Owner's Thread: Dell Inspiron 11 3147 2-in-1

Hi Mikhayl,
I may not be of much help to you. I'm assuming you are using the default Intel 1707 wireless+BT card that came with your Dell i3147 and that you've tried each of the steps below:
* you tried connecting the bluetooth using the default drivers it came with
* you've tried it with the updated networking+BT drivers from the Dell site
* you've read through all posts on this thread to see what others who had this issue did (there are some great ideas and discoveries in these pages here)
* you've gone to Windows' Device Manager and deleted those networking and BT drivers and let Win 8.1 load up it's default drivers for that card
* and you've installed just the BT driver from Intel or Dell for that card.

If none of the above helps, then you are not alone. I've read on this thread and elsewhere glitches and connection issues with that cheap 1707 card. To me, the best is to buy the better Intel 7260 wireless card (from Dell or online at Amazon, depending on where you live and how easily you can have things mailed to you. Perhaps you can get the card locally at a computer shop supplier) and then switch out that cheap card for the better 7260 card. And then let Windows load its drivers for the new card. This worked well for me and several others.

 

Hey! Thanks JesseKnows for your help, I have followed post #185 and I finally got my touchpad working. There is a slight issue though - my F10 key does not toggle on/off function. Am I missing some drivers? It's not a big problem since I can use touch screen to pick up Dell Touchpad driver setup, but it'd be awesome to have it working

 

Just installed my 7260 wireless card last night. Wireless cards have gotten smaller! My old laptop was a mini PCI or whatever it was called. Maybe express card slot.

Connections seem better and the Realtek drivers work fine. My BT speaker connected instantly, but now it's not connecting anymore, and even deleting and pairing it again doesn't do anything. Maybe it's just this specific BT speaker. Oh well, not a huge deal.

 

Hi cel3b0rn,
I don't think that F10 key is for turning the touchpad off & on (though it certainly looks like it!) Trying out the Fn keys, I found that neither F9 (take it back. Now it does. For a task-switching bar) nor F10 did anything for me. Even more interesting, the lower left Fn key appeared unneeded as those Fn keys that worked were quick launch keys like on Macs in that you just press the F1 key with no need to also press the Fn key to mute the audio.

Looking on the Quick Setup Guide for the Dell 3147, it shows that the F9 key is for "List Recently Used Apps" and the F10 key is for "Display Active App Menu Bar". Under my Chrome browser, because it isn't an app, pressing F10 does nothing. But if I go to my PDF Reader app or my Weather app and press the F10 key, sure enough, a menu bar appears at the top and bottom.

Mystery solved. Welcome to Windows 8.1. ;-)

 

I had similar disconnect issues. My solution has been a weird one as I suspect the Dell Realtek audio drivers are making a problem with the Intel 7260 17.14.x BT drivers.

To solve it, I had to:
* uninstall the realtek audio drivers and the Intel drivers for the wireless card and BT.
* Then I went into the Device Manager and made sure those drivers were removed.
* Then I rebooted the laptop and let Windows install it's default drivers. These were a generic Microsoft driver for the audio, a Microsoft generic BT driver for the BT and then the older Intel 16.5.3.6 driver for the 7260 wireless card.

Interestingly, the sound works excellently. The audio Fn keys work fine. Also the throughput on my wireless card actually *increased*. How, I don't know. But I've tried this about 3-4 times and every time I get the same results. At my office, under the Intel 17.14.x drivers, the 7260 card and our AC router gives me 55 Mbps. Under the older 16.x drivers that Windows puts in, Speedtest.net gives me 160-250 Mbps throughput.

The generic BT driver also works fine for my 3 BT devices ... and best of all, my connection doesn't suddenly disappear any more.

 

BTW, for those needing the 4 manuals that Dell provides for the 3147 2-in-1 laptop, here is the link:

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/inspiron-11-3147-laptop/manuals

 

Quatro beat me to it.

 

Thanks I've just checked the manual and it certainly does show the active apps

 

Thanks. I'll have to trouble shoot it again later. I reconnected the speaker and it appears to be working fine for now.

 

Hopefully, it is just a glitch and will work itself out. I look forward to hearing how it goes w/ the BT and how any troubleshooting goes.

