Network card drivers not working

[olly1240]

Hi everyone,

i recently changed my wireless card, with a Dell DW1820A, because I needed a broadcom chip for testing and I found that card for a really cheap price. When I booted to Windows it failed to load the driver. I tried to install other drivers for that card but every driver failed. It also screwed up my Windows: Removed Pin for login (freezes settings if I try to change it) and glitched the pen input cursor. Bluetooth drivers tough work nearly flawlessly. I tried to use it on Arch linux but still no luck. Is there a Whitelist in the Bios that prevents the card from functioning correctly? How can I fix that?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

See if this works and if it doesn't then there is nothing you can do.

I do not believe that your notebook has a BIOS whitelist, but that doesn't necessarily mean that any wifi card that fits in the M.2 slot is going to work.

Download and save but do not run this driver.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=58ftm

Download and install this free file utility.  The 2nd link at the top of the page is for 64 bit.

https://www.7-zip.org/

After you install 7-Zip, right click on the Dell wifi driver you saved.

Have 7-Zip Extract to:  and let it extract the file into its folder name.

Once that is done, go to the device manager.  Click on the Network controller device that needs the driver.

Click on the driver tab.  Click on Update driver.

Select the Browse my computer for driver software option, and browse to the driver folder that 7-Zip created.

Make sure the Include subfolders box is checked and hopefully, the driver will install that way.

Then restart the PC.