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Author Topic: Blue Screen in Vista 32-bit / random connection drops  (Read 5552 times)

Beeder

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Blue Screen in Vista 32-bit / random connection drops
« on: May 02, 2010, 07:41:18 AM »

I just purchased a DWA-131 to get better throughput to my DGL-4500.
It does get better throughput, but disconnects after about 15 minutes and the only way to get the signal back is to disable then enable the DWA-131.
Occasionally, however, it bluescreens my laptop instead of simply dropping the connection.

Any suggestions I can try before I return it to the store?
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Beeder

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  • Posts: 65
Re: Blue Screen in Vista 32-bit / random connection drops
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2010, 10:41:21 AM »

OK, I got it.
1) Ditch the driver disk packed in with the adapter. If you've already installed the driver, go to device manager and uninstall the device directly.  Wait a bit after the uninstall to let things settle if your PC is a bit bogged (like mine).
2) Turn off all network firewall software (I pretty much turned off everything in Norton Internet Security 2010 for 15 minutes).
3) Plug in the adapter and choose Vista's recommended settings in the New Hardware Wizard that pops up (i.e., check Windows Update)
4) Wait a few minutes for things to settle.
5) Go to the Network and Sharing Center and click on "Manage Network Connections"
6) If you have another wireless adapter configured, right-click it and choose "Disconnect"
7) Right click on the DWA-131 and choose "Connect"
8) Connect to your network.
9) Wait again, until Windows figures out that you're connected to the internet. This may take some time (up to 5 minutes).  If you see you're connected to the local network, but not the internet, you're fine.  If you've waited a while and you're still connected to the local network but not the internet, continue to the next step (continue anyway if you ARE connected).

***WARNING*** DO NOT FIDDLE AROUND AND TRY TO RECONNECT YOUR INTERNAL WIRELESS CARD IF YOU HAVE ONE YET. WAIT UNTIL STEP 11 AND EVERYTHING WILL SORT ITSELF OUT.

10) Shut down your PC.  DO NOT RESTART: YOU MUST SHUT DOWN.  Power management on many laptops doesn't properly reinitialize new USB devices, so shutting down is very important.
11) Turn it back on, and be patient.  Don't touch the laptop for a few minutes until everything boots up and settles (may take 5 minutes if you've got a lot of startup apps that use the network).
12) Go back to the Network and Sharing Center.  If you've got two wireless adapters, you should see that both your internal and the DWA-131 are now connected to the internet.
13) Enjoy. This basically doubled my throughput on the Download from 4-8Mbps from the internet, and I'm getting the full 392kbps (actually higher than my mediocre isp advertises) on the upload.  Been running for an hour now with no spontaneous drops or dreaded BSOD's.

I think the problem was part Vista, part driver disk.  These steps will probably work for some of the other cards that were having problems, too.
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