SOLVED: Dell wireless 1390 WLAN Mini Card cannot connect to a wireless network

The Dell wireless 1390 WLAN Mini Card wireless card(Chipset BCM4311/BCM2050) is in a Dell Inspiron E1505(running Win XP with Service Pack 3).

The Dell Wireless WLAN card utility has a diagnostics option to check the card. I ran that and the hardware(wireless mini card) was
found to be OK. Updated the drivers which did not help so removed and reinstalled the drivers, but that too did not help. I tried using the
Windows wireless configuration utility(and disabled the Dell Wireless WLAN card utility), started the Wireless service, but
that did not help.

Then, tried the Dell Wireless WLAN card utility(after disabling the Windows wireless utility), but that was futile too. It cannot detect any wireless network
at all.

Followed suggestions of http://en.community.dell.com/supp...20047.aspx
but that did not fix the issue.

Checked each property at
http://support.dell.com/support/e...htm#toc_65

There are no issues with acccess point. Next to the Dell Inspiron E1505 is a Dell latitude(having an Intel wireless card) which can connect
to the wireless network.

Also, when the computer boots there is a message "Notification dll
has not been registered program will not work correctly"

Followed the suggestions at
http://help.wugnet.com/windows/wi...28131.html

Opened a command prompt and typed

regsvr32 atl.dll click [OK]
regsvr32 wltrynt.dll [OK]
ipconfig /flushdns [OK]
ipconfig /renew [OK]
netsh winsock reset [OK]

Rebooted the machine, but still there is a message "Notification dll
has not been registered program will not work correctly"

What else can I try?

Click: Start, then Run.. enter "msconfig" without the quotations and click OK. Go to "Services" tab. Uncheck the "DW WLAN Tray Service" entry which should be there, and restart the machine.

IF that doesn't work, go into Device Manager, and remove the "1390 WLAN minicard" driver. REBOOT! Log back in, and the driver should reinstall. IF it doesn't, download a new one from Dell, and install it. That way you make sure to get one that isn't corrupted. Reboot again after loading the new driver, just to make sure you are starting from a good base.

See if that fixes it for you. If not, also blow away the driver for the 57xx Gigabit ethernet controller, reboot, and reinstall that one too.

Quote from MikeBear : Click: Start, then Run.. enter "msconfig" without the quotations and click OK. Go to "Services" tab. Uncheck the "DW WLAN Tray Service" entry which should be there, and restart the machine. IF that doesn't work, go into Device Manager, and remove the "1390 WLAN minicard" driver. REBOOT! Log back in, and the driver should reinstall. IF it doesn't, download a new one from Dell, and install it. That way you make sure to get one that isn't corrupted. Reboot again after loading the new driver, just to make sure you are starting from a good base. See if that fixes it for you. If not, also blow away the driver for the 57xx Gigabit ethernet controller, reboot, and reinstall that one too.

Thanks for the suggestions. Did all of them, but the card still fails to connect.

Can it connect to a unsecured wireless network? Did you make any recent changes to the router?

I would try booting to a live linux CD to see if it works in linux. If it works in Linux you know you have a driver or windows problem, probably. If it doesnt work (but linux sees it, it might now work with all distros) then its likely the card is dead. I know you have lots of budget issues in the district your at but a USB replacement is about $10. Might be the easiest especially when you factor in your time.

Quote from ashcampbell : Can it connect to a unsecured wireless network?

No, that is what I am trying to connect to. Other laptops beside it can do so easily.

Quote from ashcampbell : Did you make any recent changes to the router?

No, we just have an access point(which also is in another office), but the signal is strong as other laptops can connect to the wireless network.

Ran Winsock Fix, but that did not help

Followed the suggestions at http://en.community.dell.com/supp...x#19780707
but that also could not fix the issue, though it updated the driver for the card.

The user recalls when he did not have wireless connectivity, he changed some properties in http://support.dell.com/support/e...htm#toc_65 and it started working. Then, he rebooted and it lost connectivity ever since then. He doesn't remember what he changed. Unfortunately, no system restore points are there for that change.

The wireless card shown as working properly without any conflicts in the device manager.

The wireless adapter is enabled in the BIOS, device manager and the windows mobility center.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Quote from LiquidRetro : I would try booting to a live linux CD to see if it works in linux.

I have Ultimate Boot CD and will try that.

Quote from LiquidRetro : If it works in Linux you know you have a driver or windows problem, probably. If it doesnt work (but linux sees it, it might now work with all distros) then its likely the card is dead.

Windows sees the card in device manager, reports the device is working properly, but I will check with Ultimate Boot CD too

Quote from LiquidRetro : I know you have lots of budget issues in the district your at but a USB replacement is about $10. Might be the easiest especially when you factor in your time.

Yes, it is like pulling out hair and the user thinking it should be a child's play to fix such things because their middle school children can set up a wireless network at their home.

A Linux LiveCD is a good idea to test whether your problem is hardware or software, but the card might not work out-of-the-box in Linux. You might need to install drivers. For more info, search for "dell 1390 linux".

Recently with Broadcom wifi cards and Ubuntu, I just run "sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source" when wired to install the driver. I dunno if that's the driver for your card, but it couldn't hurt. Here's more info: https://help.ubuntu.com/community...er/bcm43xx

Have you tried Fn+F2 to toggle wifi on/off ?