Vista - Upgraded Dell 9400 with Intel 3945 Dual Band Wireless failure

Hi,

I've recently upgraded my Inspiron 9400 laptop containing a "Intel
PRO/Wireless 3945 Dual Band 802.11a/g" wireless card to Vista Home Premium.

I have now found that wireless has become VERY flakey - only occassionally
when I boot up does a wireless network get detected even though a second
laptop in my home is picking my home network up.

On the occasions when the network is detected it is described as having an
excellent signal and all works well. But for the 9 out of 10 times that the
network is not detected I am forced to used an ethernet cable. I have updated
to the latest driver on the dell site, even tried a later Intel version all
to no effect.

As far as I can tell I have ruled out the router (A Billion 7400G) as it was
working perfectly (100% success under XP) and still working with other laptop.

The flakeyness is what is throwing me as I cant put my finger on any
possible cause.

Anyone else had similar issues with this (or similar) configuration.





The following is an extract from my event log which seems to relate to the
error:

Helper Class (AutoConfig Helper Class) Event:

Wireless Diagnostic Helper Class Event

For complete information about this session see the Wireless Diagnostic
Informational Event.

Helper Class: Auto Configuration
Initialize status: Success

Information for connection being diagnosed
Interface GUID: 9c1a0b1a-798e-4bc4-902f-ddb38156447c
Interface name: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
Interface type: Native WiFi

Result of diagnosis: Problem found

Root cause:
Windows cannot find any wireless networks in range of this computer

Detailed root cause:
Windows could not find any wireless networks in range of this computer

Repair option:
Click for information on how to find wireless networks in range of this
computer



Event Verbosity:0

Try changing the channel on your ap.....
"mmattner" <mmattner@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news66EBD5E-0D73-4566-8A61-B95BA13F6E23@microsoft.com...
> Hi,
>
> I've recently upgraded my Inspiron 9400 laptop containing a "Intel
> PRO/Wireless 3945 Dual Band 802.11a/g" wireless card to Vista Home
> Premium.
>
> I have now found that wireless has become VERY flakey - only occassionally
> when I boot up does a wireless network get detected even though a second
> laptop in my home is picking my home network up.
>
> On the occasions when the network is detected it is described as having an
> excellent signal and all works well. But for the 9 out of 10 times that
> the
> network is not detected I am forced to used an ethernet cable. I have
> updated
> to the latest driver on the dell site, even tried a later Intel version
> all
> to no effect.
>
> As far as I can tell I have ruled out the router (A Billion 7400G) as it
> was
> working perfectly (100% success under XP) and still working with other
> laptop.
>
> The flakeyness is what is throwing me as I cant put my finger on any
> possible cause.
>
> Anyone else had similar issues with this (or similar) configuration.
>
>
>
>
>
> The following is an extract from my event log which seems to relate to the
> error:
>
> Helper Class (AutoConfig Helper Class) Event:
>
> Wireless Diagnostic Helper Class Event
>
> For complete information about this session see the Wireless Diagnostic
> Informational Event.
>
> Helper Class: Auto Configuration
> Initialize status: Success
>
> Information for connection being diagnosed
> Interface GUID: 9c1a0b1a-798e-4bc4-902f-ddb38156447c
> Interface name: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
> Interface type: Native WiFi
>
> Result of diagnosis: Problem found
>
> Root cause:
> Windows cannot find any wireless networks in range of this computer
>
> Detailed root cause:
> Windows could not find any wireless networks in range of this computer
>
> Repair option:
> Click for information on how to find wireless networks in range of this
> computer
>
>
>
> Event Verbosity:0

Thanks for the reply - I have tried changing the channel and it seems to have
worked.

Suprisingly the connection seems to work better at a distance from the
wireless router. On my first attempts I was only about a metre away.

"mlai" wrote:

> Try changing the channel on your ap.....
> "mmattner" <mmattner@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news66EBD5E-0D73-4566-8A61-B95BA13F6E23@microsoft.com...
> > Hi,
> >
> > I've recently upgraded my Inspiron 9400 laptop containing a "Intel
> > PRO/Wireless 3945 Dual Band 802.11a/g" wireless card to Vista Home
> > Premium.
> >
> > I have now found that wireless has become VERY flakey - only occassionally
> > when I boot up does a wireless network get detected even though a second
> > laptop in my home is picking my home network up.
> >
> > On the occasions when the network is detected it is described as having an
> > excellent signal and all works well. But for the 9 out of 10 times that
> > the
> > network is not detected I am forced to used an ethernet cable. I have
> > updated
> > to the latest driver on the dell site, even tried a later Intel version
> > all
> > to no effect.
> >
> > As far as I can tell I have ruled out the router (A Billion 7400G) as it
> > was
> > working perfectly (100% success under XP) and still working with other
> > laptop.
> >
> > The flakeyness is what is throwing me as I cant put my finger on any
> > possible cause.
> >
> > Anyone else had similar issues with this (or similar) configuration.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > The following is an extract from my event log which seems to relate to the
> > error:
> >
> > Helper Class (AutoConfig Helper Class) Event:
> >
> > Wireless Diagnostic Helper Class Event
> >
> > For complete information about this session see the Wireless Diagnostic
> > Informational Event.
> >
> > Helper Class: Auto Configuration
> > Initialize status: Success
> >
> > Information for connection being diagnosed
> > Interface GUID: 9c1a0b1a-798e-4bc4-902f-ddb38156447c
> > Interface name: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
> > Interface type: Native WiFi
> >
> > Result of diagnosis: Problem found
> >
> > Root cause:
> > Windows cannot find any wireless networks in range of this computer
> >
> > Detailed root cause:
> > Windows could not find any wireless networks in range of this computer
> >
> > Repair option:
> > Click for information on how to find wireless networks in range of this
> > computer
> >
> >
> >
> > Event Verbosity:0
>