Alienware m17x + Vista 64 - Wireless Woes

Hi guys,

To start with, I'd just like to say that I've tried everything in gizmo's sticky How-To on resolving the wireless network issues, although I realise that these are mostly for Windows 7. With that out of the way, here's the thing:

Ever since I purchased my m17x, I had terrible wireless. It was extremely erratic and would only connect to my home network after connect/disconnect/reconnect'ing 10-15 times. It would then drop connection for no reason, and then refuse to reconnect. If it did reconnect, I would only have local access, whereas the other 4 laptops in my house are all able to access the internet from our home wireless network without any issues.

Finally, I uninstalled the device and reinstalled it using the drivers on the resource CD that came with my Alienware machine. However, doing this only worsened the problem as now my Wireless Connection is "Disabled" and no amount of Enabling it makes any change. The dialog box says Enabling....Enabled and closes, but the device remains disabled.

I tried to disable the Ethernet connection (there was no "Wake on Sleep" (or whatever that thing is called) in the advanced tab. I also tried downloading the separate drivers for the Wireless Connection as per the sticky I mentioned earlier. Now my wireless connection is displayed as Dell Wireless 1510 card, but it is STILL disabled. No amount of restarting, disabling, reinstalling drivers or resetting the adapter has helped.

I'm at my wits end...what on earth do I need to do to get Wireless working again?

 

Bump. Really desperate here guys. Any help at all.

 

First thing I did when i got my M17x was toss the Dell Wireless card, and get the Intel 5300 and I have been happy ever since.

For the $ 25.00 it cost me well worth the freedom from the aggravation of the Dell wireless cards.