Help me understand wireless issues

[onlyme]

Had my x51 a week and I'm not impressed by wireless performance. I read about the issues with older wireless cards and poor signal reception. I'm assuming since my machine is a week old they fixed this problem ?

My question is how do I check what wireless card I have in my machine and which is the good card and which is the bad card ? Running win 8.

Then where can I get the latest drivers for my card as I understand this might improve things.

Secondly does anyone have any recommendations for a card upgrade I heard the intel was a good option.

Then finally I might house my machine in a cupboard, where it won't get hardly any wifi signal so I might end up putting a wifi dongle into a USB port via an extension cable and running thwt outside the cuboard to get a better signal.

Sorry about the 20 questions !!! But anyone who has been here before and can share experiences would be really appreciated.

 

[VagrantXeth]

My X51 is from when they first released them and I can tell you that as far as my wireless card is concerned, I had issues with the signal being weak from the beginning. I opted to use a USB wireless dongle that I already had and it made a world of difference. If you want to check what wireless card you have, you can always go to your start button and type in device manager, right click on the wirless card and select properties and I think that should tell you what you have.

As far as driver updates, it never hurts to try. Go to the Dell website and search for the drivers on your particular machine, you couldenter the service tag but as poeple on this forum might tell you that will not always work for finding the latest drivers for your machine.

A wireless dongle might be a good way to go if you will be housing your machine in an enclosed space, but you might need to take air circulation into consideration as it may effect the temperatures of your machine under a full load (i.e. long gaming sessions, graphics intensive applications etc.).

I know this may not answer all of your questions, but I hope it helps.

 

[sway]

They haven't refreshed the x51 yet (no x51 r2) so I'll bet anything they haven't put a better wireless card in there. If it's crappy you still have the crappy card like all of us got. Just buy a better one, they're pretty cheap depending on what you get. I paid 18$ for an Intel card from newegg and haven't had a problem since.

tappin from the Note II

 

[onlyme]

Thanks for the guidance.

'Sway' did you re-route the antenna in the chassis when you installed the new Intel Card ? or did they just connect straight onto the new card ? Also which Intel card did you buy - as I may also go this route, or dongle depending where I eventually place the machine.

'Vagrantxeth' - I was a but worried about over-heating if I put it in a cupboard. I just like a really neat look, no wires on show, boxed etc. but you have me thinking maybe under the table is better, will still mean a crappy wifi reception I think.

 

[MattyB]

Check out this review on the X51. Down the bottom he talks about the Wi-Fi. Looks like they may have sorted it out.

 

[onlyme]

Check out this review on the X51. Down the bottom he talks about the Wi-Fi. Looks like they may have sorted it out.

Thanks I just read that review. He echoes my experience, I strangely got only 2 bars wifi within 20ft of my router. Now the X51 is on another lower floor at the far side of my house and I'm getting 4 bars !!! but that does fluctuate.

I will eventually put the X51 in it's permanent location, under a desk again a wall or in a cupboard that will really impact the wifi signal. My wireless printer (Epson) is in the cupboard and get's a nearly full bar wifi signal, even though it's in a wooden box (cupboard). I'll have to try some experiments and take appropriate action is wifi gets poor.

 

[seek427]

Since i received my x51 in may 2012 this wi-fi card never worked. It was dead right out of the box . By chance i had a N900 USB Wireless adapter and was planning on using instead of an integrated card. SO just buy a Wireless USB stick depending on the speed of your router... N350 , N600 , N900 , etc.

 

[VagrantXeth]

Not much you can do regarding ventilation if you want an out of sight out of mind option for your alien, if you are going to be getting into long gaminig sessions.

 

[onlyme]

I just ordered a TP Link wifi dongle. Unfortunately, I found out after the order that it's tricky to get it working with Windows8 because either TP link or MS were too lazy to write a driver.

I think there is a work around -but hey this is the 21st century and I'm having to do a work around !!!! for a wiffi dongle !!!!