Dell Vostro WIFI is broken

I have had my Dell Vostro for a few days over two weeks now. And everything until today has been fantastic.

I powered on my laptop to use is as I usually would and there was no wifi. I checked the router, wifi was transmitting. Vista told me that WIFI is not turned on, so I hit function + wifi I noticed the WIFI activity light is not on.

Function + WIFI doesn't turn it on, this was odd. So I booted into linux (ubuntu 7.10) and WIFI wasn't working in that as well. It says the same thing.

I restarted The Vostro went into the BIOS to see if it had been disabled, it says the Wireless LAN is enabled. :s

I'm at a loss, I will post here then send an Email to dell. I can't find anything on any forum that is similar to this. Rather annoying, any ideas?


EDIT: Dell Vostro 1200* sorry forgot to write model number

 

Try re-installing the drivers. I heard somewheres that some Dell Wireless cards aren't supported on linux. Vista would be your best bet

 

The issue is no in the drives, as BOTH operating systems have the same issue. Both Linux and Vista Detect the chip, but say that WIFI has been disabled, but just for laughs i tried install new drivers on both operating systems (I knew nothing would happen) and nothing did.

Thanks for the idea but I'm under the impression this might be a hardware issue.

 

You have the Vostro 1500? If so, there's a switch on the left hand side, that allows you to hard shutdown the wifi card. It's the same switch as the "Wifi Catcher", it is just that to use Wifi Catcher, you hold it towards you and then release it, oppose to setting it to either ON or OFF when using it as a power switch.

Look at the third picture in the Notebookreview.com review on the 1500.

 

It's a Vostro 1200 - no switch. That was my first thought.

If you find it doesn't work on two seperate OS's and it's enabled in the BIOS I'd guess hardware too.

Try reseating the WiFi card (take it out and put it back in) - instructions here

Guess you could try and flash the BIOS too if there's a later one available - the BIOS probably wouldn't contain a documented fix but it may act as a reset if the present BIOS is doing something funky.

If none of that works I'd guess you'll be calling Dell.

 

Thanks that was awesome! I wondered if I could physically take the card out, but I did nothing to the laptop and it fixed itself. It was just sitting on my desk and the light turned back on, then wifi was working. This is very odd indeed. But Ill be sure to bookmark how to take the card out, encase this ever happens again

Thanks for your help!

 

No problem.

If the problem comes and goes I'd definitely check the card is in properly and not moving around.