Latitude E6500 wireless connection issues

This machine has the Intel 5100 wireless card in it and near as I can tell the drivers are updated save for one driver on the dell site that says it's 'optional'.

From day one this machine has been very slow to find and connect to our home wireless internet (verizon fios, via the verizon router).

Now the machine will connect to our internet and show full bars, strong signal strength, and will work for awhile but eventually, after an hour or so, it will not allow access to Any websites (still connected to the wireless, strong signal strength).

Disconnecting the internet connection through dell connection manager and then reconnecting sometimes re-establishes the abiltiy to access websites, but more often than not this does not resolve the problem. Same thing with using 'repair' via windows, it says it cannot repair the issue.

The only way to re-establish the ability to access websites is to shut the machine down completely and re-start and wait for it to find the signal. As you can imagine, this is very frustrating. My wife uses her laptop right next to me and has no trouble like this. Further, I have been in other wireless areas and the my machine will do the same thing - drop the ability to access websites but still have a strong wireless signal connection.

My machine is running xp pro.

Is there somewhere else I should look for drivers besides the dell site? I cannot for the life of me get the one optional driver for the 5100 to download to my machine. Every-time I click download it downloads the dell download manager but not the actual driver file? When I open download manager it says I need to select files to download?

I was hoping the dell driver site would analyze my machine specifically and tell me what drivers (specifically) needed updating but it doesn't seem to do that, just lists a bunch of drivers based on my service tag, but not specific to the options my machine happens to have.

Is there another wireless card I can put in this machine to fix this problem? Really frustrated with this issue that has been going on far too long.

Thanks

 

You mention the Dell Connection Manager. Have you tried uninstalling it and seeing if the problem goes away? Most people have no need of that software package. I have never used it and do not recall having an connection problems. The Intel wireless cards are, in my experience, among the least problematic.

John

 

Given E6500 Intel 5100 WinXP x86 (32-bit), this is the latest driver.

Device drivers are not optional. Updates to device drivers may be optional, but not in your situation. Download and install the latest driver... download via your Internet browser.

Also, remove the bottom panel to inspect for the mini-card. Make sure it looks installed and connected properly... no packaging litter left hanging on... I had some of that. Should be ok, but worth looking at.

And, maybe the 5100 is defective.

GK

 

Thank you, I will give those a try.

 

I have not uninstalled it, but I sure would like to as I don't care for the dell management software much. It just adds more confusion for my old brain when I'm somewhat used to using the windows management options.

I have not uninstalled it because I'm concerned about screwing something up. Do I uninstall via the uninstall software option in control panel? Are there mutliple items I need to unistall and once the dell product is uninstalled does management of connections and other items default to the window options?

Thanks

 

Ok, I'm doing something wrong here in trying to download the actual driver file.

When I go to this page and click 'download' it downloads the dell driver download manager.

Then when I download the manager and open it on the laptop it comes up with an error message saying, 'there are no files selected to down load, please go to drivers and downloads to select files'. When I click 'ok' on the error message the whole download manager application closes.

 

When I click Download, it gives me the option to download the Dell driver setup file (normal), or to use the Dell download manager (a nonsense complication).

Be sure your browser is standard, allowing cookies, popups, etc., so that it does not interfere with the web page popup script or whatever Dell is using to dialog the download choice.

GK

 

I suggest debugging the 5100 with the driver install before adding a potential complication by uninstalling DCP.

The DCP System Manager is useful and low overhead. The DCP Security Manager is not needed unless you are using the security devices it provides drivers and apps for. The DCP Connection Manager is redundant with Windows functionality, and has since been omitted from DCP (it attempted to improve WinXP functionality for the user, but it was certainly not better than Win7 functionality).

When you're ready, use the Control Panel to uninstall the Connection Manager. And the Security Manager, although it may not be getting in your way. You should then be able to carry on using the DCP System Manager functions, and Windows to manage connections.

If removing the Security Manager leaves any devices banged in Device Manager, you can right-click to disable them, assuming you do not use them.

If you anticipate a clean install of Windows sometime in the future, just wait until then to not re-install the DCP modules.

GK

 

I don't think you will break anything but uninstall it before installing the latest Intel driver.

Delete your Dell cookies and try again. That Dell download manager is a nuisance and the setting is stored in a cookie.

John

 

Ok, I managed to get the driver file downloaded. I typically us firefox and it was only showing the download for the dell driver manager, but when I went to the same page using IE it displayed both download options - driver manager and the actual driver file.

Got the driver installed and it has dramatically reduced the time necessary for the laptop to find and connect with our wireless signal after boot-up.

However, it has not seemed to help the issue of not being able to get to the internet despite a continuous strong wireless signal present. If I use the intel wireless utility to 'disconnect' the signal and then re-connect it will sometimes work ok for another 45 minutes - 2 hours or so and then quit again. And in some cases that doesn't work and I have to shut the laptop down and re-boot.

In the photo's below I assume the lower right box is the wireless card itself as it is labeled such. It's right next to the push button for the lid latch. In the upper left red box is the two external wireless switches (wireless off/on, the find networks button). The card installation seems fine.

I'm not sure how to proceed with the troubleshooting from here. I pulled my paperwork on the laptop and it looks like I purchased it May of 2009 refurb.

The invoice has line items:

'Dell hardware limited warranty plus return to depot initial year and extended years'

'Contract - mail-in service, 24x7 tech support initial year and 2 year extended'

I think this means I can mail it in for repair. I'm not sure what 'depot' means, is that a local repair facility that I can take it to?

Maybe the next thing I should do is hardwire the laptop to the router and see if I still get the disconnects from the internet. I've got a length of cat5 I made up for testing that I can string from the router to where I use the laptop.

It seems baffling to me that the card can find and lock on to the wireless signal at full strength yet I can't get out to any websites. I get messages like, 'cannot find website...' 'website xyz waiting too long to respond', 'website xyz not available'