Just a follow-up to my last post. I spent $18 on eBay to get an Intel 4965 wireless card. Of course I was 100% right in my assessment of Dell’s incompetence. And Dell was 100% wrong in their diagnosis of a “software issue” that was somehow my fault. No doubt I would have spent substantially more than $18 to have some buffoon come out and tell me that things are “stable” (as they often are for a few minutes at a time) only to have it all crap out again.
It’s unfortunate that Dell seems to have created a business model out of sending out crappy failing equipment, blaming the user for issues, and then charging “consulting” fees to have someone come out and “fix” it. Fortunately I’m a little handy with these things and I was able to do without their fix. Still a great machine. Even greater with consistently working WiFi.