 

Got my 8GB ram stick in today. Now everything is just about maxed on this laptop. Last time I open it up

 

Congrats! I've thought about 8GB but am unsure it will make much difference given my basic use (video, Quicken, email, Office, browsing).

Have you seen it change much in your use?

 

I just got it installed yesterday. It's more for maxing it out and not having to worry about upgrading anything later on. I doubt I'll truly use 8GB of ram in any setting

 

I love my 500GB SSD in this thing. It boots up extremely fast & runs smoothly. No freezing as some others have reported.

 

To followup on my issue, things are good for me now...it seems I had a bad WLAN card. My replacement Intel card has been working great for several weeks now.

 

Does this little laptop support Connected Standby powerstate?

 

Nope. Connected Standby requires quite a few specific requirements, and this machine does not meet a few of them from what I remember.

 

Too bad. Thanks, anyway.
I am about to replace an 8inch tablet that does support this feature with this laptop/netbook/tablet and I am going to miss it.

 

Has anyone found (or confirmed there isn't) a backlit keyboard for the 3147?

 

I'd buy it if I could find it. A backlit keyboard would be really useful.

 

Are you certain about this? In Device Manager, it lists drivers loaded for "ACPI Sleep Button" and others. I know that Connected Standby is linked somehow to ACPI, by I don't have enough info to know.

EDIT: Can you give us a link for a list of requirements hardware-wise?

 

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn481216(v=vs.85).aspx

 

Thanks for the link, though it doesn't give a way to know if a device supports connected standby.

EDIT: this looks useful:
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/connected-standby-state-windows

In essence, from the command prompt, type:
powercfg /availablesleepstates
or
powercfg /a

 

Interesting. Connected standby is actually called "InstantGo" in Win 8.1.

And typing in "powercfg /a" under cmd on the 3147, it is clear that the 3147 indeed does not support InstantGo/Connected Standby.

 

Here are the list of requirements:
http://www.thomasmaurer.ch/2015/01/troubleshoot-windows-instantgo-connected-standby/

InstantGo requires the following:

• Windows 8.1 Operating System (In Windows 8 this is called Connected Standby)
• A firmware flag indicating support for the standard
• The boot volume must run on a SSD disk
• Support for NDIS 6.30 by all network devices
• Passive cooling on standby
• Secure Boot
• Memory to be soldered to the motherboard
• The Hyper-V Hypervisor role must be disabled on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 systems. Windows 10 Hyper-V will allow you to use Hyper-V and InstantGo at the same time.

Check if the hardware supports InstantGo
To check if your hardware supports InstantGo you can run the following command:
powercfg/a

 

To answer my own question: No, per Dell parts sales there is no backlit keyboard.
They said (I added the part numbers from the Configuration tab on the support page): "The keyboard (F4R5H) is attached on the palmrest (7W4K6) itself, it is part of the whole palmrest assembly, including the touchpad and the keyboard."

 

That's that then. A backlit keyboard would have been nice.

Thanks for looking into it.

 

I'm probably the only one that doesn't use the keyboard. I have it forever in tent mode and use an Apple bluetooth keyboard for typing, or if I'm away from it, I just use the touchscreen for basic stuff.

 

So I tried the steps in uninstalling the wifi drivers, using intel, same with bluetooth but after my computer goes to sleep or turns off, it doesn't pair with the speaker anymore. I have to delete the pair, and re-pair the device each time. I don't get it lol

 

I tried basically every option there is, but cannot get my bluetooth headphones to work for more than a few moments.

What i recently realized is that when the headphones stop playing sound (while still being connected), my wireless mouse also disconnected, and the whole bluetooth interface just stopped responding. Cannot even turn bluetooth off and when I try to restart the computer, it takes ages....so I hard reset it. Do you think there might be a connection?

 

Mine works until the computer goes to sleep basically. All my other devices (mouse and keyboard) work just fine.

 

this thread was very useful, upgraded the ram, the wireless card and put in an ssd, completely different machine now. im sure the answer is no, but is there a way to upgrade the graphics card, or is it built into the motherboard?

 

All laptops since the dawn of time that have integrated graphics are not upgradeable. There are external graphics you can use, but it requires a free pci slot inside (where your wireless card is) and external power supply as well as separate standalone card.

