DELL Inspiron 8500 WLAN Fails - GOT IT WORKING!

Persistence pays off again. Turns out the danged BIOS was not set up
properly (by default) for wireless. Once set correctly, wireless
worked immediately.

On the one hand, I rightfully feel stupid because I should have looked
there first, but didn't. On the other hand, the many web references
posted by others with the same problem, with the same Dell, says to
me that others made same mistake. Maybe I missed it, but nowhere did
I see a posted solution to CHECK THE BIOS. Makes me wonder if they
ever solved their problem, or simply neglected to report it, or I
simply missed their post.

Anyway, I thank all of you for trying to help me, and for your many
suggestions. You are good people. You need to propagate.

Cya

Big Fred

On 8/13/2011 7:13 AM, Frederick wrote:
> Persistence pays off again. Turns out the danged BIOS was not set up
> properly (by default) for wireless. Once set correctly, wireless
> worked immediately.
>
> On the one hand, I rightfully feel stupid because I should have looked
> there first, but didn't. On the other hand, the many web references
> posted by others with the same problem, with the same Dell, says to
> me that others made same mistake. Maybe I missed it, but nowhere did
> I see a posted solution to CHECK THE BIOS. Makes me wonder if they
> ever solved their problem, or simply neglected to report it, or I
> simply missed their post.
>
> Anyway, I thank all of you for trying to help me, and for your many
> suggestions. You are good people. You need to propagate.
>
> Cya
>
> Big Fred

Glad you were able to get the beast working.

Now have some fun and look at the Inssider2 program and you will see why
we like to use it when installing wireless routers and such. Nice to
see what is already in place and on what channel.

We even found one wireless network at a charity that was using channel
14, which is illegal in the USA. The DD-WRT firmware in the router and
the drivers in their laptops all were allowing the channel to work.
They changed it to one of the normal channels once they found out the
fines can be large if anyone complains to the FCC who normally is
licensed to use that frequency.

On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 07:33:32 -0500, GlowingBlueMist
<glowingbluemist@truely.invalid> wrote:
>
>Glad you were able to get the beast working.
>
>Now have some fun and look at the Inssider2 program and you will see why
>we like to use it when installing wireless routers and such. Nice to
>see what is already in place and on what channel.

Yes - I have been looking at it.

>
>We even found one wireless network at a charity that was using channel
>14, which is illegal in the USA. The DD-WRT firmware in the router and
>the drivers in their laptops all were allowing the channel to work.
>They changed it to one of the normal channels once they found out the
>fines can be large if anyone complains to the FCC who normally is
>licensed to use that frequency.

Gotta look at that! Loading up some apps on the laptop right now.

Thanks again

Big Fred

Frederick wrote:
> On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 07:33:32 -0500, GlowingBlueMist
> <glowingbluemist@truely.invalid> wrote:
>> Glad you were able to get the beast working.
>>
>> Now have some fun and look at the Inssider2 program and you will see why
>> we like to use it when installing wireless routers and such. Nice to
>> see what is already in place and on what channel.
>
> Yes - I have been looking at it.
>
>> We even found one wireless network at a charity that was using channel
>> 14, which is illegal in the USA. The DD-WRT firmware in the router and
>> the drivers in their laptops all were allowing the channel to work.
>> They changed it to one of the normal channels once they found out the
>> fines can be large if anyone complains to the FCC who normally is
>> licensed to use that frequency.
>
> Gotta look at that! Loading up some apps on the laptop right now.
>
> Thanks again
>
> Big Fred

Just for the record, what was the text in the
BIOS for the setting ?

As far as I know, the WiFi is a miniPCI card. And
you could potentially plug a different device in the
miniPCI slot. With fixed hardware (soldered to motherboard),
it makes sense to have enable/disable items in the BIOS
for those chips. But when the module is removable, it's harder
to do that.

Does the setting refer to that particular card ? Or just
"miniPCI slot" ? or "Wifi" ? I'm curious how clever the BIOS
design is.

Paul

On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 10:28:42 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.com> wrote:


>Just for the record, what was the text in the
>BIOS for the setting ?

I was delayed because I was in middle of stuff. Now then -

It is a 7-page BIOS, page 3 of which has this that works:

'Adapter Warnings':

Enabled

Internal Modem: Enabled
LAN Controller: Enabled
PXE DIS Policy: Deny

and -

'wireless configuration':

Onboard Bluetooth: Not Installed
(choices = none)

MiniPCI Device: Wireless
(choices = none)

Mini PCI Status: Enabled
(choices =
Enabled
or Disabled))

Wireless Control: <Fn+F2>/Application
(choices =
Application
<Fn+F2>/Application
Always Off

Wireless: On
(choices =
On or Off)

Internal Modem: Enabled
LAN Controller: Enabled
PXE DIS Policy: Deny


Only now will Fn-F2 do anything.

Big Fred

>
>As far as I know, the WiFi is a miniPCI card. And
>you could potentially plug a different device in the
>miniPCI slot. With fixed hardware (soldered to motherboard),
>it makes sense to have enable/disable items in the BIOS
>for those chips. But when the module is removable, it's harder
>to do that.
>
>Does the setting refer to that particular card ? Or just
>"miniPCI slot" ? or "Wifi" ? I'm curious how clever the BIOS
>design is.
>
> Paul

Frederick wrote:
> On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 10:28:42 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.com> wrote:
>
>
>> Just for the record, what was the text in the
>> BIOS for the setting ?
>
> I was delayed because I was in middle of stuff. Now then -
>
> It is a 7-page BIOS, page 3 of which has this that works:
>
> 'Adapter Warnings':
>
> Enabled
>
> Internal Modem: Enabled
> LAN Controller: Enabled
> PXE DIS Policy: Deny
>
> and -
>
> 'wireless configuration':
>
> Onboard Bluetooth: Not Installed
> (choices = none)
>
> MiniPCI Device: Wireless
> (choices = none)
>
> Mini PCI Status: Enabled
> (choices =
> Enabled
> or Disabled))
>
> Wireless Control: <Fn+F2>/Application
> (choices =
> Application
> <Fn+F2>/Application
> Always Off
>
> Wireless: On
> (choices =
> On or Off)
>
> Internal Modem: Enabled
> LAN Controller: Enabled
> PXE DIS Policy: Deny
>
>
> Only now will Fn-F2 do anything.
>
> Big Fred
>

Wow! I am impressed.

My laptop BIOS only has one setting. Kinda minimalist by comparison.

They've got just about everything you could imagine in there.

Paul

On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 21:13:31 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.com> wrote:


>Wow! I am impressed.
>
>My laptop BIOS only has one setting. Kinda minimalist by comparison.
>
>They've got just about everything you could imagine in there.
>
> Paul


Yes - once one is smart enough to look there. :<)

Big Fred