DeVista-fying Gateway MT6458: Marvell TOPDOG driver??? 9

[wahnula]

Hello,

I am cross-posting this in the XP forum, I know we are not supposed to do this but I am desperate. This Gateway MT6458 (Turion TL50, ATI RS485M) notebook was purchased by a co-worker upon recommendation from a slimeball Best Buy salesman, who was told how it would be used, it was for his hospital-bound disabled wife. Asking a 100% competent person tho learn a new OS is hard enough; in her condition it would be a paperweight. Its "Vista Experience" was 2.1, I think. Woof.

I asked him to return it for an XP model, but he did not want to pay the 15% restocking fee, plus the salesman told him it would be fine by the end of the year...but he did not tell him his printer and scanner would not work with it nor that he could not join the company Domain with Vista Home...GRRRR

Anyway, I have done all the standard steps:

Index hardware
Clone Vista drive
Load XP
Hunt-and-peck for drivers

I have done this several times with Gateway and others with excellent results, but I have found a nut I cannot crack: The built-in wireless NIC, a Marvell TOPDOG PCI-Express 802.11n Wireless Adapter [EC85]

I thought I had hit paydirt at the Marvell site that had an XP driver for the TOPDOG, but all it did within XP was identify the device, and Windows noted it would not work properly. "Wireless Network Connection" does not appear in Network Connections. Device Manager reports it as "Marvell TOPDOG PCI-Express 802.11abgn Wireless" but it still has the yellow !. The other PCI-E device, the Marvel Yukon NIC, is working fine, so I doubt it is a bus issue. There are no other !s in Device Manager and I must say it is a peppy PC w/ XP, with Vista it was a DOG, and not a topdog!

I have also tried every wireless adapter driver on Gateway's site, Realtek, Broadcom, as well as tried to run the Vista driver. No joy.

Thanks folks.

Tony

 

[macten88]

for what its worth. I bought a new Gateway laptop with Vista and am stunned at how well everything works. I've never used Vista before but it joined my network with a couple of keystrokes. My Cannon printer installed in a few minutes. Wireless Internet worked right out of the box. A sample of a game called Warcraft played flawlessly. Kaspersky antivirus installed and runs without any problems. No problems yet...

 

[trustin]

The Netgear driver works, my big hurdle with it was not activating it with the Fn key. Make sure you do that.

Now, my new problem is that my power settings keep reverting back to default. I change them to not go into standby when I close the lid, but they revert a couple hours later.

Does anyone know a fix for this?

 

[spilledcoffee]

wow,
I have to thank lonebirch for coming through on his long stroke of luck for that driver. Even though it was a netgear driver, it worked like a charm. Luckily I had already tried the FN key option to turn on my quote-unquote *topdog* so I didn't run into any snags. After I dropped that 'NETMW145.sys' into the 'WINDOWS\System32\drivers' folder and ran the device manager.
Thanks again for all the discussion on this topic, good luck to anyone else driver hunting..
~Lem

DeVista-fy Microsoft!! ¿please¿

 

[wahnula]

Just knowing my post from June is still helping people is a great feeling. Plus, I'm sure there are people who have been helped and not bothered to post like spilledcoffee. Congrats and I wish you many years of trouble-free use out of your new, working de-vistafied XP rig.

Tony

"Buy what you like, or you'll be forced to like what you buy"...me

 

[mocars2]

OK - Now to laptops - how do you TURN ON THE WIRELESS CARD via the Fn key?

 

[kjv1611]

OK - Now to laptops - how do you TURN ON THE WIRELESS CARD via the Fn key?

Um, that might be best left to a new thread. I would say, though, it depends. I know on Dell laptops, it's <Fn> + <F2>.

Some newer laptops have a physical switch.

Also, you should be able to change it in the BIOS, regardless of the other options - same as the <Fn> + <F2>

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kmcferrin]

Um, that might be best left to a new thread.

You know, I envision a day 100 years from now where the entire world has forsaken their religions so that they can worship the "Undying Thread, the One True Source of All Knowledge.

 

[kjv1611]

[ROFL]

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[wahnula]

I envision a day 100 years from now where the entire world has forsaken their religions so that they can worship the "Undying Thread, the One True Source of All Knowledge"

LOL...but this thread, unlike many other 100+ replies threads I have read on this forum, has stayed remarkably on-topic through its long life. Like the way the "Speak English" thread on forum656 deteriorated into a nationalistic battle.

It has just now wavered, give the kid a break!

Tony

"Buy what you like, or you'll be forced to like what you buy"...me

 

[tchemis]

Hello Everyone,.. Your troubles are over here are the Verified working Windows XP drivers for the Marvell TOPDOG Wireless Card found in the Gateway MT6458

http://www.mediafire.com/?bhmzzg3zhty

[Main]

http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/1fd847a627_11.23MB

[ALT]


Enjoy.

 

[tchemis]

I forgot to mention, these drivers will detect the card as a Marvell Topdog card, if you have trouble finding a Network in Range you need to activate/turn on the card via the FN+F2 keys.

 

[windward4]

I have the Gateway M series laptop with Vista and a Airport Extreme router. There are no problems with our old Dell XP, a Sony XP, or two Macs. They network beautifully. The Vista Gateway, with a Marvell Topgun wireless card has problems. There is one spot 10ft from the Airport, where it works beautifully but if I move 90 degrees but still 10 ft, or further away and try and use the internet, the Airport reboots, the Gateway reconnects and then the Airport reboots, etc... I have read the thread. I still don't find a new driver from Gateway or Marvell. We tried to use the newest Airport firmware, but then the XP and Vista machines cause rebooting by moving files across the network. The older firmware doesn't have this problem.

I am a bit more of neophyte than a lot of the posters I read. Hope no one is upset if I ask can I replace the Marvell with the Intel wireless card but still keep Vista?

 

[wahnula]

windward4

Most of us are level-headed, no getting upset here...except for a few hotheads (you know who you are), we are a tolerant bunch .

It's been a long time since this thread started, there are many options for a replacement PCI-e mini WiFi card. Just make sure it has Vista drivers available.

Hard to say, but the problem might not be the card. It may be the way Vista deals with the Airport that's confusing the device.

Maybe a new post in Forum730 would be appropriate. Good luck!





Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[windward4]

Thanks. Gateway is sending a new Marvell Topdog under warranty. Seems doubtful that will fix the problem. Meanwhile, I'll try to take my laptop to someone else's house if they have a Vista ready router to see if it works better. I'll look into the other post you suggested too.

Told my wife at the beginning that introducing an Apple router would somehow not harmonize with our established MS based equipment. Not that Apple is bad, but its mixing apples and oranges...

 

[wahnula]

Told my wife at the beginning that introducing an Apple router would somehow not harmonize with our established MS based equipment

Yup...it's like putting Ford parts in a Chevy...they will be rejected by the host like a bad transplant. Good luck to you!

Tony

Users helping Users...