 

Hi bigrob74,
The graphics chip is part of the CPU processor itself, so there is no way to upgrade it. You'd need to get a model with a better/more expensive processor.

 

thats what i figured, thanks for the quick response. im pretty happy with the way it is now with the upgrades everyone recommended

 

Hy there, it would be great if you could help me out. I am using windows 10 at the moment and after installing a new update yesterday my touchscreen and mouse stoped working...anyone facing the same issues?

Cheers
Ben

 

Win 10 is, of course, a beta version. I've not installed it, but I'm not surprised if glitches like this occur.

 

I tried to install an external Bluetooth receiver (Belkin) and surprisingly the problem persists (even though the adapter works fine with the headphones on 2 different computers). I am starting to think that the problem is not in the Bluetooth chip itself, but somewhere else.

Do you have any ideas on how to solve this issue? I really got used to wireless headphones and cannot be bothered to take an extra pair of cable ones, just because the computer refuses to accept them regardless of bluetooth chip used.

 

Great little machine. I use it for a couple of days now. Right now it is in the progress of cloning to an 850 EVO 250GB. If that fails I'll try a fresh install.
EDIT: Samsung data migration worked a treat. Well now, this is how it should be sold in the first place.

 

Mikhayl,
Have you tried upgrading the wireless network 1707 card to the Intel 7260AC? Not sure if this is a problem across the board, but some experienced BT connection loss when the BT 2.5 GHz signal had to share with the 1707's 2.5GHz wireless network signal.

Did you try this making sure the wireless/WiFi was off but the BT was on?

In the end, I think I'd still ditch the inferior card and upgrade it to the 7260NGW-AC:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GUNZUG0/

EDIT: And others have not found this to be true, but I still think I was having some conflict w/ the installed Realtek audio drivers. When I removed them and let the OS install the default Microsoft HD audio drivers, my sound seemed just as good but the conflict stopped.

That is unconfirmed, but worth a try.

 

I find it curious that after your BT stops, it sounds like the OS slows down and takes a while even to carry out a requested restart and you have to do a manual shut down. That sounds like you have some sort of driver or memory-resident item that is causing a conflict.

I'm not having that problem ... but I'm using the 7260 card, not the 1707. What about you, Johnny365? When you were still using the 1707 WLAN card, did you have any slow-downs or lock ups like this while using BT?

 

Since I swapped out the 1707 card for the 7260 (as soon as I got the 2-in-1 out of the box & opened it), the only issues I've had have been the wireless WLAN connection cutting out and refusing to reconnect, even after a reboot. Several times, it could no longer even see the WiFi networks around it. Then I had to uninstall and reinstall the WLAN+BT drivers, and even then, it didn't always work when I did that.

Since removing the Realtek audio and Intel BT+17.1.14.x drivers, and letting the OS put its own choice in there, those problems have stopped. AND I'll add that doing speed tests via speedtest.net, my throughput on our office's new AC router is significantly faster under the older 16.x.x Intel drivers that the OS installs than under the newer 17.14.x drivers. Weird but true in my tests. I've no idea why and I don't care.

When I have reinstalled the 3 official drivers for Realtek, and Intel 17.1.14.x for WLAN+BT, within a day or so, my problem will reappear. Oddest thing I've seen, but that has been the only real problem I've had.

I will add that I've tested out the 7260's BT for a BT keyboard and an external BT speaker, but I don't use BT much on this laptop (almost never). I do on my phone & tablet. So I wouldn't know if my BT setup would have problems if I used it more, since I don't use it more.

 

I don't get disconnects on Wifi nearly as much anymore. my BT speaker still won't connect with Realtek Audio drivers intsalled and uninstalled. I have to delete the pair, and create a new pair, and then it works for a while. May last a day depending on usage or until it goes to sleep or whatever. Then I have to repeat.

I have the 7260 wifi card.

BT drivers are 6.3.9600
7260 Wifi drivers are 16.5.3.6

Realtek Audio drivers are 6.0.1.7283

If I don't use the BT speaker and just use my BT keyboard and mouse, everything's fine. I thought about just using aux cable to the speaker, but that defeats the purpose of using it wirelessly.

 

I was surprised by the idea (earlier in this thread) to remove the Realtek drivers, but when I did it, Win 8.1 installed generic Microsoft HD audio drivers, and so far, they seem to work amazingly well in every situation. Sound, to me, is great. And no more conflicts from the Realtek drivers.

