Linksys WMP54G Causes BSOD

[vtfanmv5]

I have a Linksys WMP54G Wireless-G PCI Adapter in my ~2 month old build. I have had good luck with Linksys products before, and this one had a "Vista Certified" sticker on it (running Vista-32). Little did I know that behind the installation disks and fifteen booklets, there was a little piece of paper that says "Warning! Vista users - visit Linksys website to download device drivers!". So I had a little trouble installing until I finally found that piece of paper.

Anyways, now that I have installed the (apparently) correct drivers from the Linksys website, the device works fine...mostly. When I am downloading something (torrent), the network seems to periodically disconnect and then BSOD (DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL). If I'm actually watching it I can see the network activity drop off and then a few seconds later the BSOD. I don't download often and this has happened 15-20 times, often when the computer is doing nothing else but downloading. Through my searches I have found that this BSOD (DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL) is often caused by bad RAM or GPU drivers. However, I have checked my RAM through memtest, and I have updated my nVidia drivers many times.

Anyone else experienced this problem or have any advice? Any thoughts appreciated.

[vtfanmv5]

There it goes again :(

[glc]

Any reason you cannot use standard wired networking in your desktop? That is always better. Wireless is really best for portability, not a primary connection.

[vtfanmv5]

Yeah, just home for the summer and I'm not going to drill all over the house for such a short time. When I get back to school I will be using a regular wired connection.

In other news, I think I may have solved the issue. I'll post how if it survives another day or two without crashing. Definitely not buying anymore Linksys products after experiencing their pathetic driver support.

[vtfanmv5]

Drivers still causing bluescreens, tried tons of drivers. No more linksys products for me.

[glc]

Too bad. I've never had any problems with Linksys adapters. Maybe yours has a hardware problem. See about a warranty replacement.

[vtfanmv5]

So I had an unrelated confrontation with Linksys yesterday.

My girlfriend has a Linksys Wireless USB adapter. It has worked fine for about a year now. I reformatted her computer this weekend so I was reinstalling drivers. Downloaded the drivers from the Linksys website, which I usually do because website drivers tend to be more up to date (and also more convenient) than the ones that came in the box with your product. Or so I thought.

The next morning she calls me and is like "hey my login screen is changed it's not the normal windows screen and it won't let me log in". Great. I researched some less-than-ethical ways to reset and clear your windows password at work. They work, I log in (classic login style, boring login box) and try to change the welcome screen settings. It won't let me - "This setting has been modified by a recently installed program GTGina.dll". Riiiight. Time for a virus scan.

After a clean scan, I google it. Well this is interestng. First site I visit... http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt-2000-xp/448464-how-do-i-get-rid.html. Apparently this is a well-established (and old) Linksys...virus? I don't know what else to call it.

I'm so pissed at Linksys right now. It took like 5 minutes to fix, but I just spend a whole weekend formatting an uncooperative computer, while my home pc bluescreens every 3 hours from a faulty Linksys piece of crap hardware or driver until I have a chance to go the store and replace it. Arrrrrrrghhhhhhh.