Free Computer Consultant ………. Daily Insights

A client asked me to look at his son-in-law’s new Dell Laptop. It is an Inspiron E1505 that isn’t very old, and they never could get the wireless to work.

My first challenge was to determine whether the laptop was equipped with Dell’s WiFi card or the Intel WiFi option. Since the Intel WiFi option cost more, though not much and well worth it to me, I presumed it had the Dell.

Why didn’t I look at the order info, the packing slip or the receipt? Good question. Problem is that all of that paperwork was conveniently missing. Am I the only one who keeps and even makes copies of that stuff?

Turns out that drivers and software for both WiFi options were installed. And why not? A trip to Dell’s website support where I had input the service tag actually brought up a screen of possible drivers with “recommended” next to the Intel driver and “optional” next to the Dell driver. Why doesn’t Dell’s computer system know for sure? The son-in-law had already tried to fix it himself and had installed both.

The device manager showed 3 entries of “other device” with the description for all 3 as “base system device”. No driver worked.

Reboot and into the bios. WiFi device shows as “not present”. Time to call support and hope I get someone whose English I can understand.

Turns out that the gal was fairly knowledgeable AND understandable - although I’m pretty sure she was not from the USA. She had me open up the laptop to make sure that the WiFi card was actually present and seated properly in the laptop.

I will be quite honest with you; taking apart laptops gives me the jitters. Plastic (read breakable) pieces snapped together that you are told to “carefully lift and remove” are not my favorite hardware to mess with. Getting at the WiFi card under the keyboard turned out not too bad this time. Bending the plastic hinge cover, which wouldn’t budge at the half way point, caused my brain to hear a snapping noise that fortunately was only in my head.

A short prayer and a slight twist later and it came off. 2 more small screws and the keyboard was out of the way as well. While the Dell technician was trying to explain what she wanted me to check for, I tried to interrupt her to tell her that I think I had the problem spotted.

The WiFi card was laying there, not loose in the socket, but instead completely OUT of the socket. I plugged it in, put it back together, and the Dell WiFi drivers installed themselves.

Keep in mind that Dell support will try to get you to fix it yourself over the phone rather than pay for a contract technician to come out to fix it. If you aren’t comfortable taking your PC or laptop apart and don’t want to pay me to do it, be firm in insisting you want a technician dispatched (if your warranty coverage provides that - you did get CompleteCare, right?). In this case, expediency called for me to try the fix myself.

When we were done, the WiFi did work, but the 3 “base system device” entries were still in the “other device” category of device manager with the yellow exclamation point. The Dell tech cared not a whimper. As long as everything worked, she was done.

Well, Ok, I guess; but I would really rather a clean looking device configuration. I get a much warmer and fuzzier feeling that everything will be alright going forward that way. So that’s a mark or two off of A+ in my mind.

The other mark off is the website support that implies I should install the Intel WiFi driver when Dell’s database knows I have the Dell WiFi option in the unit I’m working on.

It’s easy to see how people get frustrated with computer systems and tech support. At least this laptop is working fine now.