cant find correct driver

[MonKENy]

Working on an Inspiron n4020 and I cannot find the correct wireless driver,the ones on the website do not work. I get a needed hardware not found error when I try to install the dell one.

I just installed a stock win 7 pro 64bit OS. Any ideas?

 

[inachu]

In my experience that just means nobody created a working 64bit driver for that device yet.

Best thing to do with your dell is to open it up or use software that can ID all the hardware on your laptop then google the model number then space 64bit.

It could be DELL might not have the 64 bit just yet but the Wifi hardware maker might have a beta driver for it. If push comes to shove like I did then I just went to the computer store and bought a USB WIFI thumbdrive. Could be the age of the laptop that might be the reason no driver for it.

If enough people owned that hardware you have then Dell would have acted sooner to make a driver for it.
You could try a VISTA 64 bit version of the driver "if there is one."


This is the page I found for your laptop
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/inspiron-14-intel-n4020/drivers



I see 6 drivers for your laptop. Are you sure you tried all?

 

[HOSED]

Is there any chance WIFI is turn off in the BIOS or via a KB shortcut? My older dell (D610) had WIFI turned off in the BIOS when I got it.

 

[Ketchup]

The only reason the Dell drivers wouldn't work would be if the wifi was broken or disabled.

This is the driver you need:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...-14-intel-n4020&languageCode=EN&categoryId=NI
Make sure to check the wifi hotkey (should be Fn + F2) and the BIOS setting, as HOSED mentioned.

 

[MonKENy]

yeah, nothing works. It shows enabled in the bios but the function keys dont seem to do anything and that driver tells me there is no available hardware so it quits installation.

Guess im hosed on this one.

 

[HOSED]

You are not hosed, I AM :\
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=R210570
You may need to install a driver/program to enable the function keys. I know this is not for your model, but I could not find one for your rig on Dell's bewildering site.
NOte be careful if you use any of the "driver sites" some have been know to distribute malware.
Then again ketchup79 may well be correct about an HW issue

One last ditch way to test would be with a current version of an ubuntu live DVD or USB

 

[Ketchup]

yeah, nothing works. It shows enabled in the bios but the function keys dont seem to do anything and that driver tells me there is no available hardware so it quits installation....

OK, in that case, install DSS and see what it finds for you.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...-14-intel-n4020&languageCode=EN&categoryId=UT

Out of curiosity, why are you at a start from scratch installation? Did you make recovery DVDs for the laptop?

 

[fjmeat]

OP, how much RAM is in your machine? It's possible our issue could be the same.

ketchup79 helped me with an audio driver issue on a fresh 64bit Win7 install. Turned out my 4GB of RAM was the issue. I had to tell my PC to only use 3GB of the RAM.

Here's our post

See "solved" near the end.

 

[inachu]

Stupid question on your wifi.
On the right side of the laptop there should be a switch to slide to turn the wifi on.

Have you confirmed the state of the switch? Sometimes the light on top can be on but is still turned off/disabled on the side.

 

[MonKENy]

not sure what happened but it is working now. Just turned on the laptop and there it is.

Thank you everyone!