Wireless card not recognized XPS 1530 XP

Hi All,

I got an XPS 1530 a while ago and my frustration with Vista has been mounting ever since!

I finally got rid of it and installed XP Pro (along with Linux Mint in a dual-boot setup).

My main problem is that XP Pro will absolutely not recognize my wireless card. It doesn't show up as an option in Hardware Manager and the only reference at all to wireless that I can find is when I go to the Wireless Network Wizard and it asks if I'd like to setup a new connection or keep the existing (legit) wireless connection that I've already setup via this method.

Other than that, all indications are that it doesn't recognize that I've got a wireless adapter. I downloaded Udi's driver pack (very convenient -- thx much) and tried installing from that, but I've had no luck.

Oddly enough, I had read all about how wireless was the biggest struggle for most people installing a Linux distro, but Linux Mint found the card and driver with no problems. Windows on the other hand.. not so much.

Any suggestions? I'm getting really frustrated with this nonsense. Should I try to re-install Windows? The wireless was working flawlessly a couple hours ago when I still had Vista, and like I said, works just fine with Linux.

Thanks a lot!!

 

Did you go the Dell site to see if they have an XP driver?

 

I've tried the Dell site and just about every other place I can think of. Dell does not support XP on this laptop, from what I can tell.

The main problem seems to be that XP doesn't even think there's a wireless card in the laptop, when there certainly is. It works with Vista and even with Linux, but not with XP.

When I try to run the driver just from the exe, it tells me everything installed correctly and that there is no wireless hardware.

I've tried doing another clean install of XP and followed the guides for getting XP to work on this machine to the letter, but it just will not recongnize the wireless.

I've tried turning off all the wireless in the BIOS, rebooting and turning it back on. Still nothing.

One thing I did notice was that when I tried to Activate Windows, it told me it couldn't find an internet connection, which I certainly have. (via wired connection) Seems like it could be something with the motherboard?

I really don't want to go back to Vista. If I have to sit one more time watching a twirly circle go round and round for a full minute, just because Vista is thinking about where to save some little pdf file, I will jump out the window!! (I live on the first floor, so not as dramatic as it sounds)

And a nearly brand new laptop without wireless is not an option.

I'd love to hear of any suggestions, but at this point I will probably just get Windows activated, go through all the updates, patches, service pack nonsense and hopefully along the way it will see the card.

This is madness. Madness, I say!!!

 

When you installed XP, and you checked the device manager, there was no "unknown" device?

 

Is it the intel wireless or the Dell wireless? If its intel go to intels web site and download the drivers from them. If dell, you can try to figure out exactly what broadcom card they've branded and get the driver though another source.

 

There is one "Network Controller" in Device Mgr that is unknown. I've tried updating its driver with literally every one in Udi's pack and they all came up as Cannot Install this Hardware. I've also tried to auto-update, etc and nothing has worked.

I think it is an Intel, but I will have to find out for sure and see if I can find the right driver. For some reason it seems to be an oddball..

Thanks.

 

What an ordeal..

Well I finally got it working. Thanks for the suggestions guys, it certainly helped!

What finally worked was to go sign in on the Dell site and bring up my laptop. From there, I selected the Downloads/Drivers section and just took a look at the possible wireless cards that could've come with my laptop (there were 4) and just wrote them all down, with hopes that I could find the XP versions.

One of the selections was the 1490, which was actually what one of the drivers I tried earlier had identified my wireless adapter as. (I tried the 1730 wireless drivers and it ID'd it as the 1490)

I had also tried the 1390 driver earlier, another of the selections. To no avail.

That left the 1395 and the 1505. I tried googling up the xp version of the 1395 first, which turned out to be the biggest file of any I'd tried, at nearly 90MB. I DLed it and ran the setup after uninstalling the (previously mis-identified) wireless card. Next thing you know..
The installer is actually running and the progress bar is fillin' up with green!!

Even better, all of a sudden I get the friendly little signal strenth indicator in my taskbar. Happy times are here AGAIN!!!

That now takes care of all of the dreaded "Unknown Devices" on my XP install. Thanks much to Udi for the drivers (minus the 1395!) and everyone else who has given sage advice on these boards. Woot!!!

I've never been an OS snob, but Vista really is for the birds, at least at this.. early (over a year and a half) stage in the game..

Now I can truly enjoy this laptop without all the spinning circle stealing precious minutes of my life nonsense!!!

 

One (possibly..) final note:

The device now shows up in Device Manager as the Dell 1490 Wireless. At this point I'm not sure whether it's the 1395 or 1490 (nor do I much care -- as it's working!), but it was definitely the 1395 driver that did the deed.

Cheers!

 

Would like to see your specs...sounds to me like you were trying to run Vista with 1GB of RAM or already got locked down with spyware. My computer likely has similar specs as yours and flies with Vista. Don't know anything about this minute of 'spinning circle' you talk about.

Anyway, too bad you didn't give Vista a shot. Enjoy XP...

 

My specs are toward the lower end for this model and I do only have 2GB RAM. Certainly another gig wouldn't hurt.

I have a work (desktop) computer which unfortunately has 1GB of RAM with 32bit Vista, and that is where I admittedly run into the most problems with Vista, but I have another work computer with 3GB RAM and Vista 32 bit that also has problems.

I'm getting a Latitude next week with 4GB RAM and 64 bit Vista which I've heard runs much more smoothly. We shall see! Thanks.