Intel WiDi - Why bother Intel? Do you test anything with end users?

[chazzy2501]

OK, so I've been aware of the technology for a while but never thought I ever see because of it's draconian hardware limitations. Well, I finally have some laptops that meet the required hardware. My Elitebook 8460p with a Corei5 2nd gen with HD3000 GFX and a Centrino Ultimate n 6300 wifi card. Now all I need is a WiDi only client device (Gen1 not Gen 2 or pro) for £80 and I can wirelessly display and image! Phew...

 

No, no you can't, early in the trouble shooting (around the, how do I WiDi? question) I saw fourms of people bemoaning their WiDi woes, and a theme came through the noise... (if it didn't come with the software, it won't work)

 

Well I can say after 3 hours of drivers the auto install utility many driver versions and even installing windows 8.1 (mistake) it does not work.. I only once got it to see the adapter and attempt a connect only to fail and never connect again, and never displaying an image btw.

 

Software the bails during the install to tell you that your platform is unsupported and where you can buy supported hardware (as it couldn't find a .dll) (my favouriteist)

 

This has been a complete waste of time... And I'll say it for anyone "Unless the WiDi software is already installed on your device, it'll never work" AND never update your drivers or your operating system if you want to keep it that way.

 

The magical WiDi updater tells me at one point to download a gfx driver (the driver, I get by hand, won't install as it can't work with 8.1!) MAGIC!

 

What a mess.... I've wasted money and time and I can't bring myself to find the magical unicorn driver combo that'll allow me to use it..

 

UPDATE: and reading another forum I now find out I need to fudge older drivers to allow a connecting to the client to allow a firmware update for it to work on win8.1 but I've gotten no where near the point I can attempt a connection! HA!

[3s-gtech]

My experience was the same. Got the right laptops, the right adaptors, but when attempting to connect the two it would just fail, with various error messages such as it requiring a firmware update (that's supposed to pull via the connection). Tried updating everything - drivers, firmware, tried different OSs. In the end, threw the adaptor away, stuck Splashtop on the laptop and left a desktop in place for it to run through. Works fine.

[sted]

never caused me an issue we bought a netgear cheap thing as a demo dongle to plug into a hdmi screen and my surface pro has connected to that and my tv pretty much every time without any software just windows 8.1 itself

[chazzy2501]

@sted is this intel WiDi tech? or some other wireless technology AND I'll assume that if it is WiDi that the software was already installed!

[sted]

its widi/miracast. On my surface pro there is no software its built in to 8.1 all i do is use the charms bar say look for screens and display to that

[JRowley]

Surface Pro's don't have Intel wireless chips, so can't use WiDi. It will be connecting with Miracast.

[sted]

Surface Pro's don't have Intel wireless chips, so can't use WiDi. It will be connecting with Miracast.

isnt that just a name change rather than a different thing to allow it to be a bit more inclusive of non intel hardware

[JRowley]

isnt that just a name change rather than a different thing to allow it to be a bit more inclusive of non intel hardware

 

Somewhat, WiDi is Intel's branded version of Miracast, so they are (or should be) compatible. However the Intel implementation seems to require the software and drivers to work whereas the traditional Miracast model seems to work out of the box. Windows 8.1 for example supports Miracast straight up, but not WiDi.

 

It's a bit confusing, Intel really didn't need to go ahead with WiDi it just confuses consumers. Plus the real irony is that WiDi is supposed to mean that Intel have tested the device and it is now certified to be good at making stable connections for screen sharing, clearly not the case.