Wireless LAN Card, freezes Laptop when inserted

[vacunita]

I'm an IT guy, and know my way around PCs(i'd like to think)
I've had this problem for a while now, it wasn't a a big problem since i moslty used wired Lan at the office, and when at home i could use Wired or Wireless. So It really did not matter, But at the office we are now going to change the wired network for a wireless one. So i need this to work Again.

I bought a Netgear Wireless PC Card bundeled with a Wireless Netgear Router. When i installed everything, it worked fine. no problems whatsoever. Internet was fine, I could access files on my Desktop from my Laptop flawlessly. Everything worked fine. Everything worked fine.

I took out the card from the laptop one day, because i wasn't using it that much at work, and did not want to risk loosing it somewhere. So i left it at home.So I came back from Work on day, tried to insert the card , and the system froze. So I rebooted the laptop. with the card still in it, and i could not boot the laptop it just would not turn on, so I took out the card, and tried to boot it up again, and it worked. it booted up to windows.
Once there I inserted the card again, and it froze again. Since I was going to reboot, i took the card out, before rebooting, and lo and behold windows came back to life, without having to reboot.

Here is the thing. I tested the card on severla laptops at work and it worked fine. Since my laptop does not have another PCMCIA slot, i cannot plug it anywhere else.

I need to find a way to resolve this. I've tried uninstalling the PCMCIA drivers and reinstalling them and Nothing. Since the laptop is out of warranty, i dnñt want ot go to Compaq and get charged 300 dollars for something i could probably resolve myself.

THe Laptop Specs are as follows:

Compaq Presario 2100
Windows XP Pro. SP2
256MB RAM
AMD Athlon Processor 2800+
1 PCMCIA SLOT.
Card Specs:
Netgear Wireless PC Card, 32 BIT Card Bus, MA521
802.11b at 2.4GHz.
Sorry for the long explanation, but I did not wan't to leave anything out.

I hope someone can help me, I have no idea why it's doing this, other than myabe a fried PCMCIA SLot.

Any help is appreciated

 

[theEclipse]

vacunita-

I do not want to be salt in the wound but....

I had the same problem on my gateway laptop with a netgear g wifi card. When I called gateway on it they replaced the mobo. Works now.

Before you go and do that kind of thing though see if you can find another pcmcia card to put in the slot. If it freezes with that card also then you know that its the mobo.

good luck

Robert Carpenter
"You and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness." - C.S. Lewis (The Weight of Glory)

robert (at) robertcarpenter (dot) net

http://www.robertcarpenter.net

 

[vacunita]

Hey Eclipse, thanx for the answer,
I was kind of hoping it wasn't something major.
I'll try your suggestion and try to find another card and see what happens. Hopefully it's something else.(and does not require a mobo change which would be a pain in the butt).
Just Curious, did Gateway ever tell you what was wrong? Did it burn out the slot or somehing similar, and why it happened?

Thanx again. and any more ideas are indeed welcome.

 

[chriseubank]

Get a magnifying glass out and check the pins in your PCMCIA slot..

Scream loudly when you find a bent one I'm all the way in Canada so you'll have to be at least 3500dB

HTH,
C

 

[vacunita]

That could be a possibility. But it makes me trhink that if indeed there were a bent one, wouldn't i feel it when putting in the card, I mean probably the card would not even seat in properly. It still a good possibilty i'll look into.

BTW, i got another PCMCIA card to test, As soon as i get off for lunch, i'll pick it up, and try it out. Postback with any results.

On both counts.

 

[theEclipse]

vacunita-

Nope never heard what the problem was from gateway. I dont think that they would have told me if I asked....I was treated like an idiot 99% of the time. If I remember right, I didnt even get someone in this country until they had promoted my call 3 times.

I did have to send it in twice however.....the first time they didnt even attempt to fix it. When I looked over the paperwork after the first it indicated a pcmcia test on the checklist....but it was not checked. But they aparently found something wrong with my usb module and fixed that instead. Back through the whole system again.

good luck

Robert Carpenter
"You and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness." - C.S. Lewis (The Weight of Glory)

http://www.robertcarpenter.net

 

[bcastner]

It is the identification of the cardbus chipset.

Often you can work around the issue by "upgrading" the specific chipset (usually TI is the culprit) to the Microsoft generic cardbus controller driver.

Some manufacturers make specific TI chipset compatable drivers for their wireless cards. Linkys, for one.

 

[micker377]

Just out of curiosity, did you make any changes/MS upgrades between the time you took the card out (and "left it at home"), and when you tried to use it again?

 

[vacunita]

O.k. sorry it took me so long. but here i am with my test results.

Checked the slot, all pins in the slot seem to be straight. and o.k. So i then proceeded with the other PCMCIA cards, and old 10/100 lan card, and an old modem card. The Lancard got detected a second after inserting it. the modem was a little fussy, but got detected the 3rd time i put it in.
So i can rule out a problem with the slot. Now as for the Wireless Card, a tried in more laptops. Gateways, Toshibas, even a very old IBM thinkpad, every single time it got detected. but i tried to put it into my laptop, and it freezes.

My next step is to check out Texas Instruments site for updated cardbus drivers, see if that is the problem. If none available, then use bcastner's advice and try Microsofts genberic drivers.

In regards to micker377, None, other than the standard Microsoft patches that come out every so often through the Windows Update applet. As for new hardware, the only thing I added was a Bluetooth dongle, for my cellphone.
I'll try uninstalling it, see if that does anything.

Thanx for all the suport guys, I'll post back with any developments. Any other ideas are very welcome.

Thanx again.

 

[theEclipse]

vac -

do you have any way of testing another wifi card?
Your bluetooth dongle could very well be the problem....I believe windows uses the same applet to configure bluetooth and wifi.

