Dell Inspiron 15 3000 series wifi switch: which models have the key

Is there a switch on the side?

Dell’s article on turning wireless on and off covers every Dell laptop and talks about a physical switch only conditionally. It says that physical wireless switches, if the laptop has them, override the software controls, and it tells you to check for one when the Wi-Fi tile will not change colour or Airplane mode will not turn off. It names no model. Asurion says some Dell laptops have a dedicated Wi-Fi button on the sides, marked with the Wi-Fi icon, and others a keyboard shortcut.

For the Inspiron 15 3000 we have one thing to go on. We opened the Front, Left, Right, Base and Display sections of the 3567 manual and searched each for the words wireless, wifi, WLAN and switch. None of them has a match. That is what the manual does not say, not proof about every model, and looking at the sides of your own laptop for a button or slider with the icon is the direct test.

The key: Fn + Print Screen on the 3567 and the 3593

The second shortcut table in the 3567 manual and in the 3593 manual lists Fn with Print Screen as “Turn off/on wireless”. The same table gives Fn + Insert as Sleep, and the 3567 table gives Fn + Esc as the Fn-key lock. The 3573 manual has a “Turn off/on wireless” row too, but its column of keys is made of images that did not display when we read it, so we cannot name its key.

The manual’s wording is the whole entry: it does not say whether the key switches only the Wi-Fi radio or also Bluetooth, as Airplane mode does.

Guides and forum answers name other keys. Asurion gives F2 as an example of the Wi-Fi key. A thread starter on Tom’s Guide in 2015 had already tried Fn with F12 and F2, and wrote that the switch did not stay on. One answer there says Fn + Insert. In the 3567 and 3593 tables F2 is decrease volume and Fn + Insert is Sleep, so Fn + Insert puts the laptop to sleep rather than turning Wi-Fi on. Another answer, from January 2017, matches the manuals: “Try FN+Prt screen. I was facing a similar issue and this worked for me!”

The newer manuals list no wireless key

The 3501, 3511, 3520, 3530 and 3535 manuals list shortcuts for volume, brightness, the keyboard light and other functions, and none of the shortcut tables we read has a wireless row. In the 3501 manual the word does not appear on the shortcuts page at all. On those models the way is Windows, below. The keyboard light has its own page for the same five models, the backlit keyboard on a Dell Inspiron 15.

The way that works on every model: Windows

On Windows 11, Dell says to click the network icon in the lower-right corner of the taskbar to open Quick Settings and find the Wi-Fi tile, which changes from grey to blue when it turns on; then pick your network and enter the password. If the Wi-Fi option is missing, click the gear icon, then Network & Internet, Advanced network settings, and Enable next to Wi-Fi. Dell adds that you should unplug any Ethernet cable before checking the wireless settings.

On Windows 10 the icon may be among the hidden icons, behind the upward arrow, and the same Wi-Fi tile does the job; Dell says that if the tile does not change colour, you should check for a physical wireless switch. Asurion gives a second way: press the Windows key, open Settings, then Network & Internet, then Wi-Fi, and set Wi-Fi to On.

When Airplane mode is the reason

Dell says Airplane mode “disables ALL wireless communications simultaneously”: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, mobile broadband, GPS and NFC. You turn it off with its own tile, and Dell notes that turning it off does not turn Wi-Fi on, which needs its own tile.

For Airplane mode that will not turn off, a second Dell article lists four methods, in the figure below. First, in Device Manager, disable and enable the wireless adapter under Network adapters, open its Properties and, on the Power Management tab, clear the box that lets the computer turn the device off to save power, then restart. Second, right-click the Wi-Fi icon, choose Diagnose network problems and take the offered option to turn off Airplane mode. Third, in Settings, Network & internet, Advanced network settings, use Network reset, then Reset now, and restart. Fourth, update the BIOS and the wireless drivers; with no way online, Dell says to connect a network cable or download the files on another device and move them with a USB drive.

If none of that works and you cannot download a driver, Dell’s last resort is to uninstall the wireless adapter in Device Manager without ticking the box that removes the driver, and restart so that Windows reinstalls the one it has. Dell warns that this may remove your saved Wi-Fi networks.

A 2019 thread on Dell’s community shows the limits of these steps. The person asking found the Wi-Fi button inactive even with Airplane mode off; one later answer says resetting the network adapter fixed it, while another user wrote that they had reset it and it still did not work, and a third that changing the network adapter did not help either.

When Wi-Fi is not listed at all

Dell’s troubleshooting article starts at the BIOS: restart, press F2 at the Dell logo, open Connection settings and check that the WLAN box is ticked. It also gives a hardware test: restart, press F12 at the logo, open Diagnostics and, under Advanced test, run only the Network test. If the test fails, Dell says the wireless adapter may need replacing.

A 2021 thread on Dell’s community, about an Inspiron 15 3000, describes the adapter vanishing from Device Manager after updates from SupportAssist. A community member answered with the Windows network adapter troubleshooter, then with Device Manager’s View, Show hidden devices: if the wireless driver appears, uninstall it without ticking the box that deletes the driver and restart; if it does not, use System Restore. A user wrote a year later that updating the BIOS and the Ethernet and Wi-Fi driver from SupportAssist fixed it for them. On Tom’s Guide in 2016 another user, whose Wi-Fi stayed off after turning flight mode on and off, wrote that disabling Intel SpeedStep in the BIOS fixed it. These are users’ reports, and no Dell page we read says the same.

Which wireless card the 3567 has

The 3567 manual lists four wireless modules: the Intel 3165 (up to 433 Mbps), the Intel 7265 (up to 867 Mbps), the Qualcomm QCA9377 (up to 433 Mbps) and the Qualcomm QCA9565 (up to 150 Mbps). The first three are dual band, 2.4 and 5 GHz; the QCA9565 lists a single band, 2.4 GHz, although the manual calls it dual band. All four are listed as Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n. To see which one yours is, Dell says to type change wifi settings in the search box, open Change WiFi settings, then Hardware properties, and note the manufacturer and the description.