X3i Unrecognized Card - Wireless

jmwils1 · 11-01-03, 01:44 PM

I posted the same thread under the general forum, but this may be the better place for it. THe first time I tried to connect to my wireless network, it went fine, but now every time I enable the wireless power, the blue light blinks once and I get a message saying that it doesn't recognize the card, and it asks me to type in the name of the driver. I have tried every name I could think of and tried just cancelling, but nothing seems to work - including hard resets and draining the battery. I called Dell Tech Support, and the woman I spoke with asked me to do a soft reset and then a hard reset, before telling me that they will ship another one out Monday. It sounded like she was just following instructions on her screen, and had no clue what she was saying. It sounds like this is a Microsoft problem, but clearing the memory is not doing anything. If anyone has any idea, what might be going on, or another thing for me to try, I would greatly appreciate it.

ikehiker · 11-01-03, 02:02 PM

I actually think it sounds more like a hardware problem. If it was software, everyone with an X3i would be having the same problem and since there haven't hundreds of posts about it, that's clearly not the case.

jmwils1 · 11-01-03, 02:41 PM

Thanks Ike - sort of a bummer, but at least they are promising to get this to me by Wednesday. Hopefully I will have good news then. One question I still have is whether I will need to charge the new one for at least 4 hours. I will have the same old battery which will be fully charged, but the backup battery is inside the new unit. I wonder which is the one affected by the 4 hour breakin period. Anyway, thanks.

numsquat · 11-02-03, 02:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jmwils1
Thanks Ike - sort of a bummer, but at least they are promising to get this to me by Wednesday. Hopefully I will have good news then. One question I still have is whether I will need to charge the new one for at least 4 hours. I will have the same old battery which will be fully charged, but the backup battery is inside the new unit. I wonder which is the one affected by the 4 hour breakin period. Anyway, thanks.

You can switch betteries, place the new one in the battery slot, use your X3 for a day, then just recharge your backup overnight. Send in the the old unit w/old battery back to Dell, and you'll be fine. You have 5 days(?) to send in the old unit. Did this with my X5 on a replacement.

aviationwiz · 11-17-03, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jmwils1
It sounded like she was just following instructions on her screen, and had no clue what she was saying.

That is what many companies tech support people do, just pull up a list of things the user should try.

enforcerviper · 11-21-03, 09:33 AM

Hey I got the EXACT, I mean EXACT same problem. Glad to hear I'm not alone. I noticed if I try the wifi button about 9 times or so it will finally work properly and not ask me for the driver.

Called dell and they are going to send me another one.

mwaleed · 11-22-03, 12:09 PM

Me too,
I used it for 40 minutes only and then started getting the "unrecognized card" annoying message. I called Dell and should get a replacement soon.
Scares me though that until now I found many who had the same roblem and that Dell did not address it on their production lines.
Hopefull my replacement will do the same.

Drift Monkey · 11-23-03, 07:23 PM

I'm seeming to have the same problem (after a week of usage), Dell still not fixing this?

aviationwiz · 11-23-03, 07:55 PM

Call em' up, get a replacement. They must be loosing some money on this problem.

Drift Monkey · 11-24-03, 12:12 PM

Exactly what I did. They said they'll send another in 3-4 days. :)

enforcerviper · 11-25-03, 09:55 PM

got my new one today, works perfect right out of the box.

Drift Monkey · 11-26-03, 06:32 PM

I got my replacement today, but I'm confused about what to do with the old one now. The new one shipped with everything but the cradle so do I have to send my old software, manual, case, and charger back? Should they have included an airbill for me to send it back, because there is none in the package to be found. Thanks.

Randam · 12-06-03, 06:26 PM

I am having the same problem, sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. Really frustrating.

I was hoping it is a driver problem, so a simple update might fix it. Is requesting a replacement the only way to fix this?

I also have doubt if Dell will send me one, I live in Europe and customer service tends not to be that great over here... I wonder if Dell is any different. Guess I'd have to try :-)

Anyway, as a programmer my best guess would be that this is a driver/software problem. Once the WiFi "card" (if you can call it such since it is built in) works, it works. So there is nothing wrong with the card.

What do you guys think?

shamran · 12-09-03, 11:44 AM

Got the same problem ! got my x3 yesterday. This morning I got the error 9 out of 10 times ... after techsupport (hardreset) I am getting it 1 out og 20-30 ! called the again...guess what ... They are sending me a new one !
Actually it seems like a hardware fault in some onboard netcard (wat they told me). They knew the fault but not the cause !

shamran · 12-12-03, 05:30 AM

I got my replacement x3i today ! all is fine now (thakns Dell)... Actually there seems to be at slight diffrence in how the blue LED lights up ! The first blink fades away now. On my faulty unit it diden't !