Brand New(less than 24hours) m17x, wireless not working

Hey ya guys, glad to be a proud owner of this beast of a laptop (both size and power) but to my dismay I'm having problems with the internet.

Everything works just fine on the laptop, but the wireless is slow/not working. If I use an Ethernet cable it's just fine as it's like for my desktop and the other two computers on the network. But when I try to use the wireless it sees that there is the network, and after connecting to the network it says there is internet, but the internet will not work. Well kinda.

For example. If I try to open up IE (switching to firefox as soon as this problem is fixed), to it's default msn.com, it will load up for a sec but it will be hanging onto loading up the page. I just tried to load up and see how long it would take to load, and it's been about 25mins and there is still 9items remaining to download. It's just odd. I can see the net work and use the network but wierd problems with the internet on the wireless end of it.
EDIT: The network is having problems, I guess I didn't test it enough.

As for the router it's self, I've tried this on my linksys one and thought after some trouble shooting that it was the router, so I bought a brand new netgear one and it's still having to same problem. So this leads me to it's something with the laptop.

I have ran the system restore back to factory so there is nothing I could of done to effect trying to get this to work.

My ISP is comcast, and I have the speed boost and the +10 IP's

Please help me, one of the reason's I got this big boy laptop was so I didn't have to have cables plugged in all the time.

 

Hi angelicodin,
Is there any chance that your running mcafee? if you are, i would suggest removing it and trying again. If not, uninstall your network and wireless card from device manager and make sure that the network driver is removed from add/remove programs. Then restart and try again.

thanks,
Gabe

 

No on mcafee.
Trying that right now ;p BRB

 

Also,
If your using it mostly on battery power, you may want to check your wireless card power settings.

Thanks,
Gabe

 

Ok I tried that, and it's not working now.

I removed both nic's from the device manager and removed the driver for them as well, and any network/wireless junk from the programs and features in control panel.

When I restarted and got into windows, i started to install the nic's again and after it was all done i tried pulling up the net, no it's just hanging at resolving the net url now. /wrists

Ideas? about ready to cry

EDIT: It's pluged in for now while I troubleshoot this and set for high performance.

 

1) Check DHCP is enabled on your router

2) Check your Wireless NIC's IP address (/ipconfig)

3) Ping your router

Also what wireless security are you using?

 

Something odd is definitely going on there. Microsofts driver should be significant for a stable connection. When you restored, did you do a clean install, or did you use respawn?

 

@flipfire
1. Yeup, it's enabled
2. Getting a proper ipv4 addy with the right subnet mask and gateway as per the setup on the router
3.ping 98/100 packets pinged right, with an average of 14ms latency.

@GabeZ
When I did the restore I used the on hard drive re-spawn. Should I try a clean install with the provided windows 7 disc?

EDIT: I'm trying the driver thing that Glzmo has posted in another thread

 

Ok great, now try pinging www.google.com

 

@flipfire
ping www.goggle.com -n 50
results: 1 loss, min 85ms max 717ms average 108ms

EDIT: tried pulling it up in IE as well, and it's doing the same thing, can resolve url but still doing the hang up as described.

EDIT2: Also tried Glzmo's guide thing for the m17x wireless thread fix, thing. No dice on that as well.

 

Should I try a clean install with the windows 7 disc it came with, rather than the on drive re spawn?

 

Could you try installing firefox. It might be your DNS failing to resolve.

 

I'll try that next, but I'm already doing an install of windows 7 clean. And if this fails, I'll try doing a vista 64xUlt install. Unless there is anything else ya all can think of?

 

don't reinstall w7 just turn off your ethernet adapter that solve the problem and when you need the ethernet enable it again

 

go to network and sharing center +change adapter settings +right click local area connection +disable

 

@witcher4360
Sorry, but I've already tried that. It was one of the first things I tried while troubleshooting this issue. Good idea none the less.

 

wow... it didn't work for you that sucks man i hope you find the problem

 

yeah me too, starting to make me vary frustrated at dell/alienware for shipping a product and not test this one aspect of it.

Trying Firefox now.

 

No Dice on firefox, with the lan nic enabled and disabled

 

What Router and firmware are you running? sounds to me that there's an incompatibility with the firmware or something missconfigured on the router iteself.

