Dell N5050 takes 10-15 minutes to connect to wireless.

Good afternoon,

The Dell N5050 Windows 7 laptop my partner has takes in the region of 10 to 15 minutes (sometimes longer) to connect to the Internet (BT) and has been like this for months.

If she clicks the wireless icon in the right hand system tray it doesn't show her wireless in the available connections and there is an orange star in the middle of the icon.

She has to Open Network and Sharing Centre, then right click the Wireless Network Connection, then click Properties, then click the Sharing tab and then click the drop down menu and select Wireless Network Connection 2 and then click OK.
She has to do exactly the same as above for the Wireless Network Connection 2.
She usually has to do this several times for each of the above before it actually finds and connects to the wireless.

The Network Adapters in device manager are:
Dell Wireless 1701 802.11b/g/n
Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter
Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller
I have checked the drivers for updates and they all appear to be up to date.

The Power Management for both is set to unchecked for Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
I have run diagnose and that doesn't help at all, although it says that None of the networks you have previously connected to are in range.

This has been going on for months.

Has anyone got any ideas please?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks fireberd for the reply, it is appreciated.

I am running the tests on her machine now.

The thing is that she got someone to install the system for her many many moons ago and he linked all the other devices with it which is not what she wanted and never got him back to correct it and he has now dropped out of sight.

When she does get connected to the Internet it works fine until the laptop is restarted or shut down and then restarted. She then has to go through the whole process mentioned in post 1 again. It is as though it doesn't save the correct configuration or something and has to be manually set again.

This is why I am thinking of doing a clean install as mentioned in another post to see if this sorts it out. A bit drastic I know, but it will save many hours trying to connect to the Internet.

Thanks in advance.

The internal Wi-Fi adapter shouldn't show as Wireless Network Connection 2. Go into Device Manager and see if there is another adapter showing that could be removed.

Thanks for the reply Bat 1,

The Network Adapters in device manager are:

Dell Wireless 1701 802.11b/g/n
Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter
Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller

In the Open Network and Sharing Centre and Change Adapter Settings there are the following:

Local Area Connection (Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller) - Network Cable
Wireless Network Connection (Dell Wireless 1701 802.11b/g/n) - Internet Access
Wireless Network Connection 2 (Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter)

The one above (Wireless Network Connection 2) when she eventually connects to the Internet shows Not Connected. How can I delete this one so it doesn't keep reappearing on restarts or boot ups?

Are you suggesting that somehow I delete one of those?

Thanks in advance.

So there's also nothing under possibly Other Devices or maybe even Bluetooth ?
.
Thinking that if you're able to connect by Ethernet, that you could delete both devices and the adapter drivers in Device Manager (if necessary), then scan for hardware changes. I might be wrong so best wait for someone else to post. :)

Thanks for the reply Bat 1,

There are NO other devices listed, but, under Bluetooth Radios there is a:
Dell Wireless 1701 Bluetooth v3.0+HS which is Disabled because she does not use Blutooth for anything and being disabled doesn't seem to affect anything once she manages to connect to the Internet.

Thanks in advance.

Right Click on Wireless Network Connection in Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections and then click Properties and see what it says

If I understand you correctly, here is what it says under the Networking Tab:

Connect using: Dell Wireless 1701 802.11b/g/n

This connection uses the following items:

Client for Microsoft Networks - Ticked
QoS Packet Scheduler - Ticked
File and Printer Sharing for Microsft Networks - NOT Ticked
Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) - Ticked
Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) - Ticked
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver - Ticked
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder - Ticked

I hope this is what you mean!

One point I should make is that this also happens when we are at other peoples houses trying to login, again, it takes many attempts until it actually gets connected.