Yippee, now I am much wiser than yesterday! Thanks to everyone for very good advises!
Yippee, now I am much wiser than yesterday! Thanks to everyone for very good advises!
For my part, and everyone else's part also I'm sure, you're very welcome. We're all here to pool our knowledge, and spare each other unnecessary suffering.
--Ed--
Pirix,
1 This is what you need to do what you want Download Windows ISO for previous version - YourWindowsGuide - you use the normal MS download site but the link explains how to trick it into giving you the choice of ver 1703 or ver 1607 ISOs.
but
2 The Dell Inspiron 1545 with Dell Wireless WLAN 1397 Half Mini Card has always been a pig. If that is the same card that you are referring to then a simple driver installation should fix your problems. And Dell Support were no help at all.
- Along with several other users I had to uninstall the Dell WiFi utility and revert the driver to the original default Windows 7 driver to get it to work. This was the subject of several threads in the MSAnswers user forum.
- I deliberately tried again whenever Dell issued an updated Windows 7 driver but only that initial MS-installed one would work correctly.
- The others all gave very poor reception that made it necessary to sit the computer on top of the router for it to receive anything at all.
- I found a download for the good version of the driver and gave the necessary download link & an explanation in my 4th February 2015 post in Poor wireless signal Dell Inspiron 1564 laptop 1397 WLAN mini-card
- This driver worked successfully in both Windows 7 & Windows 10 on my Dell Inspiron 1545 with Dell Wireless WLAN 1397 Half Mini Card.
and, just for info,
3 I eventually replaced the card with a faster one [ac standard] that also included Bluetooth.
- I chose a Broadcom AzureWave BCM94352HMB. It cost £21.98 in November 2016. I am very happy with my choice.
- Getting one that was also Bluetooth was just to allow me to get a mouse that did not use up a USB connection.
- I downloaded the driver from Dell Broadcom BCM4352 Wireless Bluetooth 4.0 Driver. {I also downloaded directly from Broadcom at the time but they now say to just use Windows update & they do not post a direct download of their own. Both the Dell-sourced driver & the Broadcom-sourced one were the same version anyway.}
- I also considered these combined WiFi & Bluetooth cards at the time - {WiFi ac} Intel Network 7260 £29.99 and {WiFi N} Atheros AR5B225 £7.68, Intel 6230 £14.98, Intel 5100 £5.98, StarTech N-card £11.41.
- It is essential to get a card that fits the connection & the physical layout inside your computer. You cannot just pick any WiFi card [unless you are content to get a USB WiFi dongle]. All the ones I have listed are the right fit.
- Personally, I would not consider anything other than an ac-standard WiFi adapter & they are now commonplace.
- All prices mentioned were those I found on Amazon UK in November 2016 and I have included the links to the Amazon product pages I studied at the time so you can see descriptions of them together with user reviews.
Denis
It's worth reiterating the method Try3 points to:
Open Edge browser
Go to:
Download Windows 10 Disc Image (ISO File)
Click F12 (may take a little time to show the console in the lower half of the Edge window)
Click Emulation
In the box labelled User Agent String:, select Apple Safari (IPad) from the drop-down list
When the main browser window changes, click Select Edition, then select Windows10 (or your reguired edition type) under Windows10 Anniversary Update
Click Confirm
Select your Language and Confirm
Select 32-bit (about 3.2GB) or 64-bit (about 4.1GB) depending on your needs, and proceed to download the ISO file.
That's it.![]()
Pirox,
You have still not said anything about which WiFi card is in the computer.
Denis
Pirix,
I still think you should attack the problem rather than go through a full reinstallation based on hope alone. If there are also other problems then a full clean installation might be worthwhile but first use the current installation to sort out the WiFi card driver that is almost certainly at the heart of the current matter. Then you could clean install, add the driver you have identified as best and get on with using the computer rather than fighting problems with it.
So it's a Vista-era Inspiron 1545. Reinstalling the original Vista drivers is unlikely to be any help but that is not impossible** - Dell Wireless 1515 (11agn) WLAN half mini-Card (Atheros). Did you ever run compatibility tests for Windows 10 [see Windows 7, 8.1, 10 compatibility testing for Windows XP, Vista - WiKi]?
** I have also installed Windows 10 on very old Dells and, on my 12-year old Dell Inspiron 9300, the best WiFi card driver for Windows 10 was a Vista one.
1.1 Note the full title of the WiFi card given by Device manager, Network adapters [it might, for example, be something like Atheros 12345-N].
1.2 Note the full title of the WiFi card used in the original purchase documentation in case there are multiple common titles for it.
1.3 Go to Device manager, Network adapters, {the card}, Details tab and use the dropdown list to record the Hardware IDs entries.
2.1 You could then try deleting the WiFi card in Device manager and then letting it redetect it then reinstalling whatever drivers it thinks best.
2.2 Check that its name has not changed. If so then it might or might not be suitable.
2.3 Search the Atheros website for drivers.
2.4 Search the Microsoft update catalog service website for drivers by searching on the name used by Device manager then checking the search results against the hardware IDs listed in the details shown when you click on the name of each search result. Do not bother with anything that does not have a matching line in the Device manager hardware IDs.
2.5 See if any other users have solved the problem by searching this forum for the card's name and then do the same in the Dell user forums.
Denis