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Intel Pro/Wireless 3945abg card
I have an Inspiron E1505 about 1 month old with Vista pre-loaded. I noticed the first few days while using my wireless connection that the signal strength icon never got above 3 bars, or 60%. This never changed at home whether I was 50 feet or 2 feet away from my wireless router. The same was true for a couple of wireless hotspots that I tested. In an effort to resolve this, I went to the Intel web site and found an updated driver. I downloaded this driver and the signal strength issue was resolved. I now had excellent strength displayed (all bars green) when I was a reasonable distance from a wireless router. This seemed to work ok for a few days. Then I began to have wireless dropouts. The wifi radio indicator would shut off at random, sometimes after a few minutes, sometimes after a couple of hours.The only way to get the wifi back on was to reboot. I troubleshot this problem for a couple of weeks to no avail. Finally I rolled back the driver to the approved Dell version, and this fixed the problem. The wireless connection has been rock solid for several days now. However, I am back to the signal strength issue reading only 3 bars when it should be all bars green. I believe this is a "cosmetic issue" as loading web pages seems to compare to my XP laptop on my home network. I wonder if this is a driver issue as this latest Intel driver fixed the signal strength issue for me but seemed to cause random wireless dropouts. Anyone else have this problem or am I the only one?
Message Edited by Rich97 on 04-21-2007 03:32 AM
- Based on the symptoms you are describing, it sounds more like a signal interference issue. 802.11B/G uses the 2.4GHz frequency range which is also utilized by a lot of other devices such as cordless phones, wireless mice and keyboards just to name a few. What could be happening, is when one of your neighbors starts using their 2.4GHz cordless phone, the signal is overlapping your wireless internet connection causing the connection to drop until the offending device is no longer broadcasting in the frequency range. The best solution is to alter the frequency that your wireless network is using. In this situation, the different variations on the frequency are called channels. Most wireless access points / routers will use channel 6 by default which is in the middle of the spectrum. If you router is capable, you can try changing the wireless channel to either channel 1 or channel 11. It is best to try the ends of the spectrum first as they will be most likely undisturbed by other devices.
- I had the same exact problem - tried the Intel drivers and although that fixed my signal strenth issue I had random shutoff of my wireless card. Rolled back to the Dell drivers and everything back to normal - except for the signal strength of course.This is a driver issue and not an interference issue. Since it appears to be only cosmetic and not impacting my connection speed I'm not too bothered anymore.
- I have an Inspiron e1705/9400 running Vista Business 32-bit . . .Noticed the same problem with the signal strength bars for the Intel PRO/Wireless card. I don't know if any drivers were updated by tech support in resolving the NUMEROUS issues, including wireless connection issues, I have had with this computer in the last 30 days (since it was delivered), but I did in the last few days get a Blue Screen error 100007e twice that pointed me to the need for an updated driver for the Intel (R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection to resolve the Blue Screen problem.I was ultimately told by Dell tech support to NOT go the Intel website to download the driver (despire that the error message suggestion told me to go there), but instead to get the updated driver from the Dell website since I think Dell tweaks the drivers a bit after they get them from Intel.I, too, think the bars issue indicating only a 3 on signal strength is only cosmetic as I do not have a speed issue and my computer is sitting within 6 inches from my wireless router. Perhaps this new updated Intel driver for this device will resolve that as well as some drop out issues I've been having (and the Blue Screen error problem), but like for others, I cannot currently download this new driver (just updated in the Dell site on 4/26/2007) despite adjusting privacy and security settings on the computer to allow for a download/install. Hopefully they will fix this driver download problem today.
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Posted April 20th, 2007 21:00