Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN on a Dell D830 running Windows Server 2008 EE x64
Today I decided to install the x64 version of Windows Server 2008 EE w/ Hyper-V on my Dell D830 laptop. I will post about the experience later (it was awesome!); for now, I want to specifically mention how I was able to get the wireless working.
I should have done my due diligence prior to installing Windows Server 2008, but I like to live dangerously! After the installation was complete (which was simple and fast), I noticed that the wireless adapter was not installed. I tried to update the driver manually, specifically telling it to check the web, but the search didn’t find anything. I also checked both the Intel and Dell web sites to no available—I couldn’t find anything for Windows Server 2008 and my wireless adapter on either web site (which is not all that surprising, since I doubt many people try to install a server O/S on their laptop).
Discouraged, I did a quick search and found a post from my colleague Keith Combs discussing his experience installing Windows Server 2008 EE on his Lenovo laptop. Amazingly, Lenovo laptops have the same Intel wireless adapter as the Dell; furthermore, Lenovo has also published the device drivers!
To make a long story short (too late, I know), I was able to download and install the Lenovo drivers on my Dell. Thus far (it’s been about two hours) everything seems to be working perfectly!
Gotta love OEM!
Hopefully this saves a poor soul from a couple hours of digging. Good luck!
Wade Wegner works for Microsoft and is the Technical Evangelist for Windows Azure AppFabric.
Thanks for this post. I am actually preparing a Dell Latitude E6500 with Windows Server 2008 to demo an on-demand ecommerce platform at a trade show. I installed the Intel WiFi Link drivers and Wireless would still not work on this laptop. What I found was that in Windows Server 2008, you need to add the Feature called “Wireless LAN Service” in addition to adding the Intel WiFi NIC Drivers.
The Wireless LAN Service installs the Wireless AutoConfig service which is essential for any WiFi driver to work in Windows Server 2008. Without the Wireless LAN Service feature being installed, the driver itself does not work. I was able to install this feature and wifi started working immediately, i did not need to remove the WiFi drivers and reinstall after installing this feature.
I was able to download the Windows Vista x64 driver and use it on Windows Server 2008 x64 and now it works like a charm!
Cheers,
Michael.
Michael, thank you very much for that info, because my driver was fine, but I couldn’t see any networks. Installing that feature worked immediately without any other changes except telling my setup to point to my wireless network with the associated key.
One strange thing is that in my task bar, it shows a red X as if I am not connected, but it definitely is. I have disconnected my Ethernet, so I wonder if that’s why. If I roll over the red X, it shows the name of my wireless network and says I have Internet Access. Hmm.
You saved me a ton of time. Thanks!
Michael, I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent trying to get the Intel wireless 4965agn working with Server 2008 on my DELL M1730 XPS laptop…but it was alot!! I started on this problem nearly 18 months ago and had almost given up. Today on boxing day, I finally have the time to try again and stumble upon Wade’s blog and your comments. After adding the Wireless LAN feature, I could suddenly see my wireless network, connect to it and access the net!!! All my icons are working correctly and everything works beautifully. You’ve done me a real favour. Thankyou Thankyou.
That was so perfect man!
I have been looking for it couple of hours and finally Oops!
Thanks Again