[MilesJT]

This gonna be a bit long to read. I don't know how to make it shorter.

I was unable to connect to wireless since the first day I got my Alienware M17x R3.

After searching around for drivers, I managed to make it worked. I've test it by connect to three different networks, all were successful and I have connected several times just to made sure it worked but I was never really using internet for too long when connecting to wireless.

T&C Coffee Shop, Play Station Shop, E Xin Cheu Fan Restaurant are three different wireless networks I've tested my wireless connection. But due to E Xin was close to my home which I go and have coffee often, I use E Xin more often than other, one day I suddenly got a blue screen of death caused by tcpip.sys after using wireless internet for about an hour, I went online searching for a solution to fix this, I followed the instructions and then restart my laptop, after restart, it asked me to run a troubleshooting which I did so and found out about DHCP was disable and it enabled auto. After enable, everything seem to working fine, no blue screen, wireless is working, until I notice that my wireless can only connecting to E Xin's wireless only as I can't connect to other wireless networks, I've tried to connect to more than 10 networks already, all attempts were failed. And when troubleshooting it says "Problems found with wireless adapter or access point" which is same thing that happened when I first got my Alienware and run wireless connection for the first time.

I've gone online to Intel Driver Utilities to detect for drivers, and these are the results:

Product Detected NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M
Current Driver Installed 8.17.13.142
This device is unknown or unsupported. Please contact the manufacturer for possible updates. More information>>

Product Detected IDT High Definition Audio CODEC
Current Driver Installed 6.10.0.6365
This device is unknown or unsupported. Please contact the manufacturer for possible updates. More information>>

Product Detected Atheros Osprey Wireless Network Adapter
Current Driver Installed 9.2.0.500
This device is unknown or unsupported. Please contact the manufacturer for possible updates. More information>>

Product Detected Qualcomm Atheros AR8151 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.20)
Current Driver Installed 2.0.15.16
This device is unknown or unsupported. Please contact the manufacturer for possible updates. More information>>

I did everything Dell told, I did a factory reset, check disk error before installing driver, installed the driver that Dell recommend, but my internet only working with E Xin just like before.

Is there a solution to this???

Please help...

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Hello MilesJT,
From what it looks like the wireless Internet connection only works at the coffee shop. Side the connection is known to work it is most likely a configuration issue. To help determine what is causing it try the following.
While at home if you connect directly to your router do you get an Internet connection? This would let us know that your routers and computers wired ability is not impacted.
Do you have other wireless devices connecting to your home's wireless network? This would confirm the correct settings are known for your wireless network and it is known to currently work. .
Now to check your computer. When you connect to your wireless network at home is the connection to the wireless network successful? It may not provide you with Internet access but it should connect and say limited or no connectivity or local area connection only.
When connected to the network click start and select run or simply start typing in the search bar if using windows 7.
Type: cmd
Now Enter.
This should take you to a black screen. Type: ipconfig /all > c:\temp\resuts1.txt
Now Enter.
Minimize this screen for now.
Navigate to start> computer > local disk C > temp > results1.txt
Copy and paste the content and attach.
On your task bar let's go back to the black window.
Now type: ping google.com
Now press Enter.
Here we need to know if at the end it replied sent 4 received x or could not find host.
Now type: ping 74.125.227.131
Now press Enter.
Here we need to know if at the end it replied sent 4 received x or timed out.
One more item that can help. Back on the black window type: NCpa.cpl and press Enter.
This should provide the network connections window. Select one with wireless as part of the name and right click it followed by properties.
Is the obtain automatically check box selected for both options here?

If any part of the steps don't make sense or there is an issue let us know.

-

[bombasos2]

Hello MilesJT,
From what it looks like the wireless Internet connection only works at the coffee shop. Side the connection is known to work it is most likely a configuration issue. To help determine what is causing it try the following.
While at home if you connect directly to your router do you get an Internet connection? This would let us know that your routers and computers wired ability is not impacted.
Do you have other wireless devices connecting to your home's wireless network? This would confirm the correct settings are known for your wireless network and it is known to currently work. .
Now to check your computer. When you connect to your wireless network at home is the connection to the wireless network successful? It may not provide you with Internet access but it should connect and say limited or no connectivity or local area connection only.
When connected to the network click start and select run or simply start typing in the search bar if using windows 7.
Type: cmd
Now Enter.
This should take you to a black screen. Type: ipconfig /all > c:\temp\resuts1.txt
Now Enter.
Minimize this screen for now.
Navigate to start> computer > local disk C > temp > results1.txt
Copy and paste the content and attach.
On your task bar let's go back to the black window.
Now type: ping google.com
Now press Enter.
Here we need to know if at the end it replied sent 4 received x or could not find host.
Now type: ping 74.125.227.131
Now press Enter.
Here we need to know if at the end it replied sent 4 received x or timed out.
One more item that can help. Back on the black window type: NCpa.cpl and press Enter.
This should provide the network connections window. Select one with wireless as part of the name and right click it followed by properties.
Is the obtain automatically check box selected for both options here?

