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unable to update firmware on dell truemobile 1150 card


cov3rt

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i have tried to update the firmware of the dell truemobile 1150 cardbus wireless adapter on windows 95, as well as on windows 10 tested too, but both complain of no wireless card driver found. now, for windows 10, i haven't installed the driver yet, but for windows 95, i did have the driver installed. the full error code is "no wireless card driver found. make sure the right driver is installed, and the wireless card is inserted. please check our website for information about the latest available drivers and firmware updates."

now the firmware utility itself also mentions no card information available, and this was for the official 6.16 dell firmware one and i also tried to test the 8.72 unofficial one, cardbus and mini pci both gave the same error. has anyone had any experience trying to update the firmwares on these cards? i don't remember, but a long time ago, i might have gotten at least the official 6.16 firmware to install, but i think it was a mini pci version so the scenario was a little different. on windows 95, the driver is installed and considered "working" by device manager, but even the agere / orinoco client manager 3.30 application i installed doesn't detect it, despite it supposedly mentioned as doing so elsewhere ( indirect source from a dell forum ). 

i wouldn't want to update the firmware elsewhere, because that wouldn't be a practical solution for people who would wan't to configure the card from windows 95, so what exactly could the issues be of it not detected the card / the firmware complaining that it's not compatible, as that was another error, specifically from the unofficial 8.72 firmware i think.

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3 hours ago, RainyShadow said:

I thought the firmware is loaded by the driver during boot.

Try this guide

the link you referenced to didn't relate to my problems, however, i was able to achieve new results with some methods i applied. oddly, the firmware update wouldn't work / detect the card with the original driver dated in late 2000, however, upon some weird tinkering, i was able to somehow get the unofficial 8.72 firmware updater to work ( pc card version ), i also have the mini pci version fimrware update as well. 

what i did was unchecked the read only option for the inf of WLLUC41 from package of "NDIS 3 Miniport Driver for MS-Windows 95    Variant 1 Version: 7.64", and then added "%Wlluc01.DeviceDesc%=Wlluc01.Install, PCMCIA\Lucent_Technologies-WaveLAN/IEEE-C4F2" to the inf, saved, re-installed the driver from device manager using have disk method, selected the "ORiNOCO PC Card (5 volt)" option, copied files from appropriate areas. the wizard may not work properly and ask for a file that already should be copied, simply point it to the folder with the browse option and it should work. 

after this, i was able to update to the unofficial 8.72 firmware. however, for the client manager, none of them seemed to work, regardless of whether i tried the dell 1150 specific ones or the orinoco client manager. although i didn't write down specifically which ones i tested, i believe the 3.30 dell / orinoco clients did not work, neither did the 2.58 / 1.71 ones, and i don't think i went lower because i didn't see a point in using version 1.58 or older. now what did "work" was going back to the actual dell truemobile 1150 ndis 3 driver dated in late 2000, and using dell truemobile 1150 client manager ( pc card version specifically ) version 2.58, with 1.58 version also working. 

i did not have a way of actually testing the wifi card itself and it's application and connecting to a access point, as it's limited to wep or open wifi, none of which am i able to do, though the application / way of connecting seems a little farfetched, because it has like two seperate applications, but anyways, that's for a different discussion. now the thing is, i do not believe i tested the 2.58 and 1.58 dell clients before the firmware upgrade, so it's possible that it still would have worked, but there's another issue with the fact that it's unclear on the exact functionality of the driver, as well as the 8.72 firmware, as it's shown in clients 2.58 and 1.58, and as a reminder, these were the dell clients. 

indeed the card is identified as a form of gold card in the dell 2.58 and 1.58 clients, so it does appear to be some kind of rebranded orinoco gold card. 

you may be able to also add "PCMCIA\Lucent_Technologies-WaveLAN/IEEE-C043" to the 7.64 inf as well ( for unofficial firmware 8.72 to work, and then go back to the older actual dell 1150 driver so you can configure it will the dell truemobile 1150 2.58 or 1.58 specific client manager ), however, i did not test the mini pci version yet and i did this after all of the steps mentioned here. 

other than all this, the laptop's intel pro 100 ve network connection with dev 2449 does not work either, and i'm not sure why, i noticed that winipcfg can't release or renew ip addresses for it, and complains of a dhcp related error, something to which i never had, unless it was a card such as the dell truemobile 1150, limited to wep, etc. i used the 6.1.3.0, as well as the older 5 series driver in 2001, but doesn't seem to make a difference. 

Edited by cov3rt
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