Poor wifi

paolo2 · 12-30-2011, 07:21 AM

I have just bought my wife a M5030 for Christmas. However, I am extremely disappointed with the level of wifi performance that we are getting.
One of the main reasons for buying it was so she could use it in bed, however we cannot get a signal at all. Every other wifi device in the house, (including 2 other Dell laptops has no problem). The router is only downstairs and one room along so distance is not an issue.
The card in the laptop is an Atheros AR 8152, does anybody have any experience of this card? does it have any issues?

Commander Wolf · 12-30-2011, 12:45 PM

I'm just regurgitating what I've heard from Tsunade... it's a lousy card with just one antenna. He ended up modding two more antennas into his M5030 and replacing the card with an Intel 6300.

Tsunade_Hime · 12-30-2011, 11:27 PM

Ya my brother's M5030 WIFI was so bad (being a crap Atheros card, 1x1 WLAN and antennae), I went on eBay and bought a 2x2 antennae set for 3 dollars, and a Dell Intel 6200 for 13. You have to remove the M5030 bezel and reroute the WLAN antennae. I zip-tied the extra antennae cable and tucked it away. Whole modification took about 30 minutes.

paolo2 · 01-02-2012, 03:49 PM

Thanks guys, glad I'm not the only one with this lousy card.
Any piccies of the mod?
Can't find a 2x2 antenna set on ebay, do you have a more detailed description I could search for.

Tsunade_Hime · 01-03-2012, 01:53 AM

New TYCO Laptop WIFI Wireless Mini PCI PCI-E Internal Antenna Intel 6250 6230 | eBay

No unfortunately I did not take any pictures. Everything is well documented in the Dell service manual for the M5030.

paolo2 · 01-21-2012, 11:28 AM

Tried installing the 6200, but after installing the software, I'm getting a messsage "no wifi card installed"
Also, any tips on the routing of the extra antenna?
Also, stupid question, but I'm assuming that this being an intel card will work with an AMD processor?

Tsunade_Hime · 01-21-2012, 10:23 PM

Are you sure you installed the right Intel drivers? My brother's 6200 didn't even need drivers.

paolo2 · 01-22-2012, 04:10 AM

This is the one:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sear...&FamilyId=1783

Tsunade_Hime · 01-22-2012, 08:44 AM

Okay well those are the right one...perhaps you got a bum WLAN card? Did you screw it in properly?

paolo2 · 01-22-2012, 11:35 AM

Screwed in fine. The guy on Ebay is going to take it back.