After 3 years of struggling with a Dell Latitude E410, I finally got a new laptop assigned. And it’s a speedy one, at least love at first sight. I wonder how long this will stay… My new puppy is a Dell Latitude E4300, as displayed below.
This one has a dual core from intel inside.. joking word game. What did you thought, the processor would be installed at the outside..? In any case I’m going to be double productive from now on!
I wonder how fast I will ruin this computer that it uses all of its memory. So far the graphs look pretty ok!
Yesterday I got a small panic attack, when the wifi of the new puppy didn’t seem to work. The message was saying I needed to check if the Wireless Switch was turned ON . I could feel the my face turning white. As I didn’t have a manual for the Latitude E4300, I wasn’t sure where to find the Wireless Switch. I’ve been looking for the information online, but I couldn’t find any website which could tell me how to turn the Wireless Switch of a Dell Latitude E4300 OFF or ON
Dell Latitude E4300 Wireless Switch
So for everybody with the same problem, here comes the solution, on the Dell Latitude E4300, the wireless switch is located on the right side of the laptop, just under the only USB port of the machine. See picture of the Wireless Switch below:
Damnit, what am I supposed to do with only ONE USB port…? What are they thinking at Dell these days?
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I’ve had my 4300 for a couple of months – can’t say it’s the best performing laptop I’ve seen but it’s maybe not the worst either. On USB ports, the eSATA port on the left side doubles as a USB port as well, so there are 2 USBs, one firewire, and one very flaky built in wireless antenna.
Thank you so much, I spent several hours wondering what I had done and you solved the problem of no WIFI. cheers
@Eli,
I still miss the great number of USB ports I had in my old Latitude D410!
It had 2 USB ports in the back, and one USB port on the side…
Now I just bought an USB hub on eBay to support my big number of gadgets while I’m traveling.
Thanks a lot!
I spent half an hour trying to connect to wireless network at home before found this page..
fantastic! i would never have found it without your help…
@Rose,
Happy I’ve helped you out, as I couldn’t find it neither myself.
DG
why and external wifi switch? Thanks you helped me out too
Thanks! I just spent and hour trying to figure out how to turn it back on after it mysteriously turned off on the way home. Not a very obvious switch location 🙂
I’m so relieved that I’m not the only person who was stymied on where to find the Wifi switch. Thanks for helping me out of the black hole!
Thanks for helping me out!
On the E4300, there’s an engraved icon to the right of the touchpad. It looks like an Ipod with RSS “arrows” coming out of it.
What is this?
I’m curious about this too… I have a Latitude E6500 with the same symbol. Did you ever get an answer about what it is?
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/late4300/en/setup/KR954A01.pdf
Page 7.
“15 contactless smart-card-reader
(optional)”
Muchas Gracias.
utilice 30 minutos buscando como solucionar el problema.
the countless hours you’ve saved me will be spent with adoring grandchildren, or swimming with dolphins…or something…thx
I have this laptop as well. It has the worst wifi connectivity of any laptop I’ve owned. When on business trips co-workers with other laptop Brands are always able to pick up wifi signals whereas I struggle. A while ago I must have accidentally hit the wifi-off switch. I had IT look at why my wifi wasn’t working anymore and they couldn’t figure it out. As if they read the manual :). So as is typical they said I just had to live with only being able to use the LAN. Thanks for helping, I’m back online again!
Many thanks extremely useful
Thanks very much…..spent about 20minutes finding it.
Cheers
Brilliant close-up of the wireless switch. It is impossible to find it during the darker evening hours 🙂
Thank god for this. I would have spent half the day before thinking to look on the side of the case for the enable/disable switch. I’ve seen them on the top, front, etc. but never on the side!
A related gripe is that when searching for drivers for the latitude 4300 through Dell’s web site, their basic recommendations did not even include the driver for the wireless device! Its buried in the “Other Drivers/Networking” section.
Forgot to give this a 5* rating, which it certainly deserves.
thanks so much. I never would have found the wireless button without your help. Now I’m wondering how it switched off so easily…
big help thanks, I new there was a Wifi switch somewhere but could not find it, difficult without a manual. Any idea what the small square and pin sized hole on the bottom left of the screen casing? Also did anybody work out what the symbol to the right of the touchpad was?
