Alienware 14 Major issue with Killer 1202 WiFi

Hi guys.

Managed to get myself an Alienware 14 off the outlet a couple weeks ago. I absolutely love it except for the WiFi. I normally always use ethernet but I've discovered my WiFi with the Killer 1202 card is non existent. It's always 'unable to connect' to my wifi router (Virgin superhub). I've tried Dell stock drivers, older Killer driver and the newest driver found on Atheros's website.

I phoned Alienware last week and had the technician out today to replace the WiFi card which made no difference. He tried some things with settings but again didn't make any difference and I can't connect to my SH. Alienware told me it's an issue they're aware of. ! How can they sell a laptop with such issues?!?!

Anyway, does anyone have any idea what it could be and any possible fixes? I've been told that Dell won't replace the system because it was bought on the outlet - they can only offer a full refund. It took me months to get hold of one of these and to send it back for a refund would be a huge pain for something as (in)significant as a network card. I doubt I'd be able to get another one off the outlet anytime soon.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

See if you can get Alienware support to replace the Killer 1202 card with the Broadcom card...

 

Ok, so this may be of use for future reference to anyone who had the same issue as me.

A friend of mine has the AW 17 with the Broadcom network card. Dell told me the AW 14 only works with the Killer 1202 card but I thought that nonsense. I went over to my friend's house this morning and we swapped the cards over and uninstalled the existing driver and reinstalled the Broadcom driver. Guess what?......35-40Mb download speeds on a 30Mb connection. I'm getting a stable and superfast connection. The funny thing is my friend is getting faster download speeds with the Killer card which came from my machine. So the card obviously worked, therefore perhaps it's a problem similar to the one plaguing the XPS L521x and other Dell laptops. If anyone suffers from this issue, phone Dell and demand they send the other network card.

The same Dell tech I spoke with yesterday said he would phone me today with a solution. I'll tell him straight that the Broadcom works perfectly and what he mentioned before was a load of bull.

I've also bought myself a 256gb Plextor mSATA to add to my machine as a boot drive so hope that goes nice and smoothly. I have to say I absolutely love the machine and it's a big improvement over last year's M14x R2 (if you're not plagued by a wifi issue )

 

I'm glad you could find the culprit. I would have suggested the change as well. No idea why you were told that the Broadcom wasn't compatible :S

 

Yeah, except that isn't the culprit.


My Alienware 17 had about a week of wifi in late July and since then I've been tied to an Ethernet cable. The DELL support website happily reports that the card itself appears to be working, and then tells me to restart it/turn it on, whatever.

I've done the usual uninstall/reninstall updated drivers....I read a lot about problems with the Broadcomm cards Dell is using. Unfortunately the AC7260 I stuck in has exactly the same issue. It's recognized, working properly, but just won't detect or connect to any network. I think it's a problem with the motherboard myself, but that would be admitting an issue that is far more expensive to fix than just going through the motions of replacing a $5 card (if I paid $30 retail, you work back to how much Dell pays for them).

I absolutely despise DELL, and am sorely disappointed that Alienware can't support its products properly. Networking is one of those things everyone figured out a long time ago. Except it seems, AW (and Dell). This is my first, and last Alienware ever.

 

Excuse me friend, could you please tell me how you got the atheros drivers installed and working for the killer 1202? Every time I try to install the AR9462 ( Drivers for Atheros AR9462 and Windows 7 ) it just tells me something like I don't have the hardware required and I'm forced to reinstall the whole Killer crapackage from Killer site, am I downloading the wrong atheros drivers? Thanks in advance.