M11x R2 - weak wireless signals?

Our M11x R2 has been working out very well. The only problem that I have found so far, appears to be a weak wireless signal... after some debug, I am wondering if there is an antenna issue? The notebook came with the stock DW 1520 (Broadcom), and in a couple of hot spots, it would intermittently drop the WLAN connection. Moving a lot closer to the access point helped, but the range appears to be a lot shorter that other notebooks we have used before. Thinking it was HW related, I replaced the DW 1520 with an Intel 6300 Ultimate-N card (using the same two internal antennas)... unfortunately, we still seem to have a weak signal at times - poor wireless range, and drops when you would not expect them.

So, has anyone else noticed that their wireless signal is "less" than something else they have used at a given WLAN hotspot? If you have any recommendations, I would appreciate it!

- Kirk200

 

You might want to give one of the wifi survey utilities a try to see if it helps shed light on the problem. You'll gain a much clearer idea of signal strength and whether or not you're facing interference issues.

vistumbler

 

Hey, man. I also facing this kind of problem like urs about 2 weeks ago.
What i do is to reinstall the driver and now seems to be solved

 

i think the card used by Dell is pretty bad ... i got a 1201n here at my home and both m11x and the asus in front of ap get m11x 78% and the asus 100%

 

It is probably your router.

I had a netgear and it would have intermittent disconnects. I swap to a linksys and I've had no problems.

 

My quality data doesn't indicate that this is a problem with our WLAN card. You could have an antenna issue perhaps. If you have the problem with multiple cards, it is likely either location specific (router, interference, etc) or a problem with your antennas (lcd assembly)... I'm assuming you are using factory drivers and nothing hacked or beta when I say this...

 

Thanks, I will keep testing. I used the Dell factory drivers for the Broadcom card, and production drivers from Intel.com for the Intel Ultimate-N card that I am currently testing. Using the internal antennas as installed by the Dell factory. I have tested informally two routers so far... one was a very old D-Link G router, the other is a somewhat old D-Link N router... I have a brand new Linksys N router (300Mb) to test against this weekend.

Regards,
- Kirk200

 

which power management profile are you using when getting the weak signal? (power saver, balanced, performance) check alienfusion in the command center and see what the wireless adapter power management settings are at. just a thought if you haven't checked there. good luck!

 

I have this kind of issue.

What version and date of DW 1520 you have? I might reinstall mine.

Btw, I have two laptop in my house. I never experience ON-OFF wireless connection on my old laptop (XPS1530) when I'm using both of them - only problem I have is my M11x R2.

Any suggestion will be appreciated. Thanks

 

I don't have an issue with signal or speed, but the range is rather short, but not anything problematic.

I had noticed it with my R1 - I took it to my younger son's piano lesson where I formerly brought my Lenovo s10 netbook. The netbook could access an open WiFi network in the area, though the signal was 1-2 bars (i.e. quite weak). My Macbook Pro could also see the weak signal.

The m11x R1 could not see it at all. Nor can the R2 ... but neither can my iPad ...

 

I have the same weak signal problem with my DW1520 in the M11x R2. I am considering replacing it. Compared to other laptops of my friends, my laptop receives the weakest signals and the most frequent disconnects. I am using the latest Dell downloadable drivers and this problem has been present since I bough the laptop.

 

After tinkering for an entire day, I finally figured out the problem and the solution.

The weak signal was being caused by my using a custom power profile.
Right-click on the battery icon in the system tray. Change power option to either PERFORMANCE or BALANCED setting. Make sure these settings are set to their default Windows 7 settings. WiFi performance is now normal and comparable to any other laptop WiFi.