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Insp 6000 Reinstalled XP now can't use wireless
I've just formatted and reinstalled my brothers Inspiron 6000 with XP home, but can't get the wireless network card to work.
As a bit of background info - His laptop was blue screening a lot and so I decided it would be quicker and easier to just rebuild it. The BSOD messages were referencing the wireless driver files and so I initially downloaded the latest Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection driver package from the Dell support site. This just caused the laptop to BSOD halfway through the setup. Hence my decision to rebuild from scratch.
Having reinstalled XP home all hardware was recognised and installed with the exception of a network device (broadcom NIC) and one PCI device which presumably is the wireless card. I installed the broadcom NIC drivers so now I only have the PCI device still showing in device manager. The wireless card is turned on in the BIOS.
I have downloaded the latest Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection drivers from dell and installed the but the wireless program then reports it cant find any wireless adaptors. The PCI device remains in the device manager and if I try to manually install a driver for it (by pointing it to the Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection driver folder) it reports that it cannot find a suitable driver.
Can anyone suggest what's happening here ? I am positive that I am trying to use the correct driver so really don't know what else to try.
thanks in advance
As a bit of background info - His laptop was blue screening a lot and so I decided it would be quicker and easier to just rebuild it. The BSOD messages were referencing the wireless driver files and so I initially downloaded the latest Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection driver package from the Dell support site. This just caused the laptop to BSOD halfway through the setup. Hence my decision to rebuild from scratch.
Having reinstalled XP home all hardware was recognised and installed with the exception of a network device (broadcom NIC) and one PCI device which presumably is the wireless card. I installed the broadcom NIC drivers so now I only have the PCI device still showing in device manager. The wireless card is turned on in the BIOS.
I have downloaded the latest Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection drivers from dell and installed the but the wireless program then reports it cant find any wireless adaptors. The PCI device remains in the device manager and if I try to manually install a driver for it (by pointing it to the Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection driver folder) it reports that it cannot find a suitable driver.
Can anyone suggest what's happening here ? I am positive that I am trying to use the correct driver so really don't know what else to try.
thanks in advance
- To be honest no, not 100% sure.
When my brother brought me the laptop he was no longer able to connect to his wireless network. When I had a look in device manager the wireless NIC was listed as an Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG but it did have the yellow exclamation mark on it.
That's why I believe it to be a 2200BG. My brother doesn't really have the knowledge to change drivers so I have assumed up until now that the correct driver was already in there.
You've made me doubt it now though !! tonebalone
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Posted April 27th, 2006 12:00
Utilizing the support tools above (under Notebooks) you can find the configuration "as shipped". But first try this: unplug the AC adapter, then remove the battery. Open the compartment containing the 2200BG adapter, and remove and replace it. This will reseat the card in the connector. Then power back up and see if things get better.- Thanks for the advice.
I've checked the shipping configuration and it does indeed indicate that it came with A 2200bg card, this is the specs:
0 H4165 SERVICE CHARGE, HYPERTEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE, INTEL2200, WIRELESS, INSPIRON
0 J4112 SERVICE CHARGE, DRIVER, INTEL2200, WIRELESS, INSPIRON
0 K4075 SERVICE CHARGE, UTILITIES, UTILITY, INTEL2200, WIRELESS, INSPIRON
1 W9764 CARD (CIRCUIT), NETWORK, MINI PCI CARD, 2200LF, REST OF WORLD
I take that means it WAS a 2200bg. I've removed and reseated that wireless chip, and whilst it was out I booted the PC and checked device manager in order to confirm that it was the wireless card that was showing as the 'PCI device'. Sure enough, with the wireless card out of the machine, nothing showed in device manager. As soon as I put it back in, it reappeared in device manager as 'PCI device' again.
I'm really scratching my head over this one now. I've built dozens of PCs and installed windows more tims than I care to remember, so I don't think it's me being stupid. Could it be that the card is faulty but still registers in the device manager ?
thanks again for the help - Why don't you just try all these drivers one by one, until you find right one. If you install a wrong driver, you'll get an error msg, says something like no hardware find or installed for this driver. Anyway if you can find the driver, re-install windows again to make a clean installation.
or you can download all drivers and unpack them to different directories. In device manager, change the driver for that yellow question mark device, search dircetories one by one.Message Edited by czgu on 04-27-200602:06 PM
tonebalone
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Posted April 27th, 2006 18:00
These worked for me on the last 2200BG I installed last week:
http://support.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-010623.htm
I used the driver and software at the top of the list (ver. 10.x)
- Thanks to all who replied.
I've figured out what the problem was, the wireless card is faulty. I tried an identical one from another laptop and it worked perfectly with my original driver.
Something I should have spotted initially was the fact that XP recognised the faulty one as a "PCI Device" rather than a "Network Controller", which is what XP identified the working card as before I assigned a driver to it.
thanks again for the advice though
czgu
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Posted April 27th, 2006 10:00