Archive for the ‘Hardware’ Category

1500 WLAN Minicard Connectivity Issue

Author: Travis Swientek

1 Apr

I finally got around to Googling this issue I’ve been having with my Dell E1505 laptop, which uses a Dell 1390 WLAN Minicard. Thought I blog about it since it was buried deep in a forum somewhere.

If your laptop is having issues connecting to WIFI connections, regardless of what router you’re using. Updating the drivers will not help! It is most likely an issue with whatever internal antenna the card is using. Aparently there are more than one antenna this card can use?? I’m not sure, but the problem I was having was that I would see the access point, could connect, but the connection would drop shortly thereafter. Then the access point would not be visible for 5 or 10 minutes. Using the Dell WIFI software or Windows XP Wireless Zero Configuration Utility had no impact.

To fix this issue, go to the Device Manager. Double click on the Dell Wireless (1390/1490/1500) Dual Band WLAN Mini-Card device. The properties dialog should appear. Click on the Advanced tab. Look for Antenna Diversity under the Property. Change the value to Aux. Hit ok. Then try and reconnect to your WIFI connection. By changing this you should see your access point and be able to connect to it.

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Filed under: Hardware, Wireless Issues

Big Hard Drives

Author: Travis Swientek

3 Feb

Price Trend: 750GB and 1TB Hard Drives

When it comes to storage, bigger is always better. Fortunately, you’re not limited to what came inside your PC. You can either upgrade your internal hard drive, which is easy if you know how, or add an external hard drive and avoid tinkering with your computer’s innards.

Prices on both internal and external hard drives have tumbled in the past year, thanks in part to competition from solid-state memory. The current price for an external 750GB hard drive has now hit $150, a 50% drop from where prices were a year ago. Terabyte drives have also dipped in price: These monstruous hard drives can now be had for as little as $320, where they once retailed for shy of a grand. Lower capacity drives, however, have remained steady in price. So we compared recent price lows of 750GB drives with that of 1TB drives to see which drive offers the most bang for your buck.

Hard Drives	750GB Internal	750GB External	1TB Internal	1TB External*
Price Last Year	$300	$479	$320	$449
Current Price	$150	$150	$270	$199
Percentage Drop	50%	68%	15%	55%
Buy or Wait?	Buy!	Buy!	Hold	Buy!

*Includes dual 500GB models

Overall, external drives have seen the biggest price decrease. These USB- and FireWire-based drives often come with backup software, whereas their internal counterparts don’t. In addition, 1TB internal drives are still rare and pricey, so if you’re in need of extra storage space, it makes sense to buy as much as you can currently afford. As more systems with SSD options debut, we can only expect to see further HDD price cuts. We’ll keep you in the loop on the latest deals.

Louis Ramirez is a dealnews Features Editor.

Posted 2 days, 3 hrs ago

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