Small square = Ambient Light Sensor
Pin hole = microphone
Thanks. Of course, I couldn’t find it because it was under the USB and my other plug-ins.
Not very user-friendly, is it?
what is the GSM sim slot at the battary siting of my DELL Lat. E4300 used for
the GSM sim slot is for 3G mobile broadband
Thanks for showing the Wireless Network Switch!
Many thanks for this great tip!!
It is the first time (in an hotel) I need to use the wifi with my dell E4310 and I couldn´t switch on the radio ON. I had to ask for a netwrok cable at reception so I can get into the network and, hence, I can “google” the problem.
Then I realized that the laptop had a small switch just in the only side of the six sides of the laptop where I had not put my eyes.
Many thanks DELL for putting things easy for the users. Next time try to putt the switch under one ramdon key of the keyboard. We will have fun wondering where it is.
Thanks for sharing this information. You saved my life !!!
I consider myself lucky that my colleagues informed me about this switch early enough:-)
Older Dell laptops had the utility “Quickset” installed which allowed you to manage most of your laptop’s settings such as audio, wlan, bt, display etc.. I found this very useful. Unfortunately there is no such comprehensive utility on the E4300 anymore, except for Dell ControlPoint which does, however, not manage Bluetooth and WLAN settings. Is my perception correct, or is Quickset available for the 4300 model, too?
Thanks for saving me from a complete meltdown!
OMG! You should receive my IT department pay.
MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thank you for this informative link. ^^
Thank you!! Darn wireless switch is underneath.. I was going to lose it soon!
Thanks! This thing was driving me NUTS.
Thanks so much. I accidently knocked it one day without even knowing it existed… This page came straight up when I googled Dell E4300 Wireless.
In case anyone needs more detail, the ON position is to the left, the front of the laptop.
Can any body tell, how can I actvate Blue tooth on my laptop latitude e6500, so that i can connect my cellphone via blue tooth.
Sree
manythanks
thanks! I so needed this tip!
Thanks for being a lifesaver! Just a flick of the switch!!
thanks man!
Thanks for the post and pic wrgds to the wireless on/off switch ! You helped me out real quick.
thnx.
I have this laptop also for 9 months and only today I realized the left port could be usb too, I feel really stupid, it did annoyed me a lot!!!
About the simcard slot, anyone knows how to use it?
Same here. I have never used it as a USB, where I just didn’t see it fitting into the port.
This is a life safer. I have been panicking because I had work to turn over to my senior tomorrow and I’ve been going crazy tryin to figure this out.
Thanks for the help.
Happy to have helped you out.
Luckily you will probably never will be looking for the problem without checking the wireless switch!
Rebooted, reset sys, searched system for radio switch. Used iPad to search web. Found this!
After 24 hrs back on Internet, living in cloud.
Thanks…
Thank god for that iPad you could use for your research on the Internet, on how to switch the wireless back on through a simple switch…
thanks a whole bunch!!!!!!!!!!!!! my IT helpdesk rep was unbale to help. you’ve saved me a lot of time and grief.
excellent it helped me to guide my customer to locate wireless switch
Thank you. Very helpful!
fyi, everyone – yes, the ‘on’ position is wit the button toward the front of the laptop, to where the red is no longer visible – ALSO – if you toggle this off then on, it seems like wireless connectivity will NOt automaticcally be restored –
here is how to get the software part going, once you have the hardware (button) correct:
at least for Win7:
control panel > network and internet > newtowrk connections> “wireless network connecitons” >
here, it ought to indicate that you are not connected, if that is the case. So, you select “connect”
-this should get the wireless activated to seeking a signal. -hope this helps someone someday.
Hello! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I truly enjoy reading your articles. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that cover the same subjects? Appreciate it!
I’ve been trying to find wireless switch for hours!!!
Thanks mate!!
Ditto. Spent hours searching internet for the magic button. Thankyou thankyou thankyou!