Dell complaints

khellendrosxs

My story begins about a year ago when I purchased my Inspiron 9300. At the time it was a great deal (saved about $1000 by buying new from eBay). Two weeks ago my Toshiba HD crashed. Thats no big deal I thought to myself as I ordered a replacement.

Thats where the hell began...

I installed my new hard drive and decided to use an old (2002) copy of a Windows XP boot disk. After Windows installed I thought Id get stuff running again fairly quickly. The crazy thing is my NIC and wireless are all messed up beyond belief. I had to download drivers from the Dell Support webpage and found that as I started to install them the computer does not recognize the NIC (at least it wont connect to the LAN in my house) nor will the wireless even give me an option to FIND a wireless network.

My second problem is that the screen resolution only goes up to 1028x768 when before the drive crapped the UXGA displayed 1600x1200. Is this fixed by a display driver from dell? I have a huge list of them to pick from for my system but none of them look familiar.

If anyone needs specifics just let me know. My computer skills are somewhat lacking but if you could just need to be pointed in the right direction I can take it from there.

Many thanks.

-----

PS

Would it just be easier to reformat the drive and call dell to have them re-do everything in their laptop repair center thingy?

Rocke_T_Sinetist · Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2006 10:58 pm Post subject:

Sticky situation, khellen. You've done well to get this far. Yes, the video driver probably isn't the right one, or you'd have the range of resolutions you had before. NIC and wireless probably aren't right either. Insufficient data to tell you in what way they're not right--could be wrong brand, installation didn't work right, default settings incorrect.

Most of that should have been sorted out at the Dell level. If you typed in your service code, their system 'should' have known exactly what hardware you have so you wouldn't have to guess. A 9300 should only have one NIC vendor. I don't know how many wireless options there are.

Hard to say what to try next. 'Device Manager' won't list the brand and model names of the NIC and wireless until the drivers are installed. Perhaps F2 setup will. Working on desktops, I'd have to read the brand and model off the chips themselves--not all that practical on a laptop.

Anyone?
_________________
Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

khellendrosxs · Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 7:11 pm Post subject:

Some stuff someone might find usefull:

System Summary
Service Tag: ********
System Type: Inspiron 9300
Ship Date: 7/2/2005
Dell IBU: Americas
Quantity Parts # Part Description
1 F5399 ASSEMBLY, CABLE, COAXIAL, LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY, 17, SULLIVAN/GILBERT
1 T4976 LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY, WXGA+, STANDARD PANELS WORKING GROUP, 17, LENGTH/LONG
1 H5639 KEYBOARD, 87, UNITED STATES, ENGLAND/ENGLISH, SINGLE POINTING, SULLIVAN/TOBAGO
1 F2951 KIT, CORD, FLAT, 3F, D3W/3P, PROPOSITION 65, UNITED STATES
1 8267R CONNECTOR, HEADER, 2X22, FEMALE, 2, S, G, 35K, THIRD HEIGHT, CHIP SET
1 C5668 ASSEMBLY, BASE (ASSEMBLY OR GROUP), 10/100, CONEXANT SYSTEMS INC., 9300
1 J7222 ASSEMBLY, HINGE, COVER, PLASTIC, 9300
1 W4774 PROCESSOR, 80536, PENTIUM M DOTHAN, Pentium M Dothan, 1.73GHZ, 2 MEGB, 533FSB, PLASTIC GRID ARRAY, C0
1 C2894 ASSEMBLY, ADAPTER, ALTERNATING CURRENT, 90W19.5V, DELTA PRODUCTS, WORLD WIDE
1 C6332 DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE, 256, 533, 32X64, 8K, 200, 512
1 F5135 BATTERY, PRIMARY, 11.1V, 6C, LITHIUM, SIMPLO
1 P7464 ASSEMBLY, DVD+/-RW, 8X, SONY, INSPIRON, SULLIVAN/TOBAGO
1 W5379 CARD (CIRCUIT), GRAPHICS, 128MB, M22, 9300
1 R7239 HARD DRIVE, 80GB, 9.5MM, 5.4K, HITACHI, IBM Moraga
1 T7166 KIT, SOFTWARE, WP-PRDCT-STE12, ENGLAND/ENGLISH, V2
1 F6749 CARD (CIRCUIT), NETWORK, MINI PCI CARD, INTEL2915, DELL AMERICAS ORGANIZATION
1 W9242 CARD (CIRCUIT), WIRELESS, LEAD FREE, INTERNAL, BLUETOOTH, 350

--------

List of Display Drivers from the Dell website:

