Mike Motto

[joncisco]

In Podnutz daily episode 183, Mike mentioned that he had a Dell mini 12 that had wireless issues.
I liked Steve's idea of using a Linux live cd to check the wireless card works. If it does then the following are some suggestions:

1. Go to the Dell website and type in the service tag of the machine. Select the operating system and see if there is a driver there.
2. Try the Dell website in another country eg goto Dell Australia

http://support.ap.dell.com

Select Australia and then try putting in the service tag etc...
3. Try the Driverpacks.net dvd. Try updating the driver and tell it to use the dvd.
4. If you have access to another Dell mini 12, can you extract the drivers from it?
5. Lastly, I would try Dell discs from other laptops that you have eg Device driver discs. See if any of those have a driver that works....

Hope this helps out.

[mflstc]

An update: I have did all of the updates and have used the service tag # to find he proper driver. It has not worked. I tried the latest Mint Linux live CD and it doesn't recognize the wireless either (this could be because Mint doesn't recognize the card) I have tried a few other drivers but to no avail. So I am going to do a clean reinstall and will update from there. According to the customer this wireless card has not worked since new. If it recognizes it it must be in there a functioning, wouldn't you think? Oh and I will try the Aussie site for drivers. This is the Vista OS also. Thanks.

[kins]

It may be overzealous security software causing the problem. Turn off or disable all security software, than try updating the driver. I searched for a few hours on this problem and apparently it is pretty common. I also sent an email to Steve about it. I'm not sure if he forwarded it to Mike Motto though. So here I will cut and paste it,

Hey also I've been looking for the answer to his wireless problem...I've been "asking" since I don't use google, I use ask instead. Anyway I did find a lot of people with the same or similar problems. I have a couple links here for the guy to try out,

http://tinyurl.com/l4nsvx


Now if you look on this one, thats where I got the idea of using the older driver,

http://tinyurl.com/km48to


I know it says its for XP, but I guess you will need to find that specific driver version for Vista. Also I heard him talking about a Broadcom driver, but according to the Dell site Broadcom is for the NIC. The ones listed for the wireless don't list a manufacture of the cards or a company. I also read on another site that an intel A/B/G wireless card was one of the options for this laptop. The link below is for the laptop he was talking about(I hope!),

http://tinyurl.com/5lkcaa


So heres the review site I was looking at where I saw all the options,

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2965


Also with my Dell and it seems with a lot of others drivers from say intel, don't work right. You always have to go to the Dell site. That has been my experience anyway. So you can see, I have a lot of time on my hands. Thats what its like when you are unemployed!. Haha, well if you could forward this to that guy Mike it would be great. Spent a lot of time searching so I hope it is of help to him. Thanks.

----- Original Message -----

[mflstc]

Not only have I already turned it off, I completely uninstalled all security software, to no avail. Thanks for the input though.

[mflstc]

Sorry didn't read all of your post. It is a broadcom wireless card because it says so in device manager and the bottom of computer. It is a bcm94312mcg wireless card. I will try some of the links you have posted but they look like many of the ones I encountered tried. I have spent quite a few hours also on this researching and trying different things. Thanks again!

[kins]

Look at Post #98 on this page. Looks like it might be a solution for you,

http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/dell-mini-9-guides/2707-drivers-dell-inspiron-mini-9-910-a-10.html


Another post you might find helpful,

http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/post/405414.aspx

Another one with the same problem but different computer(same wireless card),

http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/404572.aspx scroll down to post 416455 posted by the user "cdndsm"

[kins]

Oh and I have to say to try asking your question on Scott Muellers forum,

http://forum.scottmueller.com/


He is literally the best technician/computer guy in the world. To have his help for free is priceless. I would recommend everyone sign up.

I don't mean to be rude to Steve at all, just trying to help. I'm sure Steve knows how good Scott is also.

[mflstc]

No Matter what driver I try to install I get error "windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it, code 10 device cannot start" So I found an article that says this is an issue in Vista and to d/l hotfix #940199 for this very problem. But when I try to use the hotfix, I get the message that "The update does not apply to your system." I also found an article that the can not start error was a INFCACHE.1 error. It is mostly a fix for USB device but I figured what the hey. I tried that and it did not work either. So I am going to reinstall Vista and see what happens from there. Thanks for all the help!

[kins]

This is the part of that link- post 98 that I thought may help,

"Anyway, to bring an end to this rambling tale, I immediately found this thread and downloaded the R197390.EXE - Broadcom Arcadyne Wireless LAN package, and while the setup program refused to run because it claimed it couldn't find any compatible hardware, I was able to point Vista's Found New Hardware wizard at the directory it had created, and it found and installed the drivers perfectly."


So maybe try that...?. Or after all this just get a USB wireless card and disable the onboard one.

[mflstc]

This is the part of that link- post 98 that I thought may help,

I did try this and it did not work The wireless USB will be the suggestion to the customer if the Vista reinstall doesn't work.