Hello All,

I have a Dell Latitude E6530 laptop for which the wifi will intermittently freeze up. I have to shut off the manual wifi switch and turn it back on. That seems to reset it and it will then run fine again until the same thing happens all over again.
I did some research online and there seems to be a lot of similar complaints, some involving a Broadcom adapter, of which I think mine may be one, I'm not sure at this point in time. One of the ideas being tossed around seems to be some sort of driver conflict. All of my drivers are the most recent per the Dell website.
I was thinking about swapping out the wifi adapter, using one from maybe an HP or a Sony laptop. My thought is that by doing so, I may be able to do away with the current driver conflict, if that is indeed my problem.
Any ideas out there about my problem, and what I could run into using a different wifi adapter?

Thanks.

 

If you have the latest Dell drivers then I doubt you have a driver conflict. It could be a bad wifi card but replacing the current card with one made for a different manufacturer is a bad idea. Most likely it could even be made by Broadcom for the other laptop but it may be made to that manufacturers specifications only, within FCC guidelines. For instance one problem that you might run into is that your current card may be able to use Wireless N which is backwards compatible with a wireless G router. However the other manufacturers card may be G only.

There are other possibilities too where you could run into even more conflicts by using a different card from another manufacturer that I will not go into now. Have you run a virus check lately? Viruses on your computer can cause your wifi to drop in and out. Also your router may actually be to blame as it may be having wifi issues, check with a neighbor if you can to see if it is your router. If that isn't possible go to a local restaurant or library and check there. If your laptop works better at those places than at home it is your router.

 

If I remember correctly, somewhere in the Broadcom management tool it gives you a choice to use "this" application to manage your WiFi. If you un-check this option, you revert to letting Windows manage your WiFi. Try that and see if you have better luck. There are some things that the Broadcom management tool is just not compatible with.

 

I had a similar problem with the newer FiOs wireless modem on my Toshiba laptop. I had the computer check all the drivers and it showed up to date. I went to Intel, the manufacturer of the internal wireless card and they had a newer driver update that fixed the problem.

 

So many people despise Broadcom. They are mostly Linux users. You didn't say if you use Linux or not. Aside from that, the conflict doesn't have to between drivers. It can be between anything. What you & most people don't do is look for error messages in the event viewer. Sometimes there is a lot of info there. It may give you an event ID which can be searched on eventid.net

One time I was working, for a customer. I couldn't get her wifi to work no matter what I tried. Luckily, I had a Hawkings USB adapter, with me that worked perfectly. I always keep a Hawkings handy. I finally sold it to her & ordered another. Everyone was happy.

 

Just an update: I think I have fixed my problem. By process of elimination, I narrowed it down to the wifi card - either hardware or more probably software related. On Ebay, I picked up a cheap Intel replacement that came from a fairly recent Dell laptop. So far, that intermittent wifi lockup problem no longer pops up. So thanks a lot folks.