WRT54G router & WPC54G notebook card

[AJParkinson]

I recently purchased a WRT54G router & WPC54G notebook card.

I have :
600K internet connection through an NTL cable modem
Desktop PC - P3 700Mhz, 768Mb RAM, Win 2000 Pro, Netgear 10/100 NIC
Notebook(1) - P4 3Ghz, 1Ghz RAM, Win XP Pro, LAN-Express 802.11b (built in wireless card)
Notebook(2) - Cel 400Mhz, 96Mb RAM, Win XP Pro

Installed the router via desktop & configured trouble-free. (DHCP, Mixed mode, Broadcast SSID)
Notebook(1) LAN-Express configured trouble-free.
Installed WPC54G into Notebook(2) and configured to match – with no success.

Have tried re-installing card, resetting entire wireless network from scratch, including starting of with basic security & using all defaults through to manually assigning passphrase and WEP keys. Even reformatted Notebook(2) and repeated entire network reset. Still no success. The WPC54G in Notebook(2) stubbornly refuses to see any available network.

Can you give me any pointers please, its driving me mad

 

[tharder]

I ran into a problem where the nic was a CARDBUS card but the older model laptop( Compaq 800mhz) did not support CARDBUS cards. It ran the PnP install and ran the driver install but never worked properly. Are you having any problems related to the PCMCIA slot? I got an old Orinoco Gold(16bit) card and it works just fine now. up til then it never dawned on me that the machine was not cardbus capable.
the WPC54G is a cardbus card. A quick look over the linksys site did not reveal a non cardbus card. In fact I think all the non-CB cards are B cards. You may want to try one of the USB pen adapters but it looks like the "G" models all require USB 2.0 that your 400mhz laptop probably does not have either. I have a "B" one that works great.

 

[AJParkinson]

Thanks for your reply tharder, I'll check out what you say. In the past, I've used an external HP CDRW drive, a CF card reader and a Netgear nic in the PCMCIA slots, without any problems, but whether these were 'cardbus' cards I couldn't say. As far as USB goes I know the laptop definitely only has the early USB version and not USB 2.0.

 

[bcastner]

You might have a bum card, but most definitly head to the Linksys site and upgrade the driver set. There have been two updates since mid-December, 2003.

Best practice is to install the drivers (not the utility set under XP) and then install the card.

Make certain if under XP that you have the newest Wireless Rollup package:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=826942

 

[AJParkinson]

tharder: My laptop supports 32bit cardus - so it should run with the WPC45G yes?

bcastner: Applied the rollup package, installed the new drivers for the card, this the gave me the option to completely uninstall the card drivers (which I didn't) have the option to before - apparently a fix with the later drivers) and reinstalled again - still no joy!

Have removed XP from laptop and restored to original factory state (Win 98 and all) card slots work fine, if it doesn't work this time then I'll take your offering that it is a bum card and go for an exchange