M11x R3 - in need of HELP

We just purchased a used alienware m11xr3 from ebay, and (suprise surprise) there's a problem with it. My boyfriend probably should have picked up on it when it was ridiculously cheap, but whatever. For reasons I cannot disclose, we need this laptop.

Problem 1) When we first tried connecting to a wireless network, it displayed limited connectivity to EVERYTHING. We have updated the network drivers and it now displays more wireless networks but still displays limited or no connectivity whatsoever.

[SOLVED] Problem 2) Apparently there's a whole lot of drivers that are missing, including (under device manager) - Base System Device, Base System Device, SM Bus Controller, and Universal Serial Bus (BUS) Controller. I should also add that of the USB ports, only 1 is detecting when something is inserted. Could this have to do with the missing drivers?

In need of a lot of help! Mainly looking for the proper drivers and troubleshooting the whole wireless thing. Thank you in advance.

Update: The wireless connection troubleshoot states there is something wrong with the driver, and I have updated already. Still nothing.

 

99% of your problems are due to missing drivers. Find them all here. Only one usb port is 2.0, the others are usb3 and they need a driver to recognize anything. If you have an Intel wifi card get the drivers directly from Intel. Good luck!

 

Yes sounds like a simple fix to be honest to might be best to just factory reset the laptop back to scratch and if you need the drivers as above on the website. In regards to the wireless if drivers don't fix your problem whip off the back cover and check to make sure the black wire is on the black triangle and the white on the white, this is a common problem for poor connectivity.

Holy crap how do I un-attach the huge image lol

Spoiler

 

THANK YOU! I have successfully downloaded and replaced the drivers with a ! next to them. All of the USB ports work again lol

There aren't any more ! when I open Device Manager, but when I run troubleshoot for the wireless connection, it still says there might be a problem with the driver for the Wireless network connection adapter. Any ideas???

 

When I popped off the back cover I didn't see any triangles. I saw the white and black wires leading under the batt or somewhere but I'm very hesitant to take off anything because I don't have much experience with this.

 

No need to worry about these things they are very straight forward to access here is a picture of what you are looking for. Make sure both connections are present on the wireless card ( I have mine connected white to black on it works better but it should be black to black and white to white). You may need to uninstall and reinstall the drivers and check your Hub to make sure the wireless details are correct.

 

OHHHH crap I feel like a complete noob. -_-;;

So mine doesn't have triangles, it just has 1-3-2. In that order. The white is connected to 1 and the black is connected to 2.

 

That sounds fine. It does not really sound like a signal issue is really sounds like a connectivity problem. Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling your drivers? Get the latest ones from the website.

 

Try going into network and sharing center/change adapter settings. (You can also get here using the run command ncpa.cpl)

Right click on your wireless adapter and choose properties. Then double click on the TCP/IPv4 item. Make sure the next screen is set to choose IP and DNS automatically as the previous owner could have manually configured it in a way that won't work with your own router.

 

I found l had to do a complete fresh install to get rid of a similar problem with the connectivity.

Regards.

C.