Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs Forum

Scott:

I recently bought a WPC100 wireless adapter for my wife’s gateway computer and installed the associated software.

Hardware: Gateway laptop 400VTX
Router: WRT54G v3.1
Wireless Adapter: WPC100
Wireless Security: WPA2
Operating System: Windows XP SP3

However, when I resume from standby mode I find that the computer refuses to communicate with the router. I tried to ping the router but there is no response. The only solution I have found is to reboot the machine. I have found that if the laptop has been in standby for a short period of time then it reconnects without a problem. I also have a desktop computer I recently built with Windows XP SP3 that also connects wirelessly to the same router (also using WPA2 and a WMP54G adapter) and it does not have this problem. Do you know what could be causing this problem? A web search has turned up users with similar problems but no indication of a solution.

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/Sho ... &SiteID=17
http://forums.microsoft.com/technet/sho ... &siteid=17

Thanks.

-swc

By that I hope you mean just the drivers, and not any other software (i.e. a Client Utility or other control software) that might have come with it. If you did install anything other than the driver, uninstall it and use Windows to control the Wireless networking.

After that, standard troubleshooting procedure would include checking to see if there is a newer driver, and if so installing it. That is an Atheros AR5008 chipset based card, however Atheros unfortunately does not supply drivers directly to end-users, so you have to find them elsewhere: http://atheros.com/pt/AR5008Bulletins.htm

Linksys has version 6.0.3.120, however I found newer versions up to 7.6.1.160 from other sources: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/ind ... opic=14858

If the newer driver doesn't solve the problem (there is a chance it might, but I'm not hopeful), then I think the problem may be your power management settings. See the following post, where I detail how to disable or turn off any power management for the wireless network connection: viewtopic.php?p=1950#p1950

Another possibility is that the wireless network adapter is remaining off after resume. If that is the case, and the driver update or power management setting changes don't solve the problem, then you might try using the Atheros Client Utility, which is exactly the type of software I told you to uninstall in the first paragraph. <g> Trying it as a last resort might help, as it might be able to independently power on the card: http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/Other- ... 0125.shtml

Let me know if any of these suggestions help, or if you figure something else out to solve the problem, Scott.

Hi Scott, just curious, how did you find out the chipset of the card? I didn't see the information in the Linksys specifications document.

I looked at the driver *.inf file, which indicates that it is from PCI vendor ID 168C http://www.pcidatabase.com/vendor_details.php?id=174 (Atheros), and is device ID 0023, which further searching showed to be an "Atheros AR5008 Wireless Network Adapter".

Searching on the Vendor/Device string (PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0023) is a good way to find newer drivers from alternative sources: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%2 ... EV_0023%22

Scott.

Scott:

It turned out that your first suggestion was the key - having Windows manage the wireless connection instead of using the Linkysys software. I haven't updated the driver yet because I wanted to try one thing at a time to see which one fixed the problem.

Thanks a lot for the help.

-swc

Thanks for letting me know what worked! Scott.