Posted on 06/07/2010 6:07:24 AM PDT by GregB
It might not be on yours, but it is something to check if it is. Drivers are more likely, as others have pointed out from a position of more familiarity than I have.
Bookmark for later.
Right click on “My Computer”, select “Manage”. When that comes up, on the left side of the screen, select “Device Manager”. On the right, you’ll see all devices, including your network connections. Identify the wireless card. You’ll need to install the driver. If you have it on an available CD, great. Click on the network card and select Update Driver. If you don’t have a CD, you’ll have to get to another computer, get online, go to Dell’s Web site, download the driver to a pen drive, then plug the pen drive into your laptop. You can update/install the driver from the pen drive. Hope this helps.
I had problems with my wireless with heat issues with my laptop running xp. I removed the battery and ran it with the plug only. I put it on a laptop cooling stand, and I added a pcmcia driven wireless network card. These steps worked so well, that once I took out my wireless card, the old internal wireless network started working again with the cooling changes. The pcmcia card is half in/half out and away from processor so that will work, too. Try any of these until you get back. Oh, if you use a pcmcia card, or usb network card, turn off the wireless internal network card.
Get a MAC
You have made my day - week - month!!!!!!! Since at least November I have not been able to get internet on my laptop so I just have to sit in my home office on the PC to get online. I have spent hours trying to figure out what went wrong - my laptop was next to my chair in the living room and my children and grandson all used it when they came over. It stopped working on one of their visits and I haven’t had the extra money to take it to someone.
I didn’t even KNOW that there was a little switch on the side. I just found it and turned it on and I AM BACK ON LINE!!!
Yeah!
my Dell doesn’t have a switch, the top row on my keyboard has a wireless icon. It took me a long time to find it, but that’s where it is.
I’m pleased to have been able to help someone. My Monday just took a turn for the better.
Get the Service Tag from the back of the laptop. Go to support.dell.com. Click on the “Drivers and Downloads” icon (approximately center upper page). Enter your Service Tag, make sure you select the correct operating system and browse for the Network group. Download and install the wireless driver(s).
If you did not use a Dell driver disk, then you should at minimum, also download and install the chipset drivers. Actually you should do that first :-)
My experience with laptops is that they do much better with the vendor provided drivers as opposed to the Windows provided drivers.
Solution:
Look on the back of your laptop for the Service Tag number.
Go here, enter your Service Tag number and download the Wireless adapter driver from Dell.
Install the driver by double clicking on the executable you downloaded. It will create a directory in C:\Dell that will have a number like "R76521" as the name. In there, double click on the Setup.exe file and that will install the driver for your laptop's wireless adapter.
Reboot the machine and the rest you should know how to do by right clicking on the wireless icon in the System Tray.
THANK YOU!!!!!!! I had trouble on a recent trip and when I went to use my wireless, all of a sudden the “wireless radio” wouldn’t turn on. Nothing worked, so I finally went out and got a USB wireless card, which has been failing, not to mention taking up my one USB 2 port. I never knew about the switch. I flipped it and BINGO! I have my wireless back. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!!!
Where to begin.
I have reinstalled XP Pro and control panel network connection I found the wireless connection which said enabled no net so I hit repair and I got an error it said can’t renew IP address 169.254.112.157
I have reinstalled XP Pro and control panel network connection I found the wireless connection which said enabled no net so I hit repair and I got an error it said can’t renew IP address 169.254.112.157
I had changed over to a newer Westell router and I just dragged out the old one and hooked it up and I am on. Any ideas as to why the new one does not work? Thanks for all the help!!
hi, glad to hear its working,
The one I am using is 4 years old and the newer one is mabye one. The older Westell router works but not the newer. Puzzling. Thanks to all for your help!!
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