If any part of the steps don't make sense or there is an issue let us know.

-

[MilesJT]

Thanks for Advice.

I was unable to provide you the Result.txt at the moment as of right now I am at work in a province, and since the day I post the topic, I was only able to check it today.

But I can tell a few reason.

At one coffee shop, I wasn't unable to connect wireless in there at first but after downloading and installed a few drivers, I was able to connect to their networks.

But after Using DriverMax to update my drivers, I was unable to connect again. But I was able to connect to my home networks for both wireless and cable for as long as I don't update my network card artheros driver.

I once update this driver and was unable to connect to my wireless at home but the cable see to work at great speed.

But after I rolled back the driver, my wireless is working again...

Another problem, is that my speed is 1Mb/s for downloading rate, I was able to download at that speed only on cable. As for wireless My sister was able to download up to 500 or 600kb/s while I was only able to download up to 100kb/s while my killer wireless supposed to be faster than her as she using a normal wireless card that comes with a 500$ dell laptop while my alienware costed me over 3000$ and killer wireless costed me a hundred buck.

And now another problem come with VGA I think, I am having a hardtime getting my laptop to open for the first time of the day. Sometime I have to open and shut down and repeating this over 10 time to get my laptop to start. And open, all the keyboard light are on but the screen is black out, no matter how long I waited. I used to left it at that state for an hour just to see what happened and nothing happened, the only way to get it start is to press the shutdown button until it's off and press again to open... And sometime, when using program or game, the window switched to 1024x768 but it changed to my default setting 1920x1080 if I restarted the laptop...

Dell Sucks, I do believe that now...

This is what Dell offers for a 3000$ laptop.

[bombasos2]

MilesJT,
So that I understand correctly, I believe at this point the wireless card is working. This is also an external wireless card, correct? Could you provide the model?
The issue now is the speed at which downloaded files are coming across. There are some settings and a few variables to this type of issue.
What is your signal strength when you are connected? How far are you from the access point.
Is the speed better whe connected to your built in wifi?
Check your speed at speedtest.net and post back results of wired vs wireless.

Does the issue starting the computer still exist? Does it happen if you boot to safe mode? When did the problem start?

[MilesJT]

One more thing, when the wireless card is working with my Home Wireless, E Xin Wireless, it still can't work with wireless from that one coffee shop that I've used to connected before.

And I can't get you the result now because I can't connect to my wireless anymore, I have updated Arethors again but forget to make a system restore point this time.

And yes, the start up problem still have happen. It use to happen once or twice long ago. But I notice that it happened after I re-installed my window 7 x64. Maybe some driver to some hardware was missing or something didn't work correctly...

Before I re-installed my window to fix wireless issues, I done a dozen of Factory Reset. This start up problem seem to never happen...

And I lost my factory reset after i install new window now. so I can't go back there now.

And No I can't boot into safe mode because the window won't started. The keyboard light is on, Alienware Logo is on, all the funtionn keys light are on but the screen is black out. And if I try to press del or any other keys, sometime it does make beeping sound, the same sound that it happened once when the motherboard was downed. But if I shut the laptop down and re-open the sound is off.
And if it do start, it's seem to working fine.

And my VGA issue is worked now, I downgrade my driver.

Are there anymore recommendation?

My Wirelss is Bigfoot Killer N-1103

I have contacted Bigfoot and work through their advice and it's still useless which lead them to believe that the problem could be Athena of the wireless is not install correctly, because my wireless was never working 100% correctly.

[MilesJT]

And I've done speed test using Alienware Auto Spy, the speed test of wireless connection (When I connected to my home network) U: 200kb/s D: 1MB/Sec

[SneakyCyber]

Have you looked at your bios revision yet? currrently Dell Is up to A10 on that machine.

[MilesJT]

I thought because of the Bios too, that's why I downgrade mine from A10 back to A08.

[bombasos2]

MilesJT,
So that I understand correctly, I believe at this point the startup/VGA issue is resolved correct? The computer will now start properly.
Please provide the information below.
What is your signal strength when you are connected wirelessly? How far are you from the access point?
Is the speed better when connected to your built in wifi?
Check your speed at speedtest.net and post back results of wired vs wireless.
Thank you,
Bombasos2

[MilesJT]

No, the start up is happening.

Downgrade VGA's Driver is and only solved the problem where the screen suddenly switched from 1920 x 1080 to 1024 x 768 and it's also solved my 3D Nvidia Bundle from Switching to 3D Discover.

Information:

1.When first open connection, all the wireless it detected show a great signal strength and my home signal is completely full.

2.When connecting, the wireless signal strength is always half down (for my home network), this happen no matter where I sit.

3.My Access Point is about 2Metres from my laptop.

4.As for using wired cable, the internet is working at a great speed and never show any sign of problems.

5.The result from Test Speed for my Wired Cable is Resemble to the actually speed when downloading 1MB/S

6.The result from Test Speed for my wireless is Resemble to the wired cable but the actually download speed is only about 100 or 200 kb/s

[MilesJT]

Here is the Attach of ipconfig

Attached Thumbnails

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