So here’s the problem with my Dell Inspirion E1505…

Just my luck!  Two months out of warranty and the thing stops booting.  I’ve tracked the problem down to the Intel 3945 wireless card.  If the wifi card is enabled in the BIOS, the notebook freezes while booting.  If it is disabled the notebook boots fine.  Initially I thought the problem was Windows Vista (because it’s so easy to blame Vista).  But I’ve tried XP and Ubuntu and the problem remains.  It always hangs during the OS loading progress bar, so I’m sure it’s hanging up when the OS tries to load the wifi card.

So now that I know the wireless card is the problem, the logical next step is to replace the card…right?  And while I’m at it, I might as well upgrade to the Intel 4965 card so that I can move to 802.11n. But after installing the new card the problem still remains. 

What to do…what to do?  Replace the motherboard? Buy a USB wifi adapter, or maybe an ExpressCard adapter (like the Linksys WEC600N)?

I’ve searched and searched and haven’t found anyone with the same problem.  I can’t be the only one, can I?

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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 1:34 am and is filed under Uncategorized . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “So here’s the problem with my Dell Inspirion E1505…”

  • rg Says:
    August 3rd, 2008 at 1:12 pm

    just discovered the same problem on an E1505. WiFi enabled freezes the boop process. Disable the WiFi and all is well.

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