Networks wifi on dell laptop horror story

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by RR5, 10 Mar 2005.

  1. RR5

    RR5 What's a Dremel?

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    Here is the deal. Got a 2.4ghz 11b WAP and a 11g wireless belkin card. Put card into dell laptop and it pops up as a DELL 1300 WLAN card. ??? We installed, uninstalled, reinstalled the 11g cd and have no luck.

    We tried that 11g card on another dell laptop, same deal. We took that other laptops 11b wireless card and tried it on the first laptop, it worked perfect.

    I told the guy just get a 802.11b wireless laptop card and try that, if no good call dell.

    What The Hell?
     
  2. nick01

    nick01 What's a Dremel?

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    I encountered several similar oddities with Dell computers. Dell computers don't like it if you put in non-Dell components. Best is to buy it configured and then never change anything.

    I personally wouldn't buy Dell anymore for home use. The company seems to focus on corporate customers who buy hundreds of identical units. Single unit customers fall through the cracks in customer service.
     
  3. Froggy

    Froggy What's a Dremel?

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    Just like how my Dimension 4400 died ONE DAY after the warrenty expired!!! OMGWTF DELL!!!!
     
  4. RR5

    RR5 What's a Dremel?

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    But but but but.. it dont make sense.

    Dell has some WLAN tool, which shows a Belkin logo?? wtf

    You cannot uninstall it with add/remove programs. When the Belkin card is inserted, it shows up as DELL. When the working 802.11b card is inserted, everything is 100% ok.

    Strange. We dont even know if a full reformat to xp pro sp2 would correct this.
     
  5. Froggy

    Froggy What's a Dremel?

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    Odds are all of dells wifi cards are just rebadged Belkins. Thats why when you insert a belkin card it thinks its a dell. If it works, i wouldnt worry about it.
     
  6. RR5

    RR5 What's a Dremel?

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    It did not work. Even with installing the Belkin provided CD-ROM, the card was not seen as a Belkin 54g. For BOTH laptops.
     
  7. trigger

    trigger Procrastinator

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    I think the Dell wifi cards are based on Orinoco chipets, so they are usually rather good.

    I wonder whether maybe your laptop has some kind of Dell wifi config tool which is taking over management of the Belkin wifi card, but only works for 11g. That's a guess but...
     
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