Vostro 1500 / Intel 3945ABG Problem?

[barney_2k]

Hi there!

I'm having a problem with my intel 3945ABG wireless in my dell vostro 1500 laptop.

Literally tearing my hair out now! Basically the wireless was not functioning for a long time, after installing a few different versions of Windows, trying various drivers and BIOS's etc. I couldnt get it to work.

Then i left it for a while and I eventually ended up putting Ubuntu on it. Then the wireless randomly woke up and started working, but then stopped again after a day or so. Since then it will work randomly, maybe once a day if I boot it 5 or 6 times, then turn off after a certain amount of time. Tried it without the battery, running just off the battery and I cant seem to find a set of curcumstances where it works or otherwise?

So I thought maybe it was just a loose connection on the wireless card? Opened the laptop up and reseated the card but that made no difference either.

What im thinking is, if the wireless does work every now and then, it cannot be a hardware fault and that the card cannot be broken.

I might just be being naieve but im sure there must be some solution to this.

Anyone had any other similar experiences or any suggestions to help me out?

Maybe its a BIOS problem if its affecting more than 1 OS?

Cheers everyone

Barney

[DDY]

I'm not sure if this is going to work, but give it a go; head in to the BIOS and disable the wireless switch, i.e. so that toggling the switch won't disable or enable wifi, also disable the wifi catcher.

An intermittent fault doesn't necessarily rule out faulty hardware, you even said it happens on two OS'es; suggests faulty hardware to me. There are cheap Dell 1395 wireless cards on eBay for a few quid, give one a go to rule out a faulty wifi card.