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April 29th, 2015 18:00
Weird Wireless Problem
At the end of the fourth day of my Dell laptop's driving me mildly insane with its refusal to connect to my router, I'm turning to the forum.
I have an ageing Inspiron 9400. This died so I bought a used model one year older than mine but this one has had far less use. This worked well for a while but its single core Centrino processor made for slow perfomance, choppy video on You Tube and so on. Here's a rundown of what I did...
* Opened up both machines
*Transferred the original machine's Dual Core Intel T5600 CPU into the 'new' one.
Lo and behold, Frankendell started up and was noticebly faster. However, the range of the WiFi reception became pitifully small. Here's what I've done so far...
* Tried both 1390 Mini LAN cards.
* Tried full diagnostics from both the Dell support website and from the Dell resources CD Rom.
* Removed and reinstalled the Intel ProSet Wireless software.
* Tried putting the old machine's display on the new one in case the antenna was faulty. This give me the original fault of the old one - a half-second's glimpse of the Dell splash screen then no video.
* Taken the onscreen advice to install the right driver for this (version 11.5.0.32).
* Tried different channels on the router.
* Found the clip-on connectors on the LAN card unreliable and soldered the antenna cable into place.
* Checked everything is detected in the BIOS.
* Checked everything in Device Manager.
* Tried repairing Windows Wireless Zero Configuration.
None of this worked, leaving me with the initial problem. I'm typing this on my still older Sony Vaio laptop, which, bless its little heart, runs sooo slowly (think disabled caterpillar).
Here, then, are the specs and the problem(s)...
Inspiron 9400 running Windows XP Media Centre edition with SP3. Mail client is MS Office Outlook 2003. Inevitably used with mains adaptor.
My Vaio and my Samsung Galaxy Note can connect with my Plusnet Technicolor Router even in my upstairs room, approx 18 feet from the router, though the floor and with a steel spiral staircase in the vicinity.
Dell won't connect as follows...
* In ProSet, the display will sometimes show the router but when I try to connect, I either get 'Unable to Connect' or it just sits there, mute and unresponsive.
* In Wireless Zero Config. the router is also detected but trying to connect gives me 'Waiting for the network' and nothing more.
* Both routes to a connection have the signal dropping/router isn't found.
If I take the Dell downstairs and place it within a foot of the router, it'll take its time but will connect up via Windows WZC. It seems stable then. It also works with the ethernet cable.
Just to add a little bit of variety, I also seem to have lost Bluetooth connectivity. Pressing Fn + F2 simply toggles the WLAN on and off. The Bluetooth LED is lit.
As I'm sure is obvious, this is immensely frustrating to say the least. The Dell's increased speed is gratifying but without wireless, it's...let's just say lacking. One advantage is that it's quite a heavy machine - I could throw it a long way.
Before I do....er, help, please?
Philip_Yip
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April 30th, 2015 01:00
First Windows XP is 1 year past its end of life.... This means its had no updates for a year and is hence insecure, you would have been better buying a second hand system (at least a couple of generations after) which came with Windows 7 64 Bit such as an Inspiron 1545.
Did you install the system drivers in the correct order? Windows XP SP3, Dell System Software, Intel Chipset Device Software, Ricoh Card Reader, Video, Modem Drivers, Ethernet, Touchpad, Audio, Wireless, Dell Quickset, Bluetooth.
You should also consider a USB wireless dongle.
Cambronne
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April 30th, 2015 06:00
Thank you.
The only software changes I made to the 'new' Dell were installations of my existing programs...Office, Photoshop, etc. This is why I stuck with XP. I also added XP SP3 and the updates from Dell support, simply because the machine's first owner hadn't gone beyond SP2.
The machine then worked...Wifi, Bluetooth and everything else worked well but slowly. The Wifi stopped working when I swopped the CPUs over. On restart, the machine 'knew' which CPU was on board. Since then, I've removed /reinstalled drivers for the WiFi only.
Cambronne
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April 30th, 2015 11:00
It gets weirder!
I bought a wireless n usb adaptor this afternoon and have just tried rigging it up.
It's made by Dynamode, for which read Realtek. Though my machine found it and let me install its driver, its icon in its own utility keeps flashing - nothing comes up on the main screen.
If I hover the cursor over the tray icon, it says, 'REALTEK USB 11n Wireless LAN is Disable'. In the utility's screen, 'Disable Adaptor' is checked...if I uncheck this, it just comes back.
However, the LAN is connecting, without asking for a WEP key. It's built a new connection, apparently in WZC. The signal strength is two bars out of five at 13Mbps. So far, it's stayed connected for 23 minutes.
Good tip about an adaptor - thanks. It is, however, a workaround rather than a fix.