TrueMobile 1300 issue

Hello

I am having some connection issues with my Dell laptop, Inspiron 8500.  Its running XP Home SP2.  It has the Dell Truemobile 1300 wireless card.

My issue is that the card is not able to pick up the wireless g signal from my router.  I currently have Verizon Fios and before had Optimum online and was using a Linksys router.  In both cases the only way for the 1300 to pick up the wireless signal is for the setting to be at "mixed" for both b and g.  I know the card is supposed to pick up both b and g, but it not being able to grab the g signal is making my downloads slower than it should be.  Right now my download is about 5mb and my up is in the upper 4mb range.  I have had other laptops, including a Dell 8600, with the 54g cards connected to my network and both were getting in the upper 8mb range.

Could there be something faulty with my card?  I ran the diagnostics and it passed all.  I should mention that I have Windows wireless networking set to control the card, but the Dell Card Utility is also active.  Could that be causing a conflict and resulting in the card not working properly?

When I go into my router, both the old Linksys and the Fios, and select the signal to only g, the laptop does not pick up the signal at all.  Once I switch it back to "mixed" it picks it up and shows connected at 11mbps.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.  If more info is needed I would be happy to provide.

thank you for taking the time to read this.

Don