I have DELL inspiron 1525 Laptop with Windows Vista OS. Few days before, I tried to enable WiFi on this. But, I could not turn on/off it, even I enable the Wireless switch and Wireless adapter in BIOS and slide the switch as explained in the following "DELL INSPIRON SETUP GUIDE".
http://premiersupport.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1525/en/SG/Y465HA01MR.pdf
Then, I found that it has to be enabled in Windows Device manager too. Let me give the steps:
① Open Windows Explorer and right-click "Computer". From the pop-up menu select "Properties".
② In the dialog box, click on "Device manager". In the "Device Manager" dialog box, expand the "Network adapter" and right-click on "Dell wireless 1490 Dual band WLAN Mini-card" and select "Properties" from the pop-up menu.
③ From the dialog box "Properties of Dell wireless 1490 Dual band WLAN Mini-card", select "Driver" tab and click "Enable" button. This will enable the device.
Now, in BIOS, I enabled the Wireless adapter and disabled the switch. So, the WiFi is always enabled.
http://premiersupport.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1525/en/SG/Y465HA01MR.pdf
Then, I found that it has to be enabled in Windows Device manager too. Let me give the steps:
① Open Windows Explorer and right-click "Computer". From the pop-up menu select "Properties".
② In the dialog box, click on "Device manager". In the "Device Manager" dialog box, expand the "Network adapter" and right-click on "Dell wireless 1490 Dual band WLAN Mini-card" and select "Properties" from the pop-up menu.
③ From the dialog box "Properties of Dell wireless 1490 Dual band WLAN Mini-card", select "Driver" tab and click "Enable" button. This will enable the device.
Now, in BIOS, I enabled the Wireless adapter and disabled the switch. So, the WiFi is always enabled.