vostro 1400 wi-fi cacher problem

the wi-fi cacher function should work even when machine is off, but my 1400 didn't work when machine is off. if i bush the button to rightest position, the signal light would only blink green for half second with fan running loudly for a second, then the signal light is off. i do have wireless signal in the room. according to the manual, it should shows stable green light. anybody has same issue?

 

it seems other models have various problems with wi-fi catcher too.

 

did you verify that it is enabled in Dell QuickSet?

 

sure enabled, both bios and quickset show enabled, but no working in power off.

 

Dunno then.

With the system off, if you slide the switch and hold it for a few seconds then release, you would see some flashing of the LED next to the switch..then a solid green light means a strong signal found...a yellow light means a weak signal found.

 

if i push the button to search a wi-fi signal in power off status, the green light will blink once for at most half second no matter there is a signal or not, in the same time, the fan runs very loudly for a second as well, strange enough. maybe it's a hardware defect.

 

I think that depends on what wireless interface you choose. Mine with 1390 shows no activity at all if I push that WiFi Catcher button at power off.

By the way, I started having problem with the WiFi catcher function on Vista last weekend. Basically it shows an empty box. It was fixed by installing the Quickset A05 for Vostro 1000. Re-installing the original A04 does not help at all. After I recovered the WiFi catcher function, I noticed that the Media Direct Home button does not work anymore on Vista. Not sure if that is related to the A05 Quickset since Vostro 1000 does not have that button. Again, re-installing A04 for Vostro 1400 does not help at all.

 

it seems this function doesn't depend on wireless card but a separated circuit. other user confirmed this function works fine in 1400 with power off, so mine is hardware problem and i have asked dell to collect for repair.

 

I thought it was interface dependent. Then I found it was only the case in Windows where some drivers are not compatible with the Wi-Fi catcher. I actually had the same problem until a few minutes ago. I slided the switch several times at power-off and I only heard the fan noise occasionally and saw the LED blinked once very briefly. I was worry that I have the same defective Wi-Fi catcher. I've checked the BIOS and it should be enabled.
Interestingly, I found I've been using a generic driver for my 1390 miniPCI network card since I re-installed Vista. So I downloaded the 1390 driver from Dell and installed it. Now the Wi-Fi catcher works when power off. Don't ask me how would a driver in Windows affect the WiFi catcher function without power on. Perhaps the wrong driver lock the wireless interface at certain mode that is not compatible with Wi-Fi catcher. Anyway, check if this is the case in your Vostro 1400 too.

 

which version of driver? v.4.102.15.61, A14-Vos?

 

got this problem solved eventually by: disable flash cache option(default is enable), disable mobile cellular option(default is enable). now it works in power off (although fun is running as long as light is on)

 

There is only one listed under Vostro 1400 for 1390 in Vista 32-bit. Anyway, the problem is far more complicated. I found the Wi-Fi catcher only works if I hibernate or shut off from administrator account. If I logged in as a standard user and then hibernate or shut off, it won't work.

 

there are actually three versions of 1390 vista driver:US(R157039.EXE), non-US(R157038.EXE) and Japan(R157040.EXE).

 

should be:Japan(R157039.EXE), non-US(R157038.EXE) and US(R157040.EXE)

 

Yes, there are 3 versions that deals with different 2.4GHz bandwidth, but there is still only one apply to you. LOL.

By the way, there is a new Quickset for Vista update just released today.

 

only non-US version works fine somehow

 

Interesting. I've firsted installed the Japan one without paying attnetion, then I switched to US version and both work fine for me. By the way, I don't need to disable flash cache for the WiFi catcher to work, but again, it only works if I shut off from adminstrator.

 

After I turned off UAC, now the WiFi catcher works after shut down from any account.

Update: After I have the UAC on and off a couple times, it stopped working after standard user account again. Still works after administrator.

 

are you sure that the wifi lights are green? I have been using a wifi signal for a few hours on my new vostro and the light is blue on my machine, are we talking about a different light? btw I typed this with my vostro wifi enabled

 

The WiFi catcher LED is on the right of the WiFi switch. Not the one in a row of 5 showing power/HD/battery/WiFi/BT.

 

hmmm that sounds weird......well i don't have problems with my wi-fi catcher call dell up and ask them for a replacement or something

 

All of sudden, the WiFi catcher is working after shutting down from any account. It is not clear what fixed it. The last thing I did was installing Firefox and updating Norton Internet Security. I also did re-install some media card reader driver. But none of these are directly linked to the WiFi catcher function.