Have you tried uninstalling them and removing the audio drivers from the Device Manger? Then scan for hardware changes and Windows will put in the MS HD Audio drivers. They sound great, to me. (No static, as some have reported from the Realtek drivers.)

I'm curious to hear what happens if you try that.

 

Oops. Apologies, Johnny. I see I misread your post. You clearly said that the BT won't connect with the Realtek drivers installed and uninstalled ...

I missed that last word, so my entire previous post to you was needless and not in the least helpful. You've already done what I suggested.

Sorry, friend. I don't know what to suggest!

An idea: since BT works with your BT mouse & keyboard but not your BT speaker, have you tested it with another/different BT speaker? Perhaps it is something within the BT speaker's firmware itself?

 

Help. I seem to have a problem. While in "Display" mode (keyboard & touchpad on the bottom and the display pointed toward me. I've discovered that while the laptop is in that mode, the keyboard is off, but the touchpad is still active. So any movement w/ my leg or hand down near the touchpad activates the mouse and cursor (even if looking at photos).

Is there a setting to turn the touchpad off while in that display mode or is it supposed to be like that?
Thanks.

EDIT: Cancel that. I went back and read a few pages from this thread and found others with this problem (a great resource!) Turns out the touchpad not turning off in Presentation or Tent mode is due to not having Quick Set 64 installed.

Then I remembered I'd uninstalled Quick Set 64 yesterday thinking it wasn't needed. WRONG! Once I reinstalled it, the touchpad now turns off when in Tent or Presentation mode.

Problem solved. All I needed to do was read others' stories here. Thank you, thread contributors.

 

Hello, everyone, and thanks for the amazing information you've all put into this thread!

The short and sweet version is I'm having the same touchpad lock and driver issues addressed previously, BUT following the instructions in post 185 for existing installs, I installed I2C controller followed by re-installing the touchpad and quickset drivers and still have only intermittent function. Dell support wants to replace my motherboard and I'm wondering if that is a reasonable fix or if I should return/exchange this machine while I still can (my "next business day" service is delayed until 4/1, leaving me with less than a week left in the 30-day return window).

Here's the long version:

I got my 3147 from Dell's Outlet just over a week ago. Out of the box it had the issue with the touchpad not locking. Initially I uninstalled and reinstalled just the touchpad and quickset drivers, but that didn't work. Two hours on the phone with tech support remoted into my computer and they could not get it working either and said I needed a new motherboard and sensors. At that point there was no icon for the Dell touchpad and in device manager, I only had the PS/2 mouse.

I found this thread and decided it couldn't hurt anything to uninstall the drivers and start over with the I2C controller as described in post 185, so I did that and BAM it worked like a charm- until the next day. While I was using the computer, the keyboard and touchpad became nonresponsive for what felt like forever but was probably only 15-30 seconds. Once they were responding again I was back to limited functionality and no locking. The Synaptic driver still showed up in my device manager and the Dell touchpad icon was still there in the system tray. When I clicked on it, it would not open and just 'hung' there with the little circle rotating over and over and over. This happened after the computer was in use for some time, it was not associated with waking from sleep or a restart or anything. I restarted the computer, but nothing changed except that there was no longer a touchpad icon in the system tray. Device manager told me the Dell touchpad was installed and working properly with the latest driver, but I couldn't get it to work.

This morning I started the computer and noticed the touchpad icon was back in my tray, but I still did not have functionality or locking. After using the computer for about five minutes, it stopped responding again like it did yesterday, except this time to the opposite effect and now everything is working just fine. Does anyone have thoughts on what could cause this to happen? Is it possible a new motherboard will fix it permanently? I really want to love this computer, but I also want to feel confident that it won't be a constant headache going forward.

Thanks!

 

So where did you get the driver for this? Dell website? Any issues with this card over stock card?

 

Sorry, dual post.

 

The driver I am using is from Intel's driver download.

Windows did install something that seemed to work as soon as the device was seen. I then Googled and found angry threads on the Intel site, and those seemed to have calmed down with the latest (at the time) download.

There are conversations above about WiFi behavior issues. I do not use blue tooth so I may care less than others.[/QUOTE]