New WLAN Card Behavior - Highly Technical Problem

[jcsnider]

Hi all,

I have been posting all around the net but I haven't found the right community so far to handle this sort of query. If you know of anywhere that specializes in this, please let me know!

Long story short is that I have bought the Dell DW1560 Broadcom BCM94352Z wireless card to replace my Intel AC7265 with the goal of having native wifi in my hackintosh environment.


I am not blocked by a BIOS Whitelist. After installing this card, I booted into OSX and it has worked beautifully. I stress tested by binge walking some shows on Netflix.

When I boot into Windows or Linux, however, the card is recognized correctly and drivers will install but neither OS finds any networks to connect to. That is my underlying problem. From what I can tell, it isn't scanning or it cannot receive information in Windows/Linux and I am not sure why.

I have tried dozens of drivers. I have taped pins 54 & 56 just to make sure that nothing was disabling the wireless radio. Out of curiosity I created an adhoc network and while nothing could connect to it, all of my devices saw those cards broadcasting!

I don't think this is a BIOS issue, since the card works on OSX -- but I cannot get any help at popular Windows/Linux support sites since my evidence of the card being compatible is that it works in OSX. Those on OSX/Hackintoshing sites are not really there to give support for issues that only impact Windows lol.

So here I am.

I would love any opinions on:
1. What might be wrong? Any recommendations on where else to ask around?
2. Debugging tips? I consider myself fairly tech savvy I can follow instructions.
3. Other places that might be worth my time to ask about this? I haven't found any communities dedicated to wlan upgrades in laptops lol
4. Any thoughts from you about what may be causing this. (I checked the Airplane mode button!)

Thanks,
-JC

 

[sdifox]

So the Nic shows as enabled but cannot see wireless network?

Why are you taping pins?

 

[jcsnider]

Yes. The NIC is enabled, drivers installed and "working properly".

I am no longer taping pins, but my logic was following this diagram http://www.hwtools.net/PDF/M2MP1_schematic.pdf to make sure that the card wasn't being disabled by a hardware block of any kind.

Still at a loss. Really weird that when creating an adhoc network in Windows other devices can see it, but it cannot locate any of the dozens of access points around me.

 

[JackMDS]

Make sure that the installation is of pure Drivers and there no Bonjour and or, other 3rd party Wireless managers.

 

[jcsnider]

I've tried so many driver installations it's crazy, but I am not new to this.

Most of the drivers I have tried are the plain .inf selections. My biggest preference has been towards the Dell OEM drivers and those supplied by Windows update. Drivers install fine and I don't have any 3rd party network managers. This installation of Windows is clean just because I didn't want any variables to come into play when debugging this.

 

[sdifox]

I've tried so many driver installations it's crazy, but I am not new to this.

Most of the drivers I have tried are the plain .inf selections. My biggest preference has been towards the Dell OEM drivers and those supplied by Windows update. Drivers install fine and I don't have any 3rd party network managers. This installation of Windows is clean just because I didn't want any variables to come into play when debugging this.

So what do you see when you click on the network icon on the taskbar?

 

[jcsnider]

When I click on the network icon in the taskbar I don't see anything:

But the card has an up to date driver and is working properly:
Device Manager General
Device Driver Info

 

[sdifox]

Have you tried using a wifi scanning software?

 

[sdifox]

Also, uninstall both Intel and dell drivers, then install dell again

 

[sdifox]

Quick google shows people with win10 have issues with that card.

 

[jcsnider]

I have tried Windows (7, 8, and 10) along with Ubuntu (14 and 15). Doesn't work for any of those. Works in El Capitan on the same machine despite being designed for Windows and Linux.

I have uninstalled my Intel drivers and reinstalled the Dell ones. Scanning for networks with CommView and NetSurveyor led to no results at all. I have 1.5ft away from the closest access point.

I have read just about every thread regarding issues with this card, the majority of people used really old drivers to solve their problems.

 

[sdifox]

There is no designed for PC or mac anymore. I would go back to win 7 and try generic broadcom driver again.

 

[sdifox]

Silly question, did you attach the antennas?

 

[jcsnider]

Silly questions are good. But yes, I did attach the antennas
Again, on the same machine it works beautifully in OSX

 

[sdifox]

Silly questions are good. But yes, I did attach the antennas
Again, on the same machine it works beautifully in OSX

Which laptop is it? It must have a fb key combo to turn off and on wifi no?

 

[sdifox]

Fb, not Fb. I am on the lite version of this forum and it sucks. Can't really edit, it inserts html tags for some reason so I would post new reply as opposed to edit.

 

[jcsnider]

Fb, not Fb. I am on the lite version of this forum and it sucks. Can't really edit, it inserts html tags for some reason so I would post new reply as opposed to edit.

Fn I got you covered!

Yes, it has a FN key combo to enable/disable airplane mode but not the wifi or bluetooth individually.

I have made sure airplane mode is turned off. There is no physical hardware switch on this machine.

For reference it is the 2015 Thinkpad X1 Carbon (Model 20BS)

 

[sdifox]

Fn-F8 is the combo to toggle wifi on and off.

also install the lenovo power and wifi utility.

 

[jcsnider]

Yes, the Fn+F8 combo is the Airplane mode toggle. I have turned it on and off many times.

Installed the power and wifi utility, no change.

 

[sdifox]

your laptop also has a whitelist.... fucking lenovo.

http://m.slashdot.org/story/214791

 

[jcsnider]

I dispute that. If I were being blocked by a BIOS whitelist then the card wouldn't work in OSX. Heck, it probably wouldn't even boot until I removed the card.

I think the problem is very low level, but not in the BIOS itself.

 

[sdifox]

I dispute that. If I were being blocked by a BIOS whitelist then the card wouldn't work in OSX. Heck, it probably wouldn't even boot until I removed the card.

I think the problem is very low level, but not in the BIOS itself.

the disabling probably only happens on the windows level, the bios just sets the flag, and since osx was not designed to run on lenovo with whitelist, it doesn't know about it.

I remembered reading about lenovo whitelisting and being pissed about it.

 

[jcsnider]

Okay. I can accept that as a potential cause.

But since the device is not disabled on the BIOS level, but instead a simple flag is set for the OS to handle that would imply that it could be bypassed on the OS level instead of trying to mod my bios.

I will do a bit of research, any thoughts on how to work that if it is indeed the problem?

 

[sdifox]

Okay. I can accept that as a potential cause.

But since the device is not disabled on the BIOS level, but instead a simple flag is set for the OS to handle that would imply that it could be bypassed on the OS level instead of trying to mod my bios.

I will do a bit of research, any thoughts on how to work that if it is indeed the problem?

no clue. I just know people hack BIOS to remove it

 

[jcsnider]

I am all-in for destroying 1-2 network cards for science but once I reach the point of potentially destroying the $1200 laptop I gotta fold.

I am working several angles right now looking for potential fixes. Thanks for all of your input sdifox. I will let you know what I come up with.

If anyone else has less invasive suggestions I would love to hear them.

Thanks again!
-JC