Unable to update or load a new driver

Hi there,

I hope someone can help me. I have a laptop that has been loaned to my daughter for a year and am now updating it, but have come across a problem that I cannot solve.

Firstly, I have tried adding a wireless network card (TP-Link Wireless PCMCIA WN510G). The new wireless card appears to be working as the status light is flashing, but despite having the required driver files, I cannot get the
computer to load them. It goes through the load driver routine and ends
up saying that the file cannot be found, even though it is there and is the right one. When I check on control panel/device driver, no files have been loaded. When loading, there is a warning that the driver is unsigned, but would that actually stop it loading?

Secondly, as far as I can tell all windows updates are complete as it automatically installed a large number when i first accessed the Internet, including IE7. However although IE accesses the Internet okay, when i run Windows Update it starts scanning for updates - and still is scanning 10 minutes later.

To me it sounds like a window related problem, but I am no expert. I am
running Windows XP SP 2, and everything else appears to be working. the laptop is an Advent 6422, 1.3Ghz 512Mb RAM.

I was really hoping that someone may have come across this problem before
and perhaps found why it happened.

Thanking you in advance.

 

Hi and welcome to the BBS,

First thing I would look for is any instructions for installation or troubleshooting information. Use Windows Explorer to check the CD that came with the card. The thing will be that I think you will need to uninstall any drivers or software that is currently installed and start again.

The laptop, I would expect, has a built-in ethernet adapter. I might well wonder if the drivers or software for that is causing the problem with installing the new card. I don't suppose you are going to need the built-in adapter when you are using wireless so consider uninstalling any software for it in Add or Remove Programs, then uninstalling it in Device Manager (if I think there is a chance that the driver files will still be hanging around I boot into Safe Mode and uninstall there). Make a note of the built-in adapters make and model number in case you need to reinstall it later.

After you uninstall the built-in adapter, when you restart, you could go into the BIOS settings, find the adapter and disable it. Hopefully that should stop it from interfering with the installation of the wireless adapter.

Of course, use the installation instructions provided by TP-Link. They might suggest running an installation program before connecting the adapter. There may be separate software and drivers. Just install the drivers if that is possible, install the software later if you find problem with connection or setup.

There are several ways of installing drivers. One way is to use the "I will the drivers from a list..." radio button in the Add New Hardware wizard, then use the "Have disk..." button even if the device is not listed. Direct it to the CD and to the Windows XP folder if there is such a folder on the CD.
If you can find the relevant .inf in the driver files, right-click on it and select install. That will at least add the device's information to the "list ".

Find any update for the PCMCIA drivers at the Advent website. Even look for updated chipset drivers (or find chipset updates at the chipset manufacturer's website and uninstall the PCMCIA controller in Device Manager, it will be automatically reinstalled at reboot).
...I could not find the Advent website. I did find many PCMCIA drivers at Driverguide (free registration) http://www.driverguide.com/

Matt

 

Hi Matt,

Firstly I want to thank you very much for your advice, i appreciate the time that you have taken on this.

I bought the wireless card on ebay ( I hate PC World) and they were delivered the following day. That was the good news. The ebay company were actually worse than hopeless, on the auction site they said that they were in Hull, I presume that is the Hull near Beijing. The communications were in pigeon English, they could not even understand the problem. Therefore I posted the problem on the forum and you replied thank goodness!

It was all solid advice, which I followed through thoroughly- but ended up not much further than when i started. Actually i was about ready to throw the **** thing into the bin. In a fit of total frustration - throwing a few less than complimentary remarks across the pond to Dollar Bill and his 'wonderful' operating system. I then did what I should have done in the first place and formatted the entire disc. There followed an amusing couple of hours reloading XP, then SP2 and then all the programs. I then did a Windows update - it found 71 critical updates! - and then loaded the driver, which now (hooray) worked.

Great I thought I have cracked it, only to find that the wireless card would then not communicate with the BT hub. This took another hour until i found an obscure button deep in the BT software labelled 'Connect'.

On the positive side, it now works very well and I am getting the full promised speed of 54Mb/s .

I thought computers were supposed to make life easier!

Many thanks once again - John

 

From what you say the system belonged to somebody else, so you don't really know the history and what could have been done to it previously. The new install, although it may have taken time, may have been inevitable anyway. Sometimes it is better to clean out the cobwebs, only the very experienced user would know where to look for "hidden" faults. "Dollar" would probably say that the problem was in the drivers (although you have them working now) or some other software that was blocking the installation. You may have saved a lot of swearing and now you have new, clean system.

Hope it goes well.
Matt