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PaulRoberts

1 Rookie

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4 Posts

258784

January 27th, 2016 06:00

Dell 1704 Wifi no working drivers for Win 10

Hi, I have an Inspiron 3543 laptop which has the Dell 1704 WiFi card running Windows 10 64-bit and I cannot find any drivers that work:

1) The latest v7.35.295.0 on the Dell driver download page crashes the laptop every couple of hours with a PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA bluescreen (I have read elsewhere that this is because I am running Hyper-V which this driver version does not properly support but I cannot remove Hyper-V as I am required to use it by my company for work)

2) Swapping back to the original v6.30.223.256 that comes with Windows 10 does not cause a bluescreen but instead it loses connection to the WiFi every couple of hours and I have to reboot to make it reconnect (I have disabled the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" setting in the Power Management screen of Device Manager,  set the "Minimum Power Consumption" to False in the Advanced screen of Device Manager, set it to "Maximum Performance" in the Power Options in Control Panel, and disabled "SpeedStep" in the BIOS - no combination of any of these changes stop it from happening)

So, I cannot use the latest driver version because it regularly bluescreens and I cannot use the original driver version because it regularly disconnects needing a reboot to fix.

What can I do? When will a driver version be coming that properly supports Hyper-V AND does not disconnect from the WiFi?

Thanks,

Paul

DELL-Todd S

3 Apprentice

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1.8K Posts

January 28th, 2016 10:00

Hi Paul,

I don't know when a new Win10 driver will be released for the Dell DW1704 card.  The previous one was in October but unless there is a significant problem with the wireless connectivity of the 1704 across a relatively wide number of users I don't know that a specific upgraded wireless driver will be released.  Not too many of our Inspiron 3543 customers would use Hyper-V so I find it highly unlikely an updated driver will released to address just that.

The V6.30.223.256 version of the driver is one that came with the card with initial Windows 10 installs, but have you tried deleting all wireless drivers, rebooting the system and allowing Win10 to find / install a native driver for the wireless card?  Or is that the version of driver it does install on your system?  Perhaps a native Win10 driver would work better for you?  Win10 is supposed to have built in drivers for many of the network components.  

The Inspiron 3543 DW1704 is a half height mini-pcie card, and your best bet may be to find a different card that will support Hyper-V.   Many of our Latitude and Precision Workstation line of systems, which are geared more towards business based uses, who would be more likely to use virtualization, tend to come with Intel based cards.  You may also want to check with the IT department of your company.  If they require you to use Hyper-V they may already have some idea of cards that they prefer that also support it.

Sorry I couldn't give you a more promising answer but unfortunately that line of systems, and cards, aren't really designed to handle what you're trying to do.

Todd

PaulRoberts

1 Rookie

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4 Posts

January 29th, 2016 11:00

Thanks for getting back to me Todd, I have to say I'm quite shocked by this, doesn't a driver causing a regular bluescreen when you try to use a certain perfectly legitimate Windows feature count as a significant issue?! The bigger concern is what led to it: Was it missed in testing? (pretty big and bad thing to miss!) or was it found but no-one cared enough to fix it? (I work in software too and if my team released something as 'supports Win 10' that was actually 'supports _most_ of Win 10 as long as you don't use feature X because it bluescreens' then there would be *** to pay!) Thanks for the info about the better wifi cards though, I've bought an Intel AC 7260 from amazon and I'll update this post later next week with how I get on when it arrives. (By the way, to answer your question: v6.30.223.256 is the one that Windows automatically puts on when I delete the drivers) Thanks, Paul

Philip_Yip

9 Legend

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16.1K Posts

January 30th, 2016 06:00

Dell have a new driver 7.35.333.0 released on the 22/01/2016:

http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER03503644M/1/Network_Driver_XT97T_WN32_7.35.333.0_A04.EXE

This driver is for both the 1704 and 1708.

PaulRoberts

1 Rookie

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4 Posts

February 3rd, 2016 06:00

Ok thanks, I've just installed this update and I'll see if this fixes the bluescreens and disconnects before I swap the wifi card out for the new Intel one I bought (I presume this update is meant to fix those issues?)

Is there any updated driver for the Bluetooth on the 1704 too? that doesn't work well either as I have to remove and re-pair every device every time I switch them on and try to use them (happens every time with brand new BT 4.0 headphones, brand new BT 4.0 mouse, and an older iPhone 5S).

Thanks,

Paul

PaulRoberts

1 Rookie

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4 Posts

February 3rd, 2016 09:00

Update: I installed the newly released drivers for the Dell 1704 wifi card and used them for a short while and didn't have any bluescreens or disconnections during that time (didn't run for very long though).

I then replaced it with the Intel AC 7260 card I bought for $30 and it is working beautifully and it also has none of the Bluetooth problems that the Dell card had too - seems that the Intel cards are just much higher quality than the Broadcom ones!

Thanks Todd and Phillip for your help especially Todd for the suggestion about the Intel card - in the future I will probably rip out any rebranded Broadcom cards and replace them with Intel ones just as a matter of course.

Paul

keshav NS

2 Posts

February 4th, 2016 11:00

Looks this ver7.35.333.0 is not supported for DW1704 Wifi cards... still i'm seeing the "Hosted network support =no "  after doing update and reboot of the laptop verified the driver version and executed CMD prompt it is same. Please do let me know other older version which were working fine while running WIFI HOTSPOT in old Windows 8, do let me know link to for drivers so i can carry on with my work. Till new drivers supports in windows 10.

Thanks for help and Support !!!

keshav NS

2 Posts

February 4th, 2016 11:00

I have issue in the Dell Inspiron 5343 model.  DW1704 driver doesn't support hosted network to make Win10 as Hotspot. As verified the WLAN drivers ver 7.35.295.0. I have tried other approaches it didn't work. 

After verifying it comes to know that it is driver issue not Sw/Hw. Currently downloading the latest version let me check whether it works for me this version to support DW1704 as hotspot.

Thanks for posting updated drivers url.

I will post update after verification. Thx

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