Dell Insperon Mini not connecting wirelessly

**MitchellCooley** · 4th July 2009

This may be a bit of a chore.

My co-worker's mom lives in the country (Byers Texas). She bought a Dell Insperon Mini laptop and had DSL installed recently. Her nephew gave her a Linksys WirelessG Broadband Router he had been using in his office.

When the installers were there (DSL) the tech was able to connect to the internet wirelessly with his laptop but when trying to connect with her laptop the computer would connect and then disconnect.

She is able to connect to the Internet when hardwired but not wirelessly.

The laptop has a Dell wireless 1510 wireless n WLan minicard which appears to be working properly (according to device manager)

What are some troubleshooting tips I can pass along? What more information do you need to help diagnose the problem?

I am helping her through her son over the phone although he is really timid about anything computer related, I can slowly walk him through anything which needs to be done.

I suspect the router needs some configuring? or maybe its the laptop. I am a dunce when it comes wireless so I hope someone will have pity on me.....

thanks in advance.

Mitch

**broni** · 4th July 2009

If DSL guy was able to connect, the router seems to be fine.
I suspect, there may be something wrong with wireless card (bad devices out of box happen).

**MitchellCooley** · 4th July 2009

I will pass that along. Maybe she can call Dell and get it checked out.

**broni** · 4th July 2009

Did the card come with laptop?

**MitchellCooley** · 4th July 2009

yes. out of the box

**broni** · 4th July 2009

Yeah, I'd contact Dell.

**MitchellCooley** · 4th July 2009

Called her. Told her to contact Dell. She bought it from QVC about a week ago. Will let you know what I find out

**broni** · 4th July 2009

Since it's brand new machine, get them well

**TonyT** · 4th July 2009

Most Dells come with Broadcom chipset wireless cards. The 1510 is a Broadcom chipset and Dell bundles the Broadcom wireless connection utility with its products. It's best to let Windows manage the wireless connections using its own Wireless Zero Config service. Disable the Broadcom wireless connection software from loading when Windows starts. Note, it may be called Dell wireless something or other. The bundled wifi software is buggy.

**MitchellCooley** · 4th July 2009

Thanks Tony. I'll have her give it a shot