Also try re-installing the driver for the lan card....if you have not already.

I also got to thinking and my gateway laptop that had problems with my netgear pcmcia card didnt freeze, it would loose power when the pcmcia slot was activated. (Either on boot on when a card was inserted).



Robert Carpenter
"You and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness." - C.S. Lewis (The Weight of Glory)

http://www.robertcarpenter.net

 

[vacunita]

O.k. after an extremely long, and frustrating weekend spend installing and uninstalling stuff. Heres is the rundown.

Uninstalled bluetooth dongle and everything associated with it. Rebooted laptop, and inserted card. it froze.

Uninstalled Texas Instruments card bus controller, and installed geberic cardbus controller. Restarted laptop, insterted card, it froze.

I'm completely stumped.

I'm planning on reinstalling the laptop next week. as soon as i finish backing up evereything.

See if that helps.

P.S. I believe a read somewhere about an incompatibilty issue between Netgear and AMD chipsets. haven't been able to find it again. Since my notebook is AMD based. AMD Athlon 2800+. I think it might be relevant. Anybody know about this?

Thanx again for any input.

 

[vacunita]

Small, but seemingly very important discovery.

Today as i was about to test the card in the laptop for a millionth time, i got called away by my boss.
I turned on the laptop, inserted the card at the Compaq logo screen and left to see my boss. When i returned about 15 minutes later the laptop was at the Windows XP loading screen. and looked like it was frozen. But i don't think it was. I think it was just running incredibly slow. I took the card out, and Windows continued to load normally. I think that inserting the card is creating an increble slowdown of the laptop. Now I just have to find out why. I'm going to plug the card in today on my lunch break and leave it see if it does anything while i'm gone for an hour.
Any ideas on what could be causing this????

I'll post back with anything new.

 

[chriseubank]

Do you have the most recent BIOS installed in your Presario 2100?

http://www.techsupportforum.com/archive/index.php/t-40997.html

See that thread, it speaks of some sort of bug that affects USB 2 and cardbus issues.. perhaps you're experiencing the same thing, on a different scale?

Hope this helps,
C

 

[vacunita]

I Tried the Bios Flash, from Compaqs website, I Used the Windows Flashing Version, since the laptop doesn't have a floppy drive. The first one I tried said it was not compatible with my configuration. So i downloaded the next older one, and it flashed without a problem, However it did nothing to resolve the cardbus issue. The Laptop now boots a little faster, and appears to have better power managment. But that's it.

I'm running out of possibilities. I still don't wan't to take it in to Compaqs service center. But its looking like the only solution.

If anybody has any other ideas. i'd be glad to try them out.

Thanx again.

 

[elchonon]

hey all,
i'm new here, i have the same problem! i use my wifi pcmcia card all the time, one day i swaped it put it back in and now laptop freezes! tried 2 other cards NO GO!
took laptop to comp repair shop guy says pins look fine! i actualy pissed him off by calling for a status update and he told me to get the computer and go elsewhere SHMUCK!
well just for the heck i inserted card after i left and it went! 45 min i'm using it and it freezes! back to first base!

i'm using a dell inspiron 5100 2.4ghz 256 mb ram yada yada yada xp pro

 

[elchonon]

oh and a added note, i almost forgot to mention that everytime i boot up windows tells me new hardware found and wants me to install it, thing is it says its a pci modem?!?! this is a laptop! and i havent put in any new hardware in ages! could this be causing a conflict which makes pcmcia card freeze?

 

[vacunita]

elchonon,
I haven't found solution as of yet. But since you mention that Windows actually detects it, even if it is as a modem, rather than just freezing the laptop when it is inserted, i would guess it is a driver issue.
Try uninstalling everything related to the card. and then putting it back in.

Have you tried the card in another laptop??? tried a different card in your laptop just to rule out possibilites???
How long does it usually take before it freezes???

Mine actually freezes the laptop itself, rather than freezing windows. When i pull it out, widnows returns to normal. Without a reboot.

I'm still looking for a solution, when I find one I'll post back here.

 

[elchonon]

Hey,
actually its opposite of what you wrote, mine freezes the actual laptop up by pulling out the card it would stay frozen. the problem you describe is one i had a year ago with this same model card (DWL-G650) it froze laptop but upon taking it out windows continued. i fixed the problem now by reformating! yea yea go figure it wasent the card though i sell network cards on ebay amongst other things and tried 5 other cards.

 

[vacunita]

And You solved it by reintalling, hmmm, well now that I've finished backing up everything, i guess it's time to reformat the drive. But I still don't think it has anything to do with windows, since it freezes even before windows loads.

Well anyway. if it freezes after you pull it out, that means it was trying to do something with it when you pull it out. When mine worked, I always disabled it from the remove hardfware safley dialogue. before removing it, or I would turn off the laptop.

to recap what i have done, and what rules out different problems:

I've tried other cards in the slot. They work, (Slot probably not the problem)

I've tried the wireless card in other laptops, it works (probably the card is not the problem)

I've uninstalled al hardware that is not built into the laptop. (still no go)

I've fiddled with the power settings of the pcmcia slot, (nothing)

Next step, reformating. (I don't really think its going
to work, but what the heck)
I'll Post back with any further developments.

 

[vacunita]

Sorry It took me so long, but i haven't had time to fiddle around with it.

So I reformated and reinstalled Windows XP. still freezes on insertion. However I did discover that if I fiddle with the cart i.e push it a bit to one side or another the laptop will unfreeze. It won't recognize the card but it will unfreeze.

I am now leaning towards the fact that maybe the card is not seating in well. Even though all other cards I've tried go in snug. this one has a bit of play to it, that allows you to move it sideways a bit, dont know why. I'll look into the slot again see if I find anything.

Meanwhile Any other ideas are most welcome.