 

Tried two different ones.

Linksys Wireless-G Router model: WRT54G2 v1 Frimware: Ver.1.0.04 (Build 5)
Netgear Wireless-N 150 model: WRN1000 with Frimware: V1.0.1.15NA

And I've reset to factory on both because I thought maybe I messed something up.

 

Try using these as your DNS:

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

 

i'll try that and report back

 

For doing that dns, should i set that in the router or the nic or both?

 

No dice on manual setting for the dns servers for the wireless on the laptop, ethernet connected computers are still fine it seems.

 

i'll check back in a few hours after I've had some sleep for more suggestions or just to call dell and yell at them for sending me an untested component.

 

BUMP, thoughts?

 

Did you try removing the device, reinstalling the drivers/software?

 

Yeup, and tried the brodcom, microsoft, and dell 1510 drivers.

 

What I would do is call Alienware support they may escalate the issue and you may get some good tech that could actually help you get to the rootcause..... I wouldjn't worry too much, it's probably something driver related but if it's a faulty card they will replace it of course.

 

Yeup, just got off the phone after 2 1/2 hours. They are sending me a new card.

LOL, at least the person I got wasn't an idiot and his English was vary good and easy to understand. I guess he was surprised with my knowledge of the workings of the computer. Anyway, him, his coworker, and supervisor all said it's weird that the 'Device sleep on disconnect' was not showing up on the LAN nic. So yeah, I'll let ya all know more information, like serials and stuff on the old and new one, perhaps this information can help someone else.

And to everyone who has been helping me: THANK YOU SO MUCH. I don't know how long my laptop would of stayed in 'good' condition before it got chucked out the window.

 

Good to hear, one great thing about Alienware/Dell is that they stand behind their product with minimun questions asked once you state you done some troubleshooting.

 

Glad you're getting a replacement. I'm a new M17x owner as well, and I think these 1510 Broadcom cards are a weak link. Seems like a lot of people are having trouble with them. Gizmo's fixes worked for me, but they're obviously buggy as hell.

 

Despite what you state, I find my wireless signal is damn good, all the time. Me and my friend which uses a Mac often sit in a corner in my college library. His Mac lose connection all the time and even in connection its still kinda unable to load stuff. My M17x at the same time has a bloody strong signal and load very fast. Well, Macbook has very good wireless receiver IMO but it seems my lappy is better at that

 

Well I received the new card about 3 hours ago and got it installed, and to my surprise it didn't work.

Guess I should of known better then I opened the package and it said 'Refurbished'

So needless to say I'm going to be on the phone with dell tomorrow first thing in the morning. This time I'm going to ask that they either send me a new one, not refub, and one that isn't 'Broadcom'.

Depending on what gose on I'll most likly get a tech guy sent over here, who I'm sure will look at it and go 'huh, needs a new wlan card' witch I'll pull out the other two and proceed to nerd rage ;p

Anyway, so I've found out a couple other weird things that didn't hit me. When on the phone the guy on who was doing remote desktop to my computer was able to control my computer and see what was going on when on the wireless but no dice on the internet.

Anyway, thoughts? Suggestions?

 

New update. I found out the tech line is 24hours.

After 2hours on tech, 3 people, two of witch are specialists. They figured it's my mother board and they are going to send out a technician with a 'new' board to install it. I made sure they said new and not refub, because of how new it is ect ect.

I love being the 1 in 10,000th person to have this problem. Great first experience with dell and alienware ;p

Tell me they are not always like this?

 

Two ways you can look at it, it was a minor problem (1 in 10,000 ) that dell is working to fix for you=good customer service, or you got screwed dell sucks ect. So far I don't have a problem, but I'm glad to hear that they are working to get you set up. Congrats and Hope you enjoy it!

 

Well other than the wireless/motherboard problem, the performance of the system if unreal for a laptop.

As for the customer service, I'm holding my breath and being vary helpful, as much as I can, and being vary polite, so far seems to be netting me some vary positive results.

In the end, I'll be hanging around on these boards to see if I can help out where I can with other computing problems. This one just stumped me, and I guess the tech guys too ;p

 

I honestly dont think its a hardware issue. Your computer just has problems resolving the DNS.

Can you do a /tracert www.google.com. See if a packet even hops to your router

Can you also check that your ISP isnt mac filtering your connection?

