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    Dell 1510N Wireless Half Mini Card

    Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by ps89, Apr 18, 2009.

  1. ps89

    ps89 Notebook Consultant

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    Hello guys. I noticed that the signal strength of this card is quite weak compared to other cards. For example, I put a laptop with an Intel WiFi Link 5100 card in the same spot as my laptop. The signal strength of the Intel card is 94% while I get only 68%. Is it because the card is faulty or the card doesn't perform as well as others? Is there any solution to solve this problem? Thanks.
     
    ps89, Apr 18, 2009
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  2. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Is your card configured for maximum performance?
     
    Shyster1, Apr 18, 2009
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  3. aidil

    aidil Notebook Evangelist

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    I second to that. Dell 1510 should be more reliable than 5100. Even now that I've changed the Dell 1510 to Intel 5300 in my Studio 17, I could say that the radio signal reception was more stable with 1510 (using 2 out of 3 antennas), whereas 5300 (connected to all the 3 antennas) tends to go up and down more although both have the same top speed of 270Mbps when connected to my Linksys WRT310N.

    In comparison between 5300 and 5100 in my other notebook, 5100 is even worse. 5100 can only connected at 270Mpbs for short time and often falls down to 130Mbps.

    ps89, are you using the latest driver?
     
    aidil, Apr 18, 2009
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  4. ps89

    ps89 Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks for the replies.

    Shyster1: How do I configure it for maximum performance? Is it through device manager?

    nomoredell: But internet speed doesn't have anything to do with my wireless card, right?

    aidil: I see. But the signal strength of the Dell 1510 is one of the weakest that I've ever come across. Is this normal? I noticed that the signal strength somehow deteriorated. Last time, the signal strength used to be around 78-82%. Now, it's around 66-70%. Besides that, it sometimes drops to 38-40%. On both occasions, I put my laptop on the same spot. It might be due to some interference. I'm not sure whether it's driver problem or not. I was using 5.10.38.26 and just upgraded to 5.10.79.7. The new driver doesn't make much difference in terms of signal strength. :)
     
    ps89, Apr 18, 2009
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  5. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Go to Network Connections (or whatever it's called in _Vista), right-click on the icon for your wireless adapter, then left-click on the "properties" item on the pop-up context menu. Once the properties dialog pops up, go to the "advanced" tab and go through the various options to set the adapter to work at maximum.
     
    Shyster1, Apr 18, 2009
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  6. ps89

    ps89 Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks for the suggestions. I had a look at the advanced tab in wireless card properties and fiddled with some settings. The signal strength doesn't really change.
     
    ps89, Apr 18, 2009
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