Dell Inspiron 630m laptop XP > Windows 7.

Acquired the above laptop which originally had XP system Professional. It has been converted to Windows 7 (not by me). Everything seems to be working fine, but I cannot use Wi-fi, even after pressing the wireless button. I am having to use it connected with an ethernet cable.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can enable Wi-fi in Windows 7 ? Will it be that the 'driver' for Wi-fi needs re-installing, and if so, how can I achieve that ?
I do not have any disks with the Inspiron 630m.

The laptop I am using now(running Windows XP) connects wirelessly, as does another laptop in the house which runs Windows Vista.
Hoping someone can suggest a remedy, or should I also visit Windows forums ?

 

Hello Yiknaa,

I think you will need the Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG driver as this seems to be (I hope) the one for your Dell Inspirion 630. From what I have seen, the driver for Vista may also suit your Dell laptop.

Dell generally have excellent driver support. However your laptop seems to have been marketed with XP as OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and has, "chucked a mental" with Windows 7.

Most driver sets offer both 32 and 64 bit options. I don't know whether you Dell laptop is 32 or 64 bit and the same with Windows 7.

Just put the driver name into a browser and see what comes up. It should be available. Copy to a USB and install on your Dell.

Hope it works for you.

Cheers,

Aunty Jack. (Mark).

 

Aunty Jack, Thanks for that quick response and I will make notes from your reply, and search along what you suggest.
The Inspiron 630m was 'converted' by a local IT firm, and their staff are very professional, so I am thinking along the lines that the problem is only a slight hiccup, and with guidance from people in here I should eventually resolve it.
I have just had a look at Windows 7 Forums, and there is a similar query to my problem.
A link there is : http://downloadcenter.intel.com?Sear....aspx?lang=eng but trying to reach that does not work. At the moment I am using an Acer laptop running XP. Could that be the reason I am not getting access ?

 

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/search?keyword=

try here

 

Elizabeth 23, I have just had a look at your link and managed to connect to it. I assume that the download I require is the 3rd one in the list, ie. Lan Intel Gigabit... etc.
At the moment I am on a Vista laptop so will wait until I get the 7 laptop running and try and download it directly.
Aunty Jack, Yesterday, I managed to download the driver for Vista onto the Windows 7 laptop, but still could not connect wirelessly . I will see what happens with Elizabeth's suggested download.

[In March I managed to crash an Acer laptop with XP by pressing the wrong button. Everything wiped and dead ! With help from this forum, and others, I managed to get it back to normal - so I am not too despondent re this current problem.]

 

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/3821/Intel-PRO-Wireless-2200BG-Network-Connection

read above, you want the second driver

also for further info please read

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/pro2200bg/sb/CS-028972.htm

below is for win 7, the first link I gave you here is for vista wifi

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/3821/Intel-PRO-Wireless-2200BG-Network-Connection

 

Success, but it has taken me the best part of the afternoon. I disconnected the ethernet cable which removed the 'home' connection, and that freed me to attempt to connect with the wi-fi set up through my router.
Elizabeth 23, I will bookmark your post above and store those links, just in case !!!
Thanks for your help, and also thanks to Aunty Jack.

My age ? 70yrs+ but I am still willing to learn

 

great, you got me by 10 years.

 

Everything is now running well re wi-fi connection, but :

has anyone any idea why this laptop, (converted from XP to Windows 7, on Thursday, 3rd Sept 2015) is now loading dozens of updates, practically every time I use it ? The latest batch, in the last hour is " Installing update 59 0f 91."

I am assuming that the updates are Windows updates. Correct ? If so what will they be for and connected with ?

Hoping someone can help clarify.

 

if you could connect with a/c power then you could get all the updates , but if you are using battery power, then possibly all the updates cannot be done at once.

win 7 is not a new os so there will be plenty of updates. a clean install of xp with sp3 will have 190 updates.

you can look in event viewer and see what each update is.

not sure about win 7, as I have xp, you might need to ask in a win7 forum.

 

Elizabeth 23, Thanks for that. I will bear in mind the use of a/c rather than the battery power when installing updates. I will also look in the Windows 7 forums for further advice.
Thanks.

 

okey dokey,

 

Thanks for the help re these 2 problems. I have also joined Windows 7 Forums and I am getting further valuable information from there.

"Search engines and helpers in here are my best friends." .

 

As I posted I joined Seven Forums and am getting the help required. Looks like my problem(s) are almost solved.

 

good work, best of luck with the win 7, if you go back to xp, come on back