Also if you have a LiveCD id give the wifi a try too

 

He only has wireless issues, when wired he's ok.... it is most definately a wireless only issue, could be hardware although two cards having the same issue is very strange.....

 

I had a strange issue with my wireless card. Dell sent me a new one, but the issue was still around with the new card.

My issue was the system worked fine wired, but wireless couldnt even connect on a cold boot, but worked fine once i rebooted after a cold boot.

To solve this i had to uninstall my nvidia drivers.

to the op, i would try different kind of wireless drivers, mostly the ones on the driver thread.

 

Maybe you got my computer....? First day I recieved it I had the EXACT same problem. Talked with a tech for 2 hours, pulled the wireless card out, reinstalled.... no dice. They said they would send a tech out, but I was so pissed off after spending $3K on a 17x that didn't work out of the box I had them take it back. I will wait for the i7 version, then maybe give Alienware another shot.

I wish Dell/Alienware would test the entire system before shipping them.

You're not 1 in 10,000

 

im having the same problem too T_T

 

@huskynox & @Terminal42

Sorry to hear that you two are having the same problem, or had and sent back in your case huskynox.

A little update, I have the technician coming out soon, I'm hoping tomorrow to replace the motherboard with a 'new' one.

Was supposed to happen on Saturday or today but he's been trying to call the wrong phone number until I sorted that out today on the phone with Alienware.

I'll keep ya all posted on if that fixes the problem or another solution.

PS. I installed 3 wireless nic's in the desktop computers and they all work fine. a b band, g band, and a n band. they work just great. And my new wireless printer I got for xmiss from a friend. so that makes.... 8 wireless devices in my house that work just fine.

 

That's a common problem which can usually be fixed by following the steps in the Guide to solve M17x wireless connection problems which is also linked in the stickies (I'm sure everybody knows as the stickies are there to be read first anyway).
It's really weird that Dell doesn't know of this by now and hasn't released new Nvidia Ethernet drivers that come with Device Sleep on disconnect disabled by default and Dell Wireless 1510/broadcom wireless drivers version 5.60.18.8 or newer for the M17x yet. It really shouldn't be such a big deal to release those, especially since this has been probably the top issue for Windows 7 M17x users for months now.
Users really shouldn't have to resort to workarounds like these and drivers that don't officially support the system just to get such basic functionality working.

Of course, the original poster's issue might be a different one. Might also be a compatibility/configuration issue with the router, a firewall/security configuration issue, possibly a hardware issue (card, antennae, mainboard,...) or something else entirely.

 

@Glzmo : Yeup I tried that, and was the first I did before even signing up to the website. Didn't work naturally ;p See below

Update: yesterday the tech guy came out and replaced my motherboard with a new one ;p

Upon getting it out of the computer he started to list off all kinds of things that where wrong, like there was a cable not hooked up, and almost all of of the module fittings where either bent or cracked. Needless to say after he got the new one in everything works just fine (other than the latency is a little, high but I think that's just some settings and junk I need to play with in my router).

So it's all working and stuff. Except he is coming back today to fix one of the lighting. The front right speaker area is no longer lit at all. So naturally I reported it right away and he's going to come back and fix it.

 

I'm glad everything works fine for you now. It's sad that such a broken mainboard made it past quality assurance.

Funny. When I got my mainboard replaced, the same thing happened. He forgot to hook up the cable for the right speaker light which he misplaced underneath the new mainboard.

 

OK. Here are a few ideas:
1. Make sure you have the right IP settings.
2. Don't test it on battery power cause Windows might shut down the device to conserve energy (this option is enabled by default)
3. Can you access other online sources such as IMs or online games?
4. Do you have to register your device's MAC address with your ISP?
5. [a bit risky] Try connecting with firewall and antivirus disabled.
6. If above don't give you a result, try connecting to a different network (public or friend's)
6.1 If you are able to connect, contact your ISP.
6.2 If you are unable to connect, contact Alienware Support.

 

Yeup that's exactly what happened too, it got underneath the board ;p

But now the light is color stuck, even if I go into dark mode. Thoughts on that ?

Hi IDS, problems have been fixed, it was a bad mother board ;p all is working just fine now, other than I think I should get a better/faster router ;p