poor range...need advice

norton · 05-21-2004

I have an HP ze4400 notebook and an orinoco gold 802.11b card. The problem is that with that card in my Hp notebook I get extremely poor range, but with the same card in both of my friends Dell notebooks the signal range is significantly better than in my HP. They pick up alot more AP's than I do when I put my card in thier notebooks. I have done everything I can think of, even my friends are IT guys and they are stumped as well. I updated my BIOS, tried different versions of drivers, various other things that HP support has asked me to try. I have come to the conclusion its possibly a hardware issue. Are there any utilities that can get me some info on my cardbus? such as amount of voltage going to the orinoco? It is still under warrenty for a few months but I want to make sure I try everything possible before I send it into HP. but here are the specs on the system:

AMD Athlon XP 2600+
Windows XP Pro
256MB RAM
30gig HD
O2Micro Cardbus (OZ6912) <------- Havent been able to find very recent drivers
Orinoco 802.11b PCMCIA

If anyone can help me out I would really appreciate it.

King_Ice_Flash · 05-21-2004

Make sure the card power is not turned down in the client manager or in the device properties.

kleptophobiac · 05-21-2004

Do you have power management disabled?

norton · 05-21-2004

yea it is disabled

Rotifer · 05-22-2004

sounds to me like the Dells may just have better internal antennas than your hp

King_Ice_Flash · 05-22-2004

I thought he had an pcmcia card. Internal antennas wouldn't matter.

Rotifer · 05-22-2004

yep your right dont know what brain fart caused me to see mini pci

LucKyZ · 07-15-2004

The same problem with an HP ze4288 (O2Micro pcmcia OZ6912 controller) and a 3com 802.11g wiFi adapter.....
Any suggestion?

Starpoint · 07-18-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by norton

I have an HP ze4400 notebook and an orinoco gold 802.11b card. The problem is that with that card in my Hp notebook I get extremely poor range, but with the same card in both of my friends Dell notebooks the signal range is significantly better than in my HP. They pick up alot more AP's than I do when I put my card in thier notebooks. I have done everything I can think of, even my friends are IT guys and they are stumped as well. I updated my BIOS, tried different versions of drivers, various other things that HP support has asked me to try. I have come to the conclusion its possibly a hardware issue. Are there any utilities that can get me some info on my cardbus? such as amount of voltage going to the orinoco? It is still under warrenty for a few months but I want to make sure I try everything possible before I send it into HP. but here are the specs on the system:

AMD Athlon XP 2600+
Windows XP Pro
256MB RAM
30gig HD
O2Micro Cardbus (OZ6912) <------- Havent been able to find very recent drivers
Orinoco 802.11b PCMCIA

If anyone can help me out I would really appreciate it.

Could be 2 things... lower voltage on the HP...or there is sufficient RF interference from the HP to cause the card to only get STRONG AP's

adding an Omni using shielded cable should fix this but what I would do is talk to HP about this...

05-21-2004	#1 (permalink)
norton Registered Member Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 4	poor range...need advice I have an HP ze4400 notebook and an orinoco gold 802.11b card. The problem is that with that card in my Hp notebook I get extremely poor range, but with the same card in both of my friends Dell notebooks the signal range is significantly better than in my HP. They pick up alot more AP's than I do when I put my card in thier notebooks. I have done everything I can think of, even my friends are IT guys and they are stumped as well. I updated my BIOS, tried different versions of drivers, various other things that HP support has asked me to try. I have come to the conclusion its possibly a hardware issue. Are there any utilities that can get me some info on my cardbus? such as amount of voltage going to the orinoco? It is still under warrenty for a few months but I want to make sure I try everything possible before I send it into HP. but here are the specs on the system: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Windows XP Pro 256MB RAM 30gig HD O2Micro Cardbus (OZ6912) <------- Havent been able to find very recent drivers Orinoco 802.11b PCMCIA If anyone can help me out I would really appreciate it.

05-21-2004	#2 (permalink)
King_Ice_Flash Alien Paranoid Stumbler Join Date: May 2003 Location: WI Posts: 2,688	Make sure the card power is not turned down in the client manager or in the device properties. __________________ "Yeah," said a voice from under the table, "you go to pieces so fast people get hit by the shrapnel."

05-22-2004	#5 (permalink)
Rotifer Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 42	Antennas? sounds to me like the Dells may just have better internal antennas than your hp __________________ When the Going gets tough, Lower your standards.

05-22-2004	#6 (permalink)
King_Ice_Flash Alien Paranoid Stumbler Join Date: May 2003 Location: WI Posts: 2,688	I thought he had an pcmcia card. Internal antennas wouldn't matter. __________________ "Yeah," said a voice from under the table, "you go to pieces so fast people get hit by the shrapnel."

05-22-2004	#7 (permalink)
Rotifer Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 42	yep yep your right dont know what brain fart caused me to see mini pci __________________ When the Going gets tough, Lower your standards.

05-21-2004	#3 (permalink)
kleptophobiac Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 310	Do you have power management disabled?

05-21-2004	#4 (permalink)
norton Registered Member Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 4	yea it is disabled

07-15-2004	#8 (permalink)
LucKyZ Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 1	O2Micro Problem The same problem with an HP ze4288 (O2Micro pcmcia OZ6912 controller) and a 3com 802.11g wiFi adapter..... Any suggestion?

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