Hi penguin
Did you find Vista-compatible drivers for that adapter? The most recent official drivers that I can see from Dell are from March 2004, and of course are Win2k/XP drivers.
Decent adapters can be had for $25 when on sale, should things begin to drive you crazy, it might be worth grabbing a newer adapter. Beats uphill battles.
Other than that -- you can try
1) Download CCleaner ---
http://www.download.com/CCleaner/300...-10315544.html
2) Use CCleaner's Cleaning function to clear temp files (which can be troublesome for some installers if things get piled up).
3) With the Dell TrueMobile 1300 USB adapter plugged in, go into Device Manager, and into the Network category, & uninstall it.
4) Should the device still show in the "Safely Remove Hardware" applet in the System Tray, select it, and unplug it. Also unplug it even if it doesn't show in the Safely Remove list.
5) Use CCleaner's "Issues" function to clear tangles from the Registry. Run the Issue function until CCleaner reports "no issues found".
6) If you found a Vista-qualified driver, install it, then plug in the adapter.
7) Since there's been a lot of coming and going, check in the adapter's "Properties" to make sure that it's wireless settings are correctly set. (They'll need to match your network-type - probably "Infrastructure" and not "AdHoc", and probably set to "Mixed" modes if you travel between wireless networks of 802.11a/b/g/&n types).
Best of luck
. . . Gary
P.S. ... we don't recommend the casual use of Registry Cleaners, and only recommend the tools specifically mentioned by a certified technician for a task. Many cleaners cause more trouble than they cure, and some are outright frauds or rogues. CCleaner has won awards for years, and can be used with confidence (it also has built-in "un-do" features as a fail-safe precaution).