G
Guest
I've discovered a pretty serious problem with one of the recently posted
updates that I thought I should share, in hopes that other people can avoid
my fate and the the powers that be will be notified and start working on a
fix.
Here's the story: I installed Windows Updates on September 14th, just after
Microsoft made available the following update on September 13th:
Atheros - Networking - Atheros L1 Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Base-T
Controller
Normally I don't hesitate to install hardware updates like this, but it
appears I need to be more careful. After I installed this one, my computer
would refuse to boot. It would load all the drivers successfully, which I
can tell if I turn on boot logging, since CRCDISK.SYS is the last thing
loaded. However, before the router's network light for the connected port
comes on, the machine locks up. I've left it in this state overnight before,
and while the hard disk light would blink once in a while, and the green boot
progress bar would move a tick every minute or, there was no indication that
it would ever finish booting.
What clued me into the fact that it was a network problem was the fact that
I could boot into safe mode, but not safe mode with network support, AND the
fact that power cycling my DSL router while the boot hang is occurring would
allow it to finish booting. Once it finishes booting, the network all works
fine.
Here are some of the relevant details of the new driver that causes the
problem:
Provider: Atheros
Driver Date: 8/30/2007
Driver Version: 2.4.7.4
Driver Files: \system32\DRIVERS\l160x86.sys
And here are the same details for the old driver that I have reverted to
which works properly:
Provider: Attansic
Driver Date: 11/15/2006
Driver Version: 1.0.560.11159
Driver Files: \system32\Attansic\L1\atcInst.dll
\system32\DRIVERS\atl01v32.sys
Here are the relevant specs of my configuration. Please don't hesitate to
ask me for more info if it would be helpful.
- ASUS P5B-E Motherboard
- Attansic L1 Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Base-T Controller (built in)
- AMI BIOS version 1601, 7/13/2007
- Westell Versalink 327W DSL modem / router (supports wireless but
that's turned off) via Verizon Internet
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (stock clock speed)
- 2GB Memory at 800 MHz
- NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT
- Vista Ultimate build 6.0.6000 Build 6000
Apparently, Attansic has changed hands and now become Atheros, and clearly
the new driver is only slight related to the old one, based on the new
version numbers and files. Methinks some further testing of this driver is
in order.
Cheers,
Ben
updates that I thought I should share, in hopes that other people can avoid
my fate and the the powers that be will be notified and start working on a
fix.
Here's the story: I installed Windows Updates on September 14th, just after
Microsoft made available the following update on September 13th:
Atheros - Networking - Atheros L1 Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Base-T
Controller
Normally I don't hesitate to install hardware updates like this, but it
appears I need to be more careful. After I installed this one, my computer
would refuse to boot. It would load all the drivers successfully, which I
can tell if I turn on boot logging, since CRCDISK.SYS is the last thing
loaded. However, before the router's network light for the connected port
comes on, the machine locks up. I've left it in this state overnight before,
and while the hard disk light would blink once in a while, and the green boot
progress bar would move a tick every minute or, there was no indication that
it would ever finish booting.
What clued me into the fact that it was a network problem was the fact that
I could boot into safe mode, but not safe mode with network support, AND the
fact that power cycling my DSL router while the boot hang is occurring would
allow it to finish booting. Once it finishes booting, the network all works
fine.
Here are some of the relevant details of the new driver that causes the
problem:
Provider: Atheros
Driver Date: 8/30/2007
Driver Version: 2.4.7.4
Driver Files: \system32\DRIVERS\l160x86.sys
And here are the same details for the old driver that I have reverted to
which works properly:
Provider: Attansic
Driver Date: 11/15/2006
Driver Version: 1.0.560.11159
Driver Files: \system32\Attansic\L1\atcInst.dll
\system32\DRIVERS\atl01v32.sys
Here are the relevant specs of my configuration. Please don't hesitate to
ask me for more info if it would be helpful.
- ASUS P5B-E Motherboard
- Attansic L1 Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Base-T Controller (built in)
- AMI BIOS version 1601, 7/13/2007
- Westell Versalink 327W DSL modem / router (supports wireless but
that's turned off) via Verizon Internet
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (stock clock speed)
- 2GB Memory at 800 MHz
- NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT
- Vista Ultimate build 6.0.6000 Build 6000
Apparently, Attansic has changed hands and now become Atheros, and clearly
the new driver is only slight related to the old one, based on the new
version numbers and files. Methinks some further testing of this driver is
in order.
Cheers,
Ben