile manually and checked the following boxes:

a.       Start this connection Manually

b.      Connect even if the network is not broadcasting

10) What firewall are you running?

ejask · Answer

1) Windows XP 2) No upgrades 3) Intel Proset Wireless 4) Driver Version 114773 (I think this is what you want) 5) unsure how to find this information     1) Netgear 2) WGR614v6 3) All up to date       1) Yes, it worked the last time I was home, which was about 1 month and a half ago.  It also worked while I was at schoo last week   2) N/A   3) Yes   4) It just says that the wireless is unable to connect   5) Not to my knowledge   6) Yes, it recognized the network, tries to connect, then about 3 seconds later says 'Unable to Connect to Netgear' and keeps retrying, with the same results.   7) WPA Personal (TKIP)   8) broadcast   9) a) yes   10) Windows firewall and Symantic antivirus corporate edition     Thanks again for any help!!

Gina Q · Answer

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you on this. I was on vacation last week and catching up is tough.

Since the card works has worked before we can assume the card is probably still working. A few things to try.

First I'd suggest doing a system restore to the last time you know it was working. See if that works.

Next, if that does not work try and disable the encryption on the router. See if you can connect.

You don't say specifically which intel card you have. To find this out go to device manager and then to network adapters and see which wireless card you have. It will probably be something like 3945, If it is the 3945 then install this driver

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

You will first want to download and save this driver to your hard drive then go to Add/Remove programs and uninstalling the intel wireless driver that is currently on the system. Then go to where you downloaded the driver, double click the icon and install the driver.

Message Edited by DELL-Gina on 03-29-2007 01:47 PM

rustyknives · Answer

Hi Gina,

I'm currently facing the same problem as well. However, mine is a different situation, I suppose.

System information
1) Vista Business
2) No. Came installed with it.
3) Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
4) 10.6.0.29
5) Do not know. Didn't upgrade my system

Router/AP info
1) Aztech
2) DSL600EW
3) Yes. 66.53.2

Additional Info
1) Yes. It was working until my system had a fault. Screen began to flicker rapidly and I had to press the On/Off Button. After that, I can't do anything with it.
2) Didn't upgrade my system
3) Yes. With my desktop and it's working.
4) No error messages. Only know that the network and sharing center area will not respond.
5) No.
6) If the Network and Sharing Center is not responding, I can't see anything.
7) WEP
8) Broadcast
9) Have you set up the profile manually and checked the following boxes:
a. Yes.
b. No.
10) Windows Defender and McAfee Security Center.

Gina Q · Answer

rustyknives wrote:
9) Have you set up the profile manually and checked the following boxes:
a. Yes.
b. No.

For question 9 you must have both these boxes checked. The 2nd box states connect even if not broadcasting should be checked. Please recreate the profile and make sure both of these are checked.

Also, if you have encryption enabled on your router please disable this to make sure it is not blocking your access.

rustyknives · Answer

Hi Gina,

I've done those but yet as I tried to detect the wireless, my network and sharing center area is no longer responding. I've been rebooting quite often by pressing the on/off button and it's pretty scary since most of the steps that I've done are quite useless.

Is there any other way to overcome this problem?

rustyknives · Answer

I had this error too: This is when i encouter the blue screen with the error message STOP 0x000000FE(0x00000008, 0x00000006, 0x00000001, 0x86BE1000) BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER

ckkuan · Answer

Hi Gina,

I have the same problem as rustyknives.

System information

1) What O/S - Vista

2) Was the system upgraded? No

3) What kind of a card is in the system - Intel

4) What driver version is currently installed - Latest from Dell Support

5) If in XP what wireless utility version is installed? Not applicable

Router/AP info

1) What is the make of the router? Aztech

2) What model number - DSL 600EW

3) Has the Firmware been updated? If so what is the firmware version? Yes, 66.53.2

Additional Info

1) Was it working before? If so, when did it stop working? Previously with the older firmware 43.53.1 it has the same problem but less intense. I'm able to stay online longer (about an hour or so) before the network and sharing center hangs. Now, after several minutes it will hang and i'm forced to restart the computer. This is when i encouter the blue screen with the error message STOP 0x000000FE(0x00000008, 0x00000006, 0x00000001, 0x86BE1000) BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER

2) If you upgraded your system did it work in XP? Not applicable, my XPS M1210 came with Vista Home Premium.

3) Have you tried in another location? Yeah, tried at different location and different router with no problem.

4) Do you get any error messages? Only with my Aztech DSL600EW

5) Has any hardware been replaced? No

6) Can it see any networks? Yes

7) Security, if so what kind, is it WEP, WPA, WPA2, MAC Filtering, etc.? WEP, but after disabling, the problem still persists.

8) Is the SSID broadcast or hidden? Both tested

9) Have you set up the profile manually and checked the following boxes:

a. Start this connection Manually - Yes

b. Connect even if the network is not broadcasting - Yes

10) What firewall are you running? McAfee Security Center 8.0

Additional Info:

I suspected the router is incompatible with Vista and contacted Aztech regarding the matter. However, they denied any incompability issues and assured me that it worked perfectly fine with Vista when they tested it at their site. I'm wondering has it got to do with Vista on a Dell system that is incompatible with the router? My Inspiron 6400 with XP SP2 is working fine with the router though. Please help! Thanks.

