Connection Issues With Dell TrueMobile 1450

Hey folks, long time no see... :)

Anyway, I just installed a Dell TrueMobile 1450 Mini-PCI card on my friend's Dell Inspiron 8200. Two things, the mini-PCI port on the laptop has only one cable to plug into the card (so I plugged it into the main port of the card, not the aux port), and the card was detected fine in WinXP Pro Service Pack 2. I just used the included driver/utility CD when it was looking for the drivers.

The problem comes up when I try to connect to any wireless network; WinXP simply won't let me. I haven't tried really messing around with any of the options in WinXP nor have I tried swapping the cable attached to the card from the main port to the aux port.

Any possible ideas on what's up? (Also, the card is detected in the BIOS, but it says "unknown" even though it says "enabled").

Check you have the latest drivers from Dell first of all

Next "simply won't let me" doesn't describe the problem... and you installed the configuration tool that came with the mini pci? The windows connection wizard can be turned off and use the Dell config tool instead.

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Originally Posted by NooNoo

Check you have the latest drivers from Dell first of all

Next "simply won't let me" doesn't describe the problem... and you installed the configuration tool that came with the mini pci? The windows connection wizard can be turned off and use the Dell config tool instead.

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I'm pretty sure I have the latest drivers from Dell (I haven't downloaded them from the site yet though. I'll keep you posted on what happens on that).

What's really strange is that when I try to install the Dell utility, it tells me that it cannot find any compatible hardware on my computer and the installation program just exits out...strange I'd say.

(Both the drivers and config utility came with the CD the card came with).

Sounds like a bios update may be in order... what does device manager say about the card? Are you sure that the pci card and the notebook are compatible?

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Originally Posted by NooNoo

Sounds like a bios update may be in order... what does device manager say about the card? Are you sure that the pci card and the notebook are compatible?

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Well the BIOS is at the latest version and Device Manager in WinXP Pro said it was there and active. From what I've read, the card is compatible with an Inspiron 8200, so I don't get why this happened.

So...

Time for a fresh reinstall of the card and the drivers. I uninstalled the card's drivers and the card itself, booted up without the card, and all was good. Then I shutdown, installed the card, and when WinXP saw that it was there (detected as a network controller obviously), it asked for the drivers. I installed the drivers from the CD the card came with and I was back to where I was.

Except this time, I could connect! :confused:

So repeated the whole uninstall/reinstall procedure twice just to make sure it wasn't a random lucky fluke, and it worked both times. :)

I have no idea why it didn't work in the first place and I was able to connect to the same network I was trying to connect to. I also brought it out to local Wi-Fi hotspots around my town and then my college campus and it worked fine.

So problem solved! :thumbs:

Thanks for the help!