Note to all M1330/M1530 users

I opened mine up and noticed that only two wieres were plugged into my wireless card when there is a maximum of 3, so i plugged another one in.


Its simple, took 2 mins.

Unscrew the case that is at the bottom near the headphones and check

 

I take it you have the draft-N card? Three antennas is for draft-N cards, B/G only uses 2. So dont rip your lappy apart if you have a B/G wireless card

 

yh i have an n

 

Then that's pretty bad that one antenna was left off. Worth checking.

 

Well, there are only 2 antenna cables even for the n-card, the other cables are for something else..

 

Do you know what it is for?

 

If your wireless is working fine. I think it's better not to do anything about it. (if it's not broken why fix it?)

 

2 for WLAN Card, 2 for Mobile Broadband or WWAN Card

 

Dell must have did a bad job of QC on your laptop if they forgot to connect a wire

 

We need clarification on this- my m1330 has a wireless n card and only has 2 wires connected to it.

There was another thread around here that stated only 2 wires were needed for wireless n to function correctly, but in the manual it does clearly state 3 should be connected :-\

The grey wire that is supposed to be connected is not on my laptop- it is too short to reach as well.

hmmmmm

 

yh but just use any combination to get them connected, 3 antennas are better than 2.

 

Urr - my Intel Wireless N has three antenna, all attached. And 3 loose ones for the cards I dont have. The wireless N specification REQUIRES 3 antenna.

 

Long and short is Yes the 3rd aerial wire is missing even on new production units.
2 wire will work the unit but your not getting the max out of your N band.
You can add the 3rd wire if you need the N band to work to it's max.
But it means taking apart the unit.
Since I need that extra bandwidth I added a 3rd wire.
I have to hand some brand new spare parts for the M1330 series. So I took a wire from a spare M1330 LCD Lid in this case it was white which was connected to the top left side corner away near webcam which ran once agai along left side to the free end.
I then rerouted the new wire from wireless card end with the bunch of other wires (white, blue, white&grey) until I got to the Lcd lid AND then I took it once again from the left side mid way at 90 degree into the screen area and its I say set just behind the Dell logo. Used a small bit of aluminum electrical tape to hold the free end in place.
Fitted every thing back up and my radio respection has some what improved greatly on the N band...

LED back-lit screen..
The things you have to do with a Dell...

 

I'd like to know if there was any difference at all in wireless performance either way. Try it both ways and copy a gb file across it. Go to the opposite side of your house and see if there is any difference in signal strength. See if with 3 connected you can see any additional access points from your neighborhood. And finally collect all the data with at least 3 independent tests for each circumstance and put it on a spreedsheet and create a graph that shows the relationships of performance for each test and wire connection and upload it here. Thanks.

 

LMAO @ that request. not too far fetched, but a gig? and a spreadsheet with GRAPHS!!??

 

Just one graph, with everything on it so we can really see the difference depending on the wires connected. But actually, now that you bring it up, it should all be bundled up into a Powerpoint presentation. Also, you need to measure power consumption to see if there is any difference and put that on there, too.

 

Same with my M1330: only two of the five available wires are connected, the white (to the white-marked connector) and the black (to the black-marked connector). The rest three are white-gray, black-gray and blue. Which of the three should go to the third connector (which is marked gray)?

None of the three spare cables is long enough to reach the card. I think thy could have been designed for the respective Dell card, having the connectors placed differently? (Just a guess...) Is there anything that can be done about it, without dissasembling the whole laptop?

One final question: is this kind of messing around with my laptop going to void my warranty? Or should I call Dell and tell them of my findings?

 

Anyone ever figure out what the blue one was actually for? Never could get an answer from anyone at Dell.....

It really 'bugged' me that this 3rd antenna was left off of the 1330s with LCDs. I'm curious if the 1530 will have it when the LCD units are released and if newer 1330 will have them.

 

Here's the section of the service manual regarding the WLAN card:

 

I can confirm that I had 2 m1330- both with LED displays, and they both onyl had 2 wires connected to the wireless N card.

There were however, 3 spare wires (one being the grey one mentioned) but were all too short to reach in both notebooks.

 

I too would like to see if there is a difference in performance between 2 and 3 wires. Maybe just downloading a file and seeing if reception is improved (more access points found, larger range in house/neighbourhood) would at least be helpful. I am not sure if there is a large difference but I sure would like to know!

 

Any update on this? is this an error on Dell's part?

 

My M1530 has all three wires connected.

 

Yes as I see now reason to leave one aerial out just because one display is slimmer... The other wire fits fine and does not obstruct anything in its path.

 

Only issue is that none of my extra wires are long enough to reach over.. Hmm