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better dell 1350 wifi driver?

post #1 of 47
11/15/04 at 7:00pm
Thread Starter 
I have a Averatec 3225hs notebook and I noticed it always had more bars of reception than my new Dell 700m, I checked the hardware and realized that it is based on the same Broadcom wifi chipset, so I figured I'd give the Averatec wireless Lan drivers a shot on the Dell. After installing the Averatec drivers, it appears that I have better wifi reception, an extra bar or two over the Dell wifi drivers. I have switched drivers back and forth to see if it isn't just a one time thing, but the averatec drivers consistently get better reception. The wireless utility shows that it picks up more signal about -10dbm more, but also more noise. Maybe it is just a difference in the measurement of signal, but it seems to also help me stay connected to access points with weaker signals.

If anyone is up to it, check out the Averatec drivers at:
http://www.averatec.com/customercare/3200dl.htm

hopefully more people will be able to verify this, and everyone with the Dell 1350 wifi card can benefit. Let me know what you guys think!

Daniel
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post #2 of 47
11/15/04 at 7:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by freestyledby
I have a Averatec 3225hs notebook and I noticed it always had more bars of reception than my new Dell 700m, I checked the hardware and realized that it is based on the same Broadcom wifi chipset, so I figured I'd give the Averatec wireless Lan drivers a shot on the Dell. After installing the Averatec drivers, it appears that I have better wifi reception, an extra bar or two over the Dell wifi drivers. I have switched drivers back and forth to see if it isn't just a one time thing, but the averatec drivers consistently get better reception. The wireless utility shows that it picks up more signal about -10dbm more, but also more noise. Maybe it is just a difference in the measurement of signal, but it seems to also help me stay connected to access points with weaker signals.

If anyone is up to it, check out the Averatec drivers at:
http://www.averatec.com/customercare/3200dl.htm

hopefully more people will be able to verify this, and everyone with the Dell 1350 wifi card can benefit. Let me know what you guys think!

Daniel


The latest Truemobile driver I have been able to find is the one posted above v3.70.17.0. For whatever reason, Dell just continues to recycle obsolete Broadcom WiFi drivers in their updates so I'm always looking at alternative sources for drivers. The driver posted above is available from the Microsoft corporate website: http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.co...corporate=true

BTW: XP users can no longer access the corporate website since the release of SP2...Only users of Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 can access v4.
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post #3 of 47
11/15/04 at 7:50pm
Can you post the drivers? or email by any chance.
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post #4 of 47
11/15/04 at 8:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by a0lsux
Can you post the drivers? or email by any chance.
http://images.lunarpages.com/8709052.cab

Done! Packaged as they were straight off the Windows Corporate Update site. They are meant to by updated via the device manager...no fancy installer here.
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post #5 of 47
11/15/04 at 10:16pm
Thanks
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post #6 of 47
11/16/04 at 10:33am
What do you guys think? Is it better?
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post #7 of 47
11/16/04 at 10:58am
I just installed my new TM1450 card last night (replaced my TM1300) and checked Dell's site - they have new drivers out there:

Driver version 3.40.73
Utility version 3.40.74

Release Date 10/20/2004

This release has the following minor improvements for the Dell Wireless and Dell TrueMobile network adapters:

- Adds channels 149,153,157, and 161 to dual band cards in the US.
- Corrects Dual band scanning issue when using Windows to manage wireless on dual band cards in countries which use channels 100-140.
- Re-calibrated the signal strength meter on Dell Wireless 1450 in 802.11a band.
- Resolved several localization translation issues.
- Resolved interoperability issue with Linksys BEFDSR41W ADSL router w/ Instant Wireless WPC11 PCCARD.
- Corrects Single Sign ON issue which in rare cases could truncate username or password.

