Hello, I have a dell that has an integrated Ethernet card that also handles wireless. Sometimes the Ethernet drops and wireless is only enabled. Dell swapped out the board a few years ago when my XPS 8300 was under warranty because the integrated half card had issues.
Anyway I am thinking about buying an Ethernet pci express card that I can connect directly to the modem. I only have one pci express slot available and am looking for a card that handles both wireless and Ethernet. I checked NewEgg but they don’t have anything like this. Does anyone know if anything like this exists? Thanks for your help.
The DW1501 is a card commonly used in laptops. The motherboard has a special slot for it but I’m not sure if I’d call the card “integrated”, anymore than I would call a graphics card integrated because it has its own PCIe slot. The Broadcom ethernet however, IS integrated. If you’re using the wired connection, the wifi card is unnecessary. If you do a search, you’ll find the problem is not hardware related, it’s Windows 10 related. Uninstall the current driver & force the Win7 driver to install.
Mini-card: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon…
See the following: http://en.community.dell.com/suppor…
Also see #26 here: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/fo…
EDIT: I’d bet you didn’t have these issues until upgrading to Win10. Your system is a bit dated & there are no Win10 drivers for the old Broadcom ethernet controller. Win10 loads generic drivers but as stated in the above links, those drivers don’t work properly. If you want to spend money on hardware, that’s your business, but I don’t think there’s a combo card (wireless + wired) available. You would have to buy them separately. But once again, if you’re using the wired connection, the wireless isn’t needed. IMHO, drivers are the problem, not hardware. Make sure any hardware you purchase is fully supported & includes Win10 drivers.
message edited by riider