The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    SXPS Wifi Weakness - help!

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by pjczech, Mar 16, 2009.

  1. pjczech

    pjczech Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Sorry if this has been posted...

    I am literally 2 feet from my Verizon FIOS Wireless router and this thing gets 2 of 5 bars. When in the other room, it sees zero networks. This worked fine a few days ago. I doubt its interference because I have a PS3, Wii and a Macbook all connecting fine from the same room.

    I have the Dell controlpoint on here to use my ATT card... but otherwise it doesnt control wifi. I reinstalled windows from the CD and used the latest drivers from dell. Any ideas?

    Also, I have a weird "unknown device" in my device manager. Very frustrated with this thing, when it works its awesome, but when it doesnt.. oy.
     
    pjczech, Mar 16, 2009
    #1
  2. elijahRW

    elijahRW Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    940
    Messages:
    1,797
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    If this happened to me I would open up the laptop to see if one of the antenna's got disconnected from the wifi card.
    You might want to call dell for this one...
     
    elijahRW, Mar 16, 2009
    #2
  3. pjczech

    pjczech Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    could it be physical? If i'm up next to the router its fine. its when i'm far away that its not working.
     
    pjczech, Mar 16, 2009
    #3
  4. elijahRW

    elijahRW Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    940
    Messages:
    1,797
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Well something is wrong.
    Do you have any wireless phones in the house? Also it may be your other laptops causing it.
    Try turning them off and see if it boots.
     
    elijahRW, Mar 16, 2009
    #4
  5. pjczech

    pjczech Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hmmm.. We do have 2.4 phones. Let me try those. But why would that interfere with this computer and not with the macbook, wii, ps3?
     
    pjczech, Mar 16, 2009
    #5
  6. pjczech

    pjczech Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Ahhh now its working. But soon it wont. Very frustrating. It did this last night, worked for a few minutes, then today was broken again. BTW, I didnt try the phone thing yet.
     
    pjczech, Mar 16, 2009
    #6
  7. elijahRW

    elijahRW Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    940
    Messages:
    1,797
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    That's possibly the problem.
    I have some 2.4GHz phones in my house and when I bought a new router I was having problems connecting to it.

    After I changed the router's wireless channel from 6 to something else :confused: maybe 8, it worked just fine.
     
    elijahRW, Mar 17, 2009
    #7