I'm not sure of the actual Device Manager versions (I'm not @ home and m y laptop isn't with me), but I'll check them later. If these drivers (the one somms posted, at http://images.lunarpages.com/8709052.cab) are newer, will they work on the TM1450 as well?
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post #8 of 47
11/16/04 at 11:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lowly_cook
What do you guys think? Is it better?
Better is debatable. Newer? v3.70.17 vs. v3.40.73...I'll let you do the math.
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post #9 of 47
11/16/04 at 11:20am
Actually, I do remember that the version # Dell says on their site is NOT the same date that shows up in device manager. I'm just not @ home to check it.
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post #10 of 47
11/16/04 at 4:02pm
Just went from 3.40.65 to the ones provided by somms. Thanks the reception really is alot better.
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post #11 of 47
11/16/04 at 4:39pm
Thread Starter 
I can't seem to get the ones provided by somms to work. Am i supposed to install the dell 1350 setup program first, and then update to somms, or just discard the dell program altogether? if anyone could help me out that would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

Daniel
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post #12 of 47
11/16/04 at 6:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by freestyledby
I can't seem to get the ones provided by somms to work. Am i supposed to install the dell 1350 setup program first, and then update to somms, or just discard the dell program altogether? if anyone could help me out that would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

Daniel
I haven't tried, but extract the files from the cab file, and right click the inf and select 'install'

this usually works.
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post #13 of 47
11/16/04 at 8:32pm
This interests me as well, keep the info coming as I am having some trouble with my Dell Trumobile 1300 right now.
It cannot see my netgear AP

Cu
StarSheep
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post #14 of 47
11/16/04 at 8:43pm
I'm on my 8500 laptop now, and just checked device manager. The driver version for mt TM1450 is showing as 3.40.73.0, and I just installed the "latest" drivers from Dell last night. (I suppose I was wrong when I said I thought the DM version was different.)

I'm going to install the drivers posted by somms and see how they work...
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post #15 of 47
11/16/04 at 8:46pm
Ok, I installed the driver this way:

extract the three files from the cab file linked above to a temp folder

Right click my computer
select manage
click on device manager
expand network adapters
right click on the 1350 adapter
select 'update driver'
select 'install from a list or specific location (advanced)' and click next
select 'don't search, I will choose the driver to install' and click next
click 'have disk' and point to the directory that you have extracted the cab file to
select the broadcom 802.11b/g wlan and click next... follow it through and finish.


so far it's working great on my 8600, but I haven't moved around much. Microsoft has great coverage here anyway. I'll test it when I get home, I know when I sit at one end of my couch that reception would drop just a bit.
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post #16 of 47
11/16/04 at 9:02pm
Well, I installed these using the "update driver" in Device Manager. Ignored the XP error, and while it LOOKS like they worked, the Dell utility wouldn't load - gave the error "incompatible driver version found". Tried to roll the driver back, and while it went back to the previous driver, the Dell utility still wouldn't work (and I couldn't connect to my Netgear WGR614v4.) I had to do a system restore to get back to my previous setup and get back online.
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post #17 of 47
11/16/04 at 9:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by HotStuff2
Well, I installed these using the "update driver" in Device Manager. Ignored the XP error, and while it LOOKS like they worked, the Dell utility wouldn't load - gave the error "incompatible driver version found". Tried to roll the driver back, and while it went back to the previous driver, the Dell utility still wouldn't work (and I couldn't connect to my Netgear WGR614v4.) I had to do a system restore to get back to my previous setup and get back online.
Lose the Dell utility since it has been made redundant with XP SP2 which includes native support for WPA-enabled WiFi devices.
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post #18 of 47
11/16/04 at 10:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by somms
Lose the Dell utility since it has been made redundant with XP SP2 which includes native support for WPA-enabled WiFi devices.

yeah, I don't have the Dell utility loaded since I wiped everything out and installed from scratch. I never loaded anything except the driver for the wireless.
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post #19 of 47
11/17/04 at 12:06am
Ok, so I've got the newer version loaded and am sitting at the end of my couch that is farthest from my Linksys router. I used to get speeds of 36 or 45mbps when sitting here. Tonight I am getting 54 and the strength looks good. These drivers might just be a tad bit better!
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post #20 of 47
11/17/04 at 8:48am
i just loaded the new drivers. what happened to the wireless indicator bar on the lower right hand side? it seems to have disappeared.
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