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Diego_JaenFlag for El Salvador

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Unable to install wifi drivers

Hi Everyone,
I'm having a bit of a problem with a new Dell Inspiron 14 3421, I have the model that comes with Ubuntu as a factory OS. now, I installed a fresh copy of windows 7 pro instead of ubuntu, so far so good. I installed all of the drivers I got from Dell's support website, these are the drivers recommended to me by the site using the service tag. all works perfectly good all but the wifi driver, it either fails to install or it it completes the installation but nothing changes, I have tried all 3 drivers that the website offers, plus one of the older version drivers, nothing works, on my devise manager I do get the "network" with an exclamation so the card is there and is recognized by the computer. Also when it had the Ubuntu OS in there the wifi worked. I also noticed that the drivers for the WiFi are in my experience unusually large ranging from about 158MB to about 350MB. Also the driver is a wifi + bluetooth file, and I always have to skip the Bluetooth installation because it will always fail on account of bluetooth not being turned on (IT IS!) it asks me to activate the bluetooth with the network adapter switch, the computer doesn't have a switch all it has is the function key to turn the wifi on and off. and the Bluetooth is working without having installed the drivers for it. so bluetooth works fine, it turns on and off with the function keys no problem. but the wifi doesn't take any driver.
any help will be fantastic.
Regards.
Avatar of tmoore1962
tmoore1962

Have you checked to make sure devices are enabled in BIOS? Also some dell's have quick launch buttons that will require the software / utility in order to be active and some control the Blue tooth and wireless adapters, do you have any unknown devices in device manager??
Assuming the network adapter is still an unknown in dev mgr. look at properties/details and change to the hardware IDs you can then google the PCI\Ven_XXXX info to get the maker of the adapter so you know which driver to use.
Avatar of Scott C
Try doing a factory reset of the BIOS.  I've seen it where the wireless card is seen in the BIOS but won't work until a BIOS reset is done.
Avatar of Diego_Jaen

ASKER

Hi,
I have done an update of the BIOS from A04 to A05, still same results when trying to install the driver.
the Hardware IDs I get from the device manager are the following:

PCI\VEN_168&DEV_0036&SUBSYS_020C1028&REV_01
PCI\VEN_168&DEV_0036&SUBSYS_020C1028
PCI\VEN_168&DEV_0036&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_168&DEV_0036&CC_0280

thanks in advanced
Regards,
i found no relevant matches for the ven and dev values
is ubuntu still installed?  then you can lookup what wireless device it is
or try windows Updata>optional updates, and see if it finds a driver for it

to be complete, here is how i find drivers :
if you have  unknown devices in device manager, you can use this procedure to identify them :

1-visit the motherboard manufacturers support site, for downloading drivers
2- use windows update >optional updates to find them

3-Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Information.
Now select  "Components" and highlight "Problem Devices".
All hardware devices with a driver problem will be listed here.
Make a note of the first line of the PNP Device ID line of the entry. It will show a Vendor number and a Device number (VENxxxxDEVxxxx) both four digits long.
Look up those numbers here:   http://www.pcidatabase.com/index.php

This will tell you the manufacturer and the chip number.  
Check the manufacturer's website first or google them - or post them here

If your LAN is running, you can also use windows update> optional drivers, or  use slimdrivers : https://www.slimwareutilities.com/slimdrivers.php
PCI\VEN_168 doesn't appear to be a valid vendor code.
It should be a 4-character HEX string; I see only 3 characters there.
e.g. one of Broadcom's vendor codes is 14E4.


Download
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/Product/inspiron-14-3421?driverId=T98JJ&osCode=W764&fileId=3143180727&languageCode=EN&categoryId=CS
Boot to Safe mode and run that file to reinstall the Chipset driver.
Then reboot to normal mode and try installing the wireless driver for the WiFi card indicated when you queried by Service Tag.  
The 3 WiFi + BT drivers listed on the support page for Win7 are all for different cards (1703, 1704 and 1705).
Hey, sorry I didn't type in the dev code correctly these are the proper codes:

PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0036&SUBSYS_020C1028&REV_01
PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0036&SUBSYS_020C1028
PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0036&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0036&CC_0280

I also tried to use the slimdrivers utility, but it didn't find any drivers for the Wifi card.
I have gone into the dell site and used the service tag, I get the 3 different drivers, I have tried all of them and none works, I have also updated the BIOS from version A04 to A05.
Thanks for all the help
Regards
168C is Atheros, so that should be the driver you are installing.  Uninstall any other wireless that you have
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Darr247
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I tried installing this Driver, and it worked right off the bat, I was sure I had already tried this one and it didn't work, but this time it did.
Thanks a lot