Plugging in WPC11 Card Causes Win98 to Lock 1

[keishik]

A friend purchased a Linksys WPC11 PC card today for his Dell Inspiron laptop. After loading the software and drivers as specified in the directions, plugging the pc card into the laptop causes Win98 to lock hard, forcing a cold boot.

We've tried booting with the card in and booting with the card out, then plugging it in when the OS is up. Either way it locks. We have also tried uninstalling the drivers and software, then reinstalling with the card installed (against the recommendations in the instructions); same result.

Other indications:

If the card is left out, the OS boots and runs normally.

If the software is uninstalled, and you boot with the card in, Win98 boots normally and searches for the drivers.

 

[bcastner]

Is this the Version 3 PCMCIA card or the Version 4 Cardbus card?

I have three things you can try if it is the PCMCIA card version.

1. In Device Manager, change the driver used by the Cardbus Controller chips from the Ti-specific ones to the "Generic" Cardbus controller driver from Microsoft. You do this with an Update Driver, Do Not Search.., Show all hardware, scroll to Microsoft, and pick the generic driver. Do it for both controllers. I had to do this originally for a Cisco 350 PCMCIA wireless board, but subsequent use of a WPC11 Version 1, and Version 3 both worked fine with a Dell Latitiude and a Dell Inspiron.

2. The driver version I am using is likely older than yours. It uses the driver release 1.07.37. You might look in the Linksys ftp site and copy a driver release 1 step earlier than what you have now, and as there was a driver release not long ago, download the newest version as well.

ftp:\\ft.linksys.com\pub\networking

3. In a different road you could take, some have resorted to using the driver release for the 2.5 Card. This has solved many problems with using the card in the cardbus slot of the BEFSR4W. The link for that driver and information is here:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ewan.lisa/pages/linksys.htm

4. If none of these solves the problem, take it back. The most consistently trouble-free PCMCIA board has been the Orinoco Silver or Gold card for 802.11b.