Wireless card seems slow on my XPS 14z

you said my suggested intel driver initially solved your problem. did you use the original dell drivers (from terry's links) to uninstall the old drivers before installing the new one? peterb

Check the procedure I posted earlier to replace the Dell driver with an Intel driver. This worked for me, my wireless is as fast as it should be since I did this. But like everybody else here, the signal is weaker than with my previous Vostro laptop. Maybe it has to do with the metal housing of this laptop.

@Terry: is there a way I could switch the XPS Wireless card with the one in my Vostro?

Peter

The only card that we ship with the system is the 6230.  I am assuming that if the card will fit in the socket correctly, it should be fine.  I have not tried it though so I couldn't say for sure.

TB

Thanks Terry. Yes I figured another wireless card would fit in the socket, this is all standard. But how do I access the socket on my XPS 14z? There are no cover plates to remove from the bottom that would gives access. Should I remove the whole bottom plate by removing the 8 screws (are there any hidden screws for example under the rubber feet)? I may try depending on the effort it would take. I have no problems with wireless performance since I replaced the driver, except for the decreased range which is not really a big deal for me. PB

I am trying hard to stick to this laptop but Dell is not making easy for me. Crazy that, having paid for 3 years support, I get more suggestions here that from them. All that said, I have tried @Terry's suggestions and @PeterB but still have no joy. On the phone with Dell for more than one hour six days ago, told me they'll call back. Tonight called them again and sat about for 3 hours to be told that someone may call tomorrow... :-(

has someone here pinned down all the required steps to definitely fix this?

also, why after uninstalling existing drivers and installing new ones dated 28 October, the properties say that the drivers are 15 September?

thank you

Thanks @peterberger, yes i can get 54Mbps if i sit a couple of meters from the router. But my desk is further away, both at home and at work. However, from those location my existing Dell laptops work at 54mbp, instead of fluctuating from 12Mbps to no signal. So it may be the antenna; but they replaced it in the first laptop but made no difference.

@odietamo. The driver I suggested is an older one. My properties list 3-8-2011. This is Intel's most recent driver and it works for me after I followed the procedure I posted before. The signal is weaker than with my old laptop, but the speed is fine. No problem for me, because I usually work close enough to an access point. But speed and distance to access point have a direct relation. So I would suggest to check your connection as close as you can get. If it still fails, you may want to try the intel driver. If it still fails then, it's someting else than what I experienced.

Either way. Theres seems to be range problem with wireless on the 14z in all cases mentioned in this thread. So the question is if this is caused by the wireless adapter itself (maybe a weak series) or an antenna issue caused by the nature of the metal housing. That is why I proposed to try and test the wireless adapter from my Vostro in the 14z. Any suggestions @Terry?

I also have XPS 14z and have exactly the same problem. Connection with Intel 6230 is extremely slow... My old laptop connects at 150Mbps, the 14z at 20Mbps or less. Dell Tech Support could not help because my laptop was too new, the Service Tag was not registered... They recommended to do a clean Windows 7 install, I did on both laptops, tried both Intel and Dell website drivers, no joy.... Please Dell help!!

I also am having the same problem. i have tried all the solutions posted here. Uninstalled and reinstalled drivers. The wireless card performance is unacceptably poor. This needs to get fixed.

The sad thing is this was supposed to be a mobile laptop, while the wireless connection for my machine is just fine one room away from the wireless setup, once I step farther away the signal is completely lost. I am not sure if any of the problem solving techniques listed above would help, and if someone with more expertise could inform me that would be great. But it is just another sad story of a Dell XPS 14z not working to its true potential. I am truly disappointed.

@ Dominic. You're right. As soon as the distance between XPS 14z and wireless is over 6-7 meters, the signal gets too weak. 

@ Terry. Now that more and more people are experiencing this problem, I guess Dell is looking into this matter seriously. I asked you for advice on replacing the wireless card in my 14z for another type to try isolate the possible cause (card / antenna combination?) but didn't hear back from you. Are you guys working on a solution? 

Peter

i had my antenna and 6230 card replaced on my 14z (with same card) but that did not fix the issue. Now they want to replace the laptop a second time, but i know that nothing would change unless they modify the configuration trying a new card. The replace the antenna they had to take a part the whole system: obviously a different antenna won't be an option with this design. Maybe it's too shielded?

I wonder what people with the 15z means by the drivers having "fixed the issue". How far from the modem are they testing? It's very concerning that so many have been troubleshooting for the last 6 months.

As far as the suggestion it may be the router, i took my 14z and M1210 to the office (where there are multiple wireless signals from several companies) and to coffee shops and the signal is consistently much much lower (usually unusable) on the 14z. I could upgrade my home router but i can't go about upgrading everyone else's...

When an official statement from Dell on the issue? Who do we need to contact, considered that support deals with it like if it were individual issues?

Oh! another thing i did do was go into my router settings, and instead of having it set to auto for the channel i picked something specific.

Thanks for your help Joe-G but I did all that and my connection is still terribly slow. I wonder why there is no further response from Dell...