Help with installing wireless card

[bucksfanjimj1]

Hey all! I have problem here. It involves installing my wireless PCI card.
It is a Netgear WG311 model. The story goes like this. I finally built myself a new
computer. I’ll list the specs at the end. In my old computer I had the card installed and
running beautifully for over 4 years. The old PC was running XP Pro SP1. Now I want to install it in my new PC since it is working as it should. No reason to buy new when old is working fine right? I dig out the disk and installation manual and follow the directions. Install software on new PC, and reboot and then shutdown, remove card from old and then install in new computer.

So far so good. I place the new PC in its new home and reconnect everything and power up the PC. PC goes thru POST with no issues and boots up. XP notifies me it has found new hardware and wants to run Hardware Wizard. Ok so I let it and we get to the point of installing drivers. About 4 seconds into this process the computer locks up rock solid. Not a thing works. Hard boot. Power up and check device manager for issues. It sees card and shows yellow ! next to it. I uninstall it in DM and reboot. Go thru the process of trying to load drivers again and I get same result. I end up going to Netgear’s website for updated info and drivers. I find three different versions for my card and I download all three and get the same results as before. Complete and total lockup. I did remove everything before trying different versions. What do I do now?

I have loaded all the drivers for my other components successfully and with no issues. I am at a loss and I’m a bit hacked that I have had so much trouble with this.

New PC specs:

ASUS P5K-E EVGA 8800 GT Video
INTEL E8400 CPU MS XP Pro SP2
Corsair XMS RAM (2 GB) Lite-On DVD combo drive (x2)
Seagate 500 GB HDD Antec P182 case
Corsair 650 watt PSU

Thanks for your help and guidance,

Bucksfanjimj

[Lespaul20]

Which adapter version do you have?

[bucksfanjimj1]

Version 1, it's 4 years old.

http://netgear.com/Products/Adapters...ers/WG311.aspx


Also I installed SP3 today and tried 2 of the 3 different drivers. Still no joy in Mudville.

[bucksfanjimj1]

Here is some more information. Today I removed Netgear software and utilities from my computer and physically removed the card. Then I reinstalled the software and moved the card to another PCI slot. The installation of drivers is specifically freezing at this point:

wg311nd5.sys

To C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS

I did some googling and I found something about a "Long SSID buffer overflow" which is caused by malicious code. The only problem with this is the computer has yet to be on the internet. I am installing straight from Netgear CD. Over the last few days I have tried to install different updated versions and I get the same result. Also the card is seen in Device Manager regardless of which slot I have had it in and the power led on back is solid green.
Any ideas?

Should I just break down and buy a new card?

Thanks,
Bucksfanjimj

Happy Memorial Day weekend and God bless our troops!

[glc]

I have never liked Netgear cards and routers - for stupid reasons like this.

[bucksfanjimj1]

Funny thing is when I installed it on my old pc everything fired right up like it should have. This is why I decided to continue to use it in this build. It has worked flawlessly in my old Pavillion for 4 years.

So I gather what your implying glc is that I should go and buy a replacement? I am eying a LYNKSIS at Newegg at this moment.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833124115

[glc]

That Linksys is one of my top choices. What brand and model is your router?

[bucksfanjimj1]

The router I'm using is a Linksys WRT54G v1.1.

Just in case your wondering why I'm using a Netgear adapter with a Linsys router. It's because when I was initially setting up this network I tried a Linksys USB adapter. It was a horrible piece of junk. Limited to no connectivity and poor signal. So I returned it for a Linksys card. Well, it was DOA. Picked up the Netgear card and as I said earlier it fired right up and without problems. Since then I did come to a small conclusion that distance did play a role somewhat with the USB adapter. I'm two floors up from the router. However with the Netgear card I still had 80% signal strength. I've added two antenna boosters to the set up and have had full 100% signal ever since. So anyway, I figured it has worked well for me up to this point, why change it?

Well enough of that long boring story. I'm off to order that Linksys card. Thanks for the advice glc. I'll be back if I need more help getting that set up.

[bucksfanjimj1]

I have installed my new Linksys card this afternoon and I am now happily surfing the net with my new computer.

I want to again thank everyone that tried to help with the installation of the old card.

Bucksfanjimj