Scotch Steve

Hope someone can help, I'm trying to enable the wireless card on my g/f's work laptop so it can connect to my broadband router, though I seem to be having problems doing this.

I know for certain that it has a card & s/w fitted, however can't seem to be able to find it and enable it, the machine is not locked down, so there is no issues with not being able to change the settings etc.

I've right clicked My Computer, Properties, Harware etc, but can't seem to find it, so any pointers on what to try next would be useful, btw it's a Dell Latitude ???? runnning XP.

Worse case I can always get tech support at her work to sort it, but I figure it'll be quicker if I do it myself.

Cheers

Steve

InvisibleMan

is the card enabled & on in the bios?

which lattitude? check the connectors cos they are well known buggers for coming off as is the bluetooth card. Also check the drivers. which wireless card is it, dell drivers arent named as they should be, so try other versions

Scotch Steve

Cheers for that never thought to check there, will have a look tonight.

Steve

InvisibleMan

depends on the model, either its "enabled/off" or its "enabled AND on". you cant changed whether its enabled/disabled(disabled = buggered) as its automatic but you can change the on/off bit.

wez_sti

Bios, F2 when booting to get in, bottom option to enable wireless

wez

Scotch Steve

Guys,

Thanks for that, it's a Latitude LX3000.

Went into BIOS last night, (not F2, think it was F12), the wireless settings were on the third page, there were two lines for it roughly as follows

Wireless ?????? : "enabled" (can't remember exactly what the first bit said)

Wireless : Off

I could get into the first one and change it, but couldn't change the second setting, which is obviously what I need to do.

Any ideas, I can try F2 on boot up tonight to see if it offers any options.

Cheers

Steve

wez_sti

thats weird, bios is F2 on all the Dell's i install, oh well!

Scotch Steve

Wez, F2 seemed to work as well?? However not much further on.

Anyway I've now got the BIOS setting to say ON, however I can't seem to find out how to actually get the card to work, or find it in the Hardware properties. In the BIOS it says something along the lines of "Fn & F5? to toggle on/off", (think it's F5) anyway I'm assuming that when it's on the Bluetooth symbol on the keyboard lights up, which it doesn't?


Any more help greatfully appreciated as it's really annoying me that I end up with yards of cable in the house whenever she want's on to the net, not to mention having to change her IP settings etc.

Thanks in advance.

Steve

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Enable in BIOS (sounds like you've done that)
Fn & F5 will toggle it on and off (to save battery power)
Go to Start¦Programs¦Dell Wireless to configure it (or something like that, or else installed it from the supplied CD/download from Dell site)

(I no longer have a Lattitude, but F5 is taken from your post, and the program title is from memory)

NickAdams

iTrader: (5)

F12 on a Dell will take you to the "One time boot menu" where you can actually select to enter the bios as an option,normally you choose F12 to boot from cd/usb drive etc etc or to run Dell diagnostics.
F2 takes you straight into the bios though...

InvisibleMan

as long as it says its on & enabled thats the main thing, it means its working. The wireless card should reside in the 'Network Adapters' section of the Device Manager.

Either search for new hardware(it really should do it automatically if its found something new) & auto search & install drivers or install from Dell driver cd if youve got it.
Still doesnt work? goto Dell support website, enter in your service tag number. Goto download section & it lists all the drivers for your machine. Try several drivers cos the wireless ones are weird, 1300, 1400, 1450 etc....

Scotch Steve

Andy/Nick/Invisible,

Thanks for that, will have another play around tonight and see if I can get it going.

Cheers

Steve