Gina Q · Answer

ckkuan wrote:

3) Have you tried in another location? Yeah, tried at different location and different router with no problem.

The above statement indicates there is not a problem with your wireless card or your system since the problem does not exist when you move it to a different location. So we need to now look at your other devices. But before we do let's look at the BOSD error

ckkuan wrote:

1) Was it working before? If so, when did it stop working? Previously with the older firmware 43.53.1 it has the same problem but less intense. I'm able to stay online longer (about an hour or so) before the network and sharing center hangs. Now, after several minutes it will hang and i'm forced to restart the computer. This is when i encouter the blue screen with the error message STOP 0x000000FE(0x00000008, 0x00000006, 0x00000001, 0x86BE1000) BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER

This BSOD error indicates a problem w/a USB driver. What do you have connected to the USB ports? Is your router connected via USB? If so, use the Ethernet. If it does not have Ethernet I'd advise upgrading your router. Although there are vendors that provide this type of connection it is was done because some very older systems do not have Ethernet but they do have USB. The preferred connection type is Ethernet.

If your router is not USB then what other device do you have connected? Remove them all and see if the problem persists. If it does not then add 1 item at a time to narrow down which one is causing the problem. Once the device is found look for firmware or driver update.

rustyknives · Answer

@Anonymous wrote:

This BSOD error indicates a problem w/a USB driver. What do you have connected to the USB ports? Is your router connected via USB? If so, use the Ethernet. If it does not have Ethernet I'd advise upgrading your router. Although there are vendors that provide this type of connection it is was done because some very older systems do not have Ethernet but they do have USB. The preferred connection type is Ethernet.

If your router is not USB then what other device do you have connected? Remove them all and see if the problem persists. If it does not then add 1 item at a time to narrow down which one is causing the problem. Once the device is found look for firmware or driver update.

Hi Gina,

When I installed my DSL600EW, it did not have a USB driver/port. However, after running for at least 2 hours, I get a blue screen with that error message. At the current moment, I only have my Wireless Mouse (Microsoft Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 4000) and my external hard disk connected via USB.

ckkuan · Answer

Hi Gina,   Sorry for not stating this earlier. I had everything removed from the USB and the problem still occurs. A Dell technician came over yesterday, replaced the RAM and Wifi Card but to no avail. After that, did a PC Restore and the problem still persists. Lastly, reformatted the hard disk and install everything from scratch and it seemed to solve the problem. Maybe it's still too early to conclude, as I have not spend time on the PC yet. I will monitor it for 1-2 days and keep you guys updated again. If this is the case, the problem lies with the factory software installation? And the funny part is why did the BSOD error point to the USB driver? And it only seems to happen with the Aztech router.   More info about this error: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930568/ but mine was due to the wireless connection and not the sleep and hibernation mode. They both worked perfectly fine.

rustyknives · Answer

I think I've found a solution to the problem that I'm facing. Once I disabled McAfee Security Center 8.0, I found out that my Wireless Router seems to be working perfectly well. Perhaps a security setting within McAfee itself that's preventing connectivity?

CKKUAN, perhaps you would want to try and disable McAfee for about 15 minutes and try to see if it works for your end. After disabling McAfee, I feel that my Inspiron 640m is working much faster and there is no lag, plus I'm running my wireless router for about half an hour and it's working great!

ckkuan · Answer

Thanks rustyknives, that might be just the case. Since reformatting my hard disk, i have not install McAfee yet and so far it has been working fine. Now that you mentioned it, I'm afraid to have it installed. =.='

rustyknives · Answer

How I knew about this, was also a scary fact.

I had a live chat with one of the Dell Support technical personnel and I told him about some of the problems I had with my new notebook which I recently obtained in February.

Here are the list of problems.
1. Slowness (Lag) when opening programs - Microsoft related programs e.g. Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint.
2. Flickering of the screen - This happened 4 times on a brand new notebook.
3. Complained about some bank websites that I couldn't access. - Something irrelevant but well, I was very anxious to find out what's causing all the problem.

So, had a remote access done by the technical support. Helped me delete this first addon for outlook (Outlook Addin Setup). Well, that help with the lagginess of opening my Inbox.

Next was the flickering of the screen. Told him this is a brand new notebook and he was shocked that I had these problems. So he tried to check on the logs to find out what caused these.

He disabled most of the startup programs and when I look at the amount of startup programs for McAfee, I was shocked... There are like 10 processes for McAfee, e.g. Email Proxy, Antivirus, yada yada yada... Once he disabled all those, downloaded 2 Dell drivers, then asked me to restart. And I did. After I restarted, everything was running smooth and I mean smooth... There was no jerking when I opened up my Inbox, even the connection speed to the internet has improved tremendously. (not sure if this was related to the antivirus program)

I'm not saying that McAfee's a bad program to have but come on... 10 processes? It's like so resource hungry all the time...

Well, since I had McAfee disabled and everything seemed to work perfectly fine, I concluded to myself that it was probably because of McAfee that caused all these.

Right now I'm using the FREE antivirus you can find on the net. AVG.

Just hope that I can finally use Zonealarm again. Still waiting for the patch before I download for my Vista.

Gina Q · Answer

Glad to know you all got it running. If you have not reinstalled the McAfee be sure you put something on the system to prevent viruses. If you want some recommendations the Spyware/Virus forum is good for that the users that post to that board can help you find some good internet security programs.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

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