Problem

I have two laptops running Windows XP Home Edition that I connect to the web via a wireless G+ router. Each laptop has an internal mini-PCI wireless network card installed. The signal strength for Laptop 1 is very weak. It will only connect properly when about 10 or fewer feet from the router. If it is only 15 feet away from the router the signal strength is very poor. However, the signal strength of Laptop 2 is very strong, even when it is positioned more than 50 feet away on the other side of the house with several walls between it and the router. For some reason, Laptop 1 also disrupts with MW radio broadcasts, but Laptop 2 doesn’t.

Answer

The quality of different brands of mini-PCI wireless network cards can vary significantly. If you have a card of poor quality installed in Laptop 1, then that could be the cause of the problem. For example, cards made by Broadcom tend to be of poorer quailty than the cards used in laptops that carry Intel’s Centrino brand name. Moreover, Intel’s wireless mini-PCI cards are very good at locking on to weak signals compared to brands, such as Broadcom. You should also make sure that the latest drivers are installed for the card being used by Laptop 1. You can obtain them from its manufacturer’s site.

Of course, it is also possible that the card in Laptop 1 is faulty, in which case replacing it with a good card would fix the problem. You should also download and install the latest drivers for any new card you install, because the drivers that come with adapter cards are usually out of date, and, as such, won’t implement the latest bug fixes and improvements, etc.

Intel 2200BG mini-PCI network cards are currently going for around £20 from www.Portableuniverse.co.uk . You could identify the network card installed in Laptop 2 and buy one for Laptop 1. To remove the old card, you usually have to open a panel on the computer’s bottom side that is held in place by a single screw. The card is installed in a mini-PCI slot in much the same way as a SODIMM RAM memory module is installed in a memory slot.

The antenna might not have been connected properly. In most laptops, the antenna goes round the edges of an internal space around the screen. If you can’t do so yourself, you could get a technician that specialises in laptop repair to check to make sure that both of the antenna wires (one is usually black and the other white) are connected. If only one wire is connected the signal strength will be reduced, but if both wires are not connected it can still be possible to connect to an access point or router if the laptop is a few feet away from it. In either case, you could find that turning the laptop through 90° should weaken the signal strength dramatically. Moreover, note that the antenna might be of poor quality or poorly designed, in which case, you could try using an external network card that fits into PC Card slot. Just make sure that Laptop 1 has a slot that supports the card you buy. Most current laptops have a slot that supports CardBus or ExpressCard adapter cards.

PC Card (CardBus) FAQ - http://www.pcmcia.org/faq.htm

ExpressCard Frequently Asked Questions -

http://www.expresscard.org/web/site/qa.jsp

Medium-wave radio stations broadcast on the AM radio frequencies. A laptop with a wireless network card is more likely to disrupt them than FM broadcasts, because Wireless G itself uses the FM frequencies.

In order to reduce radio interference, the relevant components in a laptop are covered with sheets of aluminium. If they weren’t installed properly, or a grounding wire wasn’t connected, the effectiveness of the shielding would be reduced significantly. However, note that computer’s power supply unit is more likely to be the cause of radio interference. You could find out if that is the case by running the computer on battery power.