I am not sure if this is the right place to post this (if it is not, please move it to the right board), but we just spent a couple of weeks getting this resolved, so I figured I might as well share our experience hoping others might benefit.
At work we have a couple of Dell Inspiron 6000s which are about 1 year old. We recently tried to install a Verizon Wireless EVDO card to use Verizon's wireless internet service. However, the card would not install on either of the 2 laptops no matter what we tried. We called Verizon Tech Support and they sent a new card (different brand and model) with the same result. We then tried the card on an older Dell laptop and it worked perfectly. After talking to Verizon tech support and calling the maker of the card several times we narrowed it down to a problem with the Inspiron 6000 Motherboard.
We called Dell and the tech support persons we spoke to (three separate people) had no idea that this was even an issue. After a couple of calls we finally got them to replace the motherboards on both laptops, and the problem was resolved.
It turns out that early revisions of the Inspiron 6000 MoBo have a problem, and they do not send enough voltage to the cards to allow them to function properly. The MoBo revision we had ended in "h" (I think it was 1H), and the new ones we got end in the letter "j" (again, I think it is 1J), so somewhere between revision H and revision J the problem was solved by Dell.
So, if you encounter this problem, tell Dell that they need to replace the Mobo on your Inspiron 6000.
At work we have a couple of Dell Inspiron 6000s which are about 1 year old. We recently tried to install a Verizon Wireless EVDO card to use Verizon's wireless internet service. However, the card would not install on either of the 2 laptops no matter what we tried. We called Verizon Tech Support and they sent a new card (different brand and model) with the same result. We then tried the card on an older Dell laptop and it worked perfectly. After talking to Verizon tech support and calling the maker of the card several times we narrowed it down to a problem with the Inspiron 6000 Motherboard.
We called Dell and the tech support persons we spoke to (three separate people) had no idea that this was even an issue. After a couple of calls we finally got them to replace the motherboards on both laptops, and the problem was resolved.
It turns out that early revisions of the Inspiron 6000 MoBo have a problem, and they do not send enough voltage to the cards to allow them to function properly. The MoBo revision we had ended in "h" (I think it was 1H), and the new ones we got end in the letter "j" (again, I think it is 1J), so somewhere between revision H and revision J the problem was solved by Dell.
So, if you encounter this problem, tell Dell that they need to replace the Mobo on your Inspiron 6000.
