Problems w/ Linksys wireless-g notebook adapter

[Patrick Rivas]

I picked up a Linksys wireless-g notebook adapter (WPC54G ver 2) recently
but can't get it to work properly. It has never worked right and causes my
machine to lockup as soon as it gets a connection with any significant
traffic. I have installed and reinstalled the drivers and talked to Linksys
technical support several times with no luck. I have another card (802.11b)
that I use and it works fine. The wireless-g card will connect and I can see
traffic under 100K bytes going back and forth but anything more than that
will lock the machine up. If I bring up a browser I will come up and lockup
with a minute or two. This card has worked in another laptop similar to
mine but never in mine. I tried a version 1 card like mine and that worked.
I don't know what to do at this point. Does this sound like a hardware
issue or an operating system problem. Any help is appreciated.

thanks,
Patrick
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

It is most likely to be the drivers.

 

[LiberalsSuck]

I picked up a Linksys wireless-g notebook adapter (WPC54G ver 2) recently
but can't get it to work properly. It has never worked right and causes my
machine to lockup as soon as it gets a connection with any significant
traffic. I have installed and reinstalled the drivers and talked to Linksys
technical support several times with no luck. I have another card (802.11b)
that I use and it works fine. The wireless-g card will connect and I can see
traffic under 100K bytes going back and forth but anything more than that
will lock the machine up. If I bring up a browser I will come up and lockup
with a minute or two. This card has worked in another laptop similar to
mine but never in mine. I tried a version 1 card like mine and that worked.
I don't know what to do at this point. Does this sound like a hardware
issue or an operating system problem. Any help is appreciated.

thanks,
Patrick
(e-mail address removed)

Patrick,

Maybe this will help:

I have WRT54G desktop version of that card. I had a very difficult time
getting it to work with encryption (WPA). I didn't have lockups, but I had
continuous connection problems. Assuming that the WPC54G card that you have
is not broken, then try:

1) I had to download and install Windows XP WPA hotfix (KB826942 from
Microsoft). I never installed Service Pack 2 installed.

2) I had to use the latest (at that time) firmware (ver. 2.02.7 for my
router) from Linksys.

3) Check your laptop for spyware. Use Spybot, Adaware, etc.

4) Free up as much memory as possible. Close out as many background
programs as possible. I've seen PCs (including my own) lockup even when
using well-written, legitimate software due to low memory issues.

5) Make sure that your firewall software (you are using one, I hope) is not
fouled and screwing with any other software, such as Windows XP built-in
firewall (although it normally wouldn't). In fact, if you have a
third-party firewall, make sure that Window XP's firewall is turned
off...just to be sure.

6) ***Probably most important*** Make sure that your laptop is not
overheating. Excess heat makes hardware do some strange things, resulting
in a cacophany of software foul-ups and crashes, even if the software
normally works perfectly.

I'm sure that the experts will chime in and disagree with some of the above.

If you find out what was wrong, please let this newsgroup know.

 

[Patrick Rivas]

I installed Service Pack 2 after a week of trying to get the card to work
but that didn't help either. I believe I have the latest firmware for the
card and haven't made any changes to the router because it locks up the
machine whether I am on my router or in a WIFI area. I am currently trying
to cleanup my registry to see if there is anything that might make a
difference there. I will respond again if I make any progress.

thanks,
Patrick

 

[LiberalsSuck]

I installed Service Pack 2 after a week of trying to get the card to work
but that didn't help either. I believe I have the latest firmware for the
card and haven't made any changes to the router because it locks up the
machine whether I am on my router or in a WIFI area. I am currently trying
to cleanup my registry to see if there is anything that might make a
difference there. I will respond again if I make any progress.

thanks,
Patrick

Patrick,

I forgot to ask if your operating system is compatible with your wireless
card (probably it is). Check in Device Manager for any conflicts (look for
the exclamation point beside each item).

This may not be an option for you, but...try installing that card in another
laptop. See what happens. If it works, then chances are it's an issue with
your laptop, either software or non-wireless hardware (motherboard, memory,
etc.).

Also, try disabling ALL wireless security including turning off MAC address
restrictions. Of course, be sure to do this on the router first, then
change the same settings on your network card. I learned this the hard way
when I first used a wireless router. I changed the settings on my card,
then, to my surprise, couldn't access the router from my PC to change the
router settings. Duh! I had to connect a CAT5 cable to change things.

Here's the worse case scenario advice: reinstall the software. Uninstall
all wireless software. Go to Device Manager, and delete all references to
the wireless card. Shut down. Pull out the card from the laptop. Reboot.
Run (from Safe Mode) all the utilities that you can think of: anti-virus,
registry cleaner (BE CAREFUL - many of these cleaners suck and will
accidentally delete/modify needed system files), etc. Shut down. Add
wireless card to laptop. Reboot, and reload wireless software with latest
drivers. ***Make sure that your anti-virus software is TURNED OFF when you
install wireless software. Sometimes, anti-virus programs will silently
prevent software from 100% completely installing and you'll never know it
until something locks up or doesn't work right. *** Reboot one more time
before trying to use the wireless card.

Still not working? What about reinstalling your operating system? This
would be a horrible thing; but, it is sometimes necessary.

Still nothing...try praying. God is not some distant entity. It may seem
strange; but, He does care about everything going on in your life, including
this problem that you're having. Actually, try praying to Him before you do
another thing.