Vostro 1520 s wireless crapout?

Two of our Vostro 1520s taken from 6 months of
mothballing have the same failure, apparently that
the 1394 access to wirelss hangs the system pretty
quickly. They work okay with wireless off.

Is there some BIOS battery failure that might lead
to this?

The odds of two machines having the same failure
are pretty low, unless their age is the cause in
common.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Ron Hardin wrote:

Two of our Vostro 1520s taken from 6 months of
mothballing have the same failure, apparently that
the 1394 access to wirelss hangs the system pretty
quickly. They work okay with wireless off.

Is there some BIOS battery failure that might lead
to this?

The odds of two machines having the same failure
are pretty low, unless their age is the cause in
common.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

The CD diagnostics hung trying to verify PCI devices when it went to the 1510 wireless
minicard.

Two of them fail at once on two machines?
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Ron Hardin wrote:

Ron Hardin wrote:

Two of our Vostro 1520s taken from 6 months of
mothballing have the same failure, apparently that
the 1394 access to wirelss hangs the system pretty
quickly. They work okay with wireless off.

Is there some BIOS battery failure that might lead
to this?

The odds of two machines having the same failure
are pretty low, unless their age is the cause in
common.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

The CD diagnostics hung trying to verify PCI devices when it went to the 1510 wireless
minicard.

Two of them fail at once on two machines?
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Same thing on a third Vostro 1520! We bought them all around the same time.

The system runs for a while then hangs, unless the wifi is off.

Works okay on cat5 cable instead.

I believe all have 1510 minicards.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

On Sunday, November 24, 2013 2:23:52 PM UTC-5, Ron Hardin wrote:
Ron Hardin wrote:



Ron Hardin wrote:



Two of our Vostro 1520s taken from 6 months of

mothballing have the same failure, apparently that

the 1394 access to wirelss hangs the system pretty

quickly. They work okay with wireless off.



Is there some BIOS battery failure that might lead

to this?



The odds of two machines having the same failure

are pretty low, unless their age is the cause in

common.

--





On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.



The CD diagnostics hung trying to verify PCI devices when it went to the 1510 wireless

minicard.



Two of them fail at once on two machines?

--





On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.



Same thing on a third Vostro 1520! We bought them all around the same time.



The system runs for a while then hangs, unless the wifi is off.



Works okay on cat5 cable instead.



I believe all have 1510 minicards.

--





On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Ron,

Fortunately, the 1520 uses a standard CMOS battery in a socket, unlike other Dell models that use one with a pair of wire leads. It's worth spending 2-3 dollars for a single CR2032 3v lithium CMOS battery at a fine store like Walmart. Change out the battery and see if the system improves. It's worth a try for a small investment.

I have seen all manner of strange symptoms when a CMOS battery fails. The fact that the other batteries are all now dead points to the almost 100% chance of a dead CMOS battery.

Even before doing so, power up a 1520, hit F2, and make sure that every BIOS setup parameter makes sense. You can also try operating the system without the big battery to see if that changes things.

If all else fails, you can use any one of Intel 5000-series WLAN Half-Mini Card as replacements, but make doubly sure that the Intel card comes with a Dell part number as well. Otherwise, the Dell BIOS will reject it. My general experience is that Intel wifi cards work better than the Broadcom ones used widely by Dell, HP and others... Ben Myers

Ben Myers wrote:

Ron,

Fortunately, the 1520 uses a standard CMOS battery in a socket, unlike other Dell models that
use one with a pair of wire leads. It's worth
spending 2-3 dolla

I have seen all manner of strange symptoms when a CMOS battery fails. The fact that the other
batteries are all now dead points to the almost
100% chance of a

I've taken out the processor and heat sink.

Question: to I have to add new goop to the heat
sink when I replace it (if I ever get to the coin
cell battery with the dell instructions screwed
up) or is the old good good enough?

If new, what goop do I add?
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

On Saturday, November 30, 2013 10:24:05 AM UTC-5, Ron Hardin wrote:
Ben Myers wrote:



Ron,



Fortunately, the 1520 uses a standard CMOS battery in a socket, unlike other Dell models that

use one with a pair of wire leads. It's worth

spending 2-3 dolla



I have seen all manner of strange symptoms when a CMOS battery fails. The fact that the other

batteries are all now dead points to the almost

100% chance of a



I've taken out the processor and heat sink.



Question: to I have to add new goop to the heat

sink when I replace it (if I ever get to the coin

cell battery with the dell instructions screwed

up) or is the old good good enough?



If new, what goop do I add?

--





On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

You probably do not need to add any thermal paste between the CPU and the heat sink. With most laptops, even when I upgrade the CPU on occasion, I do not add thermal paste. But if a laptop has a habit of running hot, then remove the old thermal paste (a lint-free cloth rag is best) and put a small dab on top of the little square in the middle of the CPU. Small dab. Not much is needed, as the square is pretty small, and that is where the heat gets transmitted from CPU to heat sink... Ben Myers

Well rats.

1. the coin cell battery was good (voltage 3.24v)

2. upon reassbling it gets a system board error.

(flash on on)

This particular one just had had a ethernet
failure as well as its previous wifi failure.

weird.

well its parts now.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Ron Hardin wrote:

Well rats.

1. the coin cell battery was good (voltage 3.24v)

2. upon reassbling it gets a system board error.

(flash on on)

This particular one just had had a ethernet
failure as well as its previous wifi failure.

weird.

well its parts now.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

On the bright side, I had no screws left over.
--


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Ron Hardin wrote:
This particular one just had had a ethernet
failure as well as its previous wifi failure.

weird.

well its parts now.

A second failed Vostro 1520 wireless that I put on
the wired LAN had the same LAN failure just now.

Did Dell build a bunch of motherboards with
acid-core solder?

They're flaking out one by one, among ones we
bought at the same time.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.