Dell Inspiron 600m - Intel wireless card

I have the above machine with an Intel WM3A2100 wireless Network card. The
card ceased to function. Dell sent out a new one but we cannot load/uninstall
drivers. We downloaded 3 past generations of the driver to no avail. I have
XP SP2 on the machine but only the SP1 Diagnostic disk. Dell have suggested
running the disgnostics but that I need the SP2 disk. They now seem to think
it is an operating system problem and may require a complete reformat of the
C: drive and reinstall - drastic measure.

Anybody got any thoughts on this ??

 

OEM tech support always think you should reinstall Windows. It's much
quicker than actually helping you. Question: the Dell 600M comes with
built-in wireless. Why are you using an external card?

If this machine could be ordered without built-in wireless and that is
what you did, completely uninstall the wireless network card and try a
different brand.

I don't understand why you would have an SP1 diagnostic disk since the
600M's are fairly new and come preinstalled with SP2. In any case, I'm
not sure how that's going to help you anyway.

Please clarify the machine's setup for me per my questions above.

Malke

 

The card is the one that was pre installed - i.e. the internal one.

I bought it just over a year ago and it came with SP1, the Windows update
proces then upgraded me.

I have tried uninstalling the card and it says it cannot do it because it
may be needed for booting.

thanks for your help on this.

 

Then perhaps the motherboard is damaged. Since they've sent you new
cards (and I've never opened up a Dell 600M so don't know how you
replace an internal wireless chip), you need to determine if the error
is hardware or software.

A good way to tell if something is Windows is to boot with Knoppix, a
Linux distro that runs from cd. Normally, if everything works on
Knoppix then you know Windows is damaged. However, I don't know if that
wireless chipset is supported under Knoppix. You'd have to check their
hardware compatibility list first.

Or you could just borrow an external wireless adapter from a friend and
see if that works.

Malke

 

I never had a problem uninstalling the drivers for my card. If you can't,
try booting to safe mode to uninstall. I just replaced my old b with a b/g
MiniPC card, and I am currently using the drivers I got from the Intel site.
Since you have changed the card before, prior to reinstalling Windows, I
would remove the card and it's drivers and do a cold boot to safe mode.
Check device manager there and make sure it is removed and then shutdown,
replace the card and reboot. Now install the drivers and make sure you have
the latest ones from the Dell or Intel site.

There were some folks with that card who had a problem using WEP and had to
switch to WPA for it to work. I don't remember the update number.

Are you sure you haven't turned off the radio? What does the icon in the
system tray show? Why do you think it is not functioning?

Clark

 

I would recommend the same. Because you don't share any specific detail,
why exactly you can't install the driver.
So, format it and hope for better luck...

Regards,
--PA

 

Did you try toggle wireless ON/OFF switch?

On Dell 600m, this will toggle wireless on/off:

FN key + F2 key


[NOTE: you'll have to keep track of whether it's on or off - but you can also check 4-light LED at rear of top panel, near ports]

... this would be for orig prob with default wireless card ...