Need advice on Wireless laptop dropping signal quality

acharris · 30 Oct 2007 at 19:48

Hi all, I need some advice. I have a Dell D505 laptop with a Intel pro wireless lan 2100 3a mini pci card and I am having problems with the signal quality dropping out. I have tried different channels, no help. I have ruled out interference as my PS3, PSP and Wii all connect to the same Orange livebox with no drop out in signal quality.

I get 100% signal strength but anything between 100% - 20% and not picking up. Tried reseating the card and antenna connectors but no luck. Am going to try a new card from ebay for £8.

Can anyone advice me if it is likely to be a fault with the antenna running in the laptop or the card itself. Thanks in advance.

Anthony

Bobster · 30 Oct 2007 at 23:23

Try updating the Wireless card drivers first.
Then, if it's your personal wireless router/access point, update to the latest firmware.

acharris · 30 Oct 2007 at 23:39

Thanks for that, after checking everything else I forgot to check the drivers, never give it much thought to be honest cause it has work flawless for 2 years and never dropped a connection, only started Sunday evening. Will try drivers.

Anthony

Bobster · 30 Oct 2007 at 23:43

acharris said:
Thanks for that, after checking everything else I forgot to check the drivers, never give it much thought to be honest cause it has work flawless for 2 years and never dropped a connection, only started Sunday evening. Will try drivers.

Anthony

Thats a bit odd if it's been working fine for years then suddenly starts dropping.

I don't know much about Dell laptops but do Dell have any software that checks for software updates etc, is it possible that this could have updated the driver and therefor made it a little flaky?

Bobster · 30 Oct 2007 at 23:45

Try this too.

http://support.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/cs-006205.htm

Bobster · 30 Oct 2007 at 23:46

And drivers link page.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=944

acharris · 31 Oct 2007 at 13:26

Thanks for the advice, their are no new drivers for the 2100 card, and today I recieved my replacement network card which is different, but the connection is still dropping on the new card. Will have to try getting a PCMCIA card I think, as I can confirm it is the aerial/laptop playing up.

Thanks again.