Dell 1505FP
Dell 1704FPT
Dell 1704FPV
Dell 1707FP
Dell 1707FPc
Dell 1707FPt
Dell 1707FPV
Dell 1905FP
Dell 1907FP
Dell 1907FPc
Dell 1907FPt
Dell 1907FPV
Dell 2001FP
Dell 2005FPW
Dell 2007FP
Dell 2007WFP
Dell 2405FPW
Dell 2407WFP
Dell E153FP
Dell E156FPb
Dell E156FPc
Dell E156FPf
Dell E157FPb
Dell E157FPc
Dell E157FPf
Dell E173FP
Dell E176FPb
Dell E176FPc
Dell E176FPf
Dell E176FPm
Dell E177FPb
Dell E177FPc
Dell E177FPf
Dell E177FPm
Dell E193FP
Dell E196FPb
Dell E196FPf
Dell E197FPb
Dell E197FPf
Dell E773c
Dell M783p
Dell M783s
Dell M993c
Dell M993s

These are in the exact order as found on the website.

These are the three drivers I tried to get my NIC and wireless working:

"Intel (R) PRO/Wireless Network Connection" driver
"Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller" (which is probably the NIC controller??)
and
"Intel Mobile Chipset" driver

Any other suggestionsor things I can post that would give anyone more info to help me?

cajual · Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:42 pm Post subject:

Hello, just ran across your topic. Two things:

First, the reason you're having issues getting your NIC card to function is most likely due to the order you've installed your drivers. Here is the recommended order:

Dell Notebook System Software
(reboot)
Chipset
(reboot)
Video
(reboot)
Network
Audio
Modem

After that, it really doesn't matter what order you install them in.

Second, the drivers you've copy and pasted from the Dell website are for DISPLAYS, not for VIDEO CONTROLLERS. You'll want to select the VIDEO option in the driver category list.

Go to: http://support.dell.com and click DRIVERS and UTILITIES. Enter your service tag, then select WINDOWS XP. After that, you should be good to download the drivers, put them on a USB memory key or burn them to a CD. Hope this helps. Enjoy your Inspiron.

FallenAngel · Super Hater Joined: 21 Feb 2006 Posts: 1516

Not to be rude, but the "display drivers" are just that - intended for TFT's/CRT's/Flat Panels...monitors.

You'd be looking for VIDEO DRIVERS.

EDIT: I see someone beat me to it Wink

khellendrosxs · Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 9:20 pm Post subject:

So sorry for the confusion, I got the dispaly issues all figured out and that is all fine and dandy. The only thing that is not working now is my wireless. I am posting from my laptop as we speak.

Updates and questions to follow Rolling Eyes

Thanks for the correction though... Wink

cajual · Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 9:31 pm Post subject:

glad to hear you got it up and running..

don't forget to install the dell notebook system software, chipset, and flash your bios to latest rev to get your WIFI up and running..

KE7EHA · Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 9:56 pm Post subject:

Tell me, why do you tink you need to flash your BIOS to install a wirless internet driver?

You really never need to update the BIOS/POST information in the computer, unless it is to:
1. Install a new variety of processor [Conroe leaps to mind]
2. Unlock certain features of the motherboard, which you would need a 3rd party BIOS
3. Update the system to use certain peripherals.

Really, the last one toy should flash the BIOS on the peripheral before you flash the BIOS on the motherboard.

In my experience, I have only needed to flash the bios on one of my video cards one time. That's it.

Of course, I am of the shool that believes:
If it ain't broke, don't f*** with it
_________________
"The art of Engineering is knowing what you can safely ignore." -Dr. H. Hess

khellendrosxs · Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:11 pm Post subject:

I flashed the BIOS right after I put in the new HD. Revision A05 I think.

Through some gross comedy of errors I somehow unlocked my wireless adapter. One second it wasnt working and the next minute it was telling me my wireless network is in range...its all very strange.

Now, my apparent stupidity shows. Heres my current problem.

I used my old Windows XP Home boot disk from 2002 (my very old desktop) to load windows onto this laptop. In trying to update to SP2 I have encountered several snags. The most pressing is getting all the old security updates installed before SP2 can be installed. Now, I had to reformat my desktop several times. The last of which was in 2004 and my question is how long will it take to update several hundred (700 or 800) MB of updates? The overall progress bar is not even lit up yet and its been installing (supposedly) for about an hour now.

Once I get this laptop updated I can reinstall the USB drivers (Dell Laptop Utilites) driver and get those working and that will solve everything.

Responses and finger pointing are welcomed.