Intel 2100 wireless Code 10 problem

Question

Hi all! I hope somebody can help me out here .... I received my 8600 with the intel wireless card on Monday. Everything seemed to work fine with the wireless network, until I rebooted a few times. About 1 out of 2 reboots, the Intel 2100Pro/wireless will not load the driver and in the Device manager it says 'This device could not be started. Code 10'. When I reboot again, it usually works .... or not :( The driver version that came with the 8600 is 1.2.0.56. I did find the new version: 1.2.2.8 on Dell's driver downloads site, but installing that driver makes the system unstable. What happens is that after reboot and clicking a user name, it either takes forever (like several minutes) to populate the Taskbar, or it stops in the middle, not even loading my virus scan, and no network drivers. So I reverted back to the older driver (that came with the system this Monday!), but now have the 'Code 10' problem again like every other reboot or fresh start. I did do my homework, working on it for the last two days. Wireless zero is always disabled, I do not have that MS patch installed (at least it is not listed in the 'Remove programs' table). I am using Intel's ProSet utility to configure the network, but I doubt that this matters, as it looks like a driver problem to me. Thanks for any help! Schildi.

johnallg · Answer

Try reseating the card in the mini-PCI socket.

Schildi · Answer

Thanks for the reply. This actually was one of my guesses, and I tried that today when I came home. Unfortunately, it did not help.

I called Dell Tech support and talked to someone in India. The call took me 1.5 hours, incl. 25 mins on hold. It did not resolve anything, as the guy kept on talking about my router settings and my network setup. I kept on telling him that the router setting have nothing whatsoever to do with my problem, as the computer should be able to load the card's driver correctly even without a router present at all. Well he did not listen to me. That was my first not-so-great experience with Dell's Tech support.

So he had me disable Intel's ProSET utility, enable Wireless Zero Config and use windows for my wireless setup. He guaranteed that this will fix it. Well guess what: it worked for the first 10 or so re-boots, and now I had the same problem once more. So no fix here.

I have been able though now to install the new driver for the card. I think it made my system unstable before only in connection with using ProSet. Now with windows managing the connection, it seems to work fine. The description says this: " Corrects a potential initialization race condition." . I hope that this is what I encounter and that it is fixed now. Two re-boots worked fine so far. Got my fingers crossed.

Schildi.

johnallg · Answer

Just in case, and for all to read also... http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_network&message.id=18450

Schildi · Answer

At least I think so ....

No matter what I do - I stay connected. And the driver for the wireless card loads correctly every time so far. Last night, I put it to the test: took the laptop and re-booted for about an hour - must have been 30+ times. As I did that, I timed the boot time: from completely off to getting to the Windows log in screen it takes between 30-32 seconds on battery.

I can now go into hybernate, suspend, screen off - whatever - when I come back my wireless is up and waiting to be used. I love this laptop!!!

Here are my details:

8600 on WUXGA

1 Gig RAM, 7200RPM 60Gig HD, 160Gig external HD (USB II), 64Meg Nvidia, DVD +RW.

Have fun and ask if you have problems with the 2100 Intel wireless card!

Schildi.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

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