Microsoft Virtual Wifi Miniport Adapter cannot be started

baarod said:

joseph10444 said:

I recently installed an internet sharing program which utilizes the connected wireless internet and shares it within the same wireless card.

After installing the program, I noticed that Wifi Miniport adapter had been installed. I had this driver prior to my system reset but i had constant problems with it.

I have the same problems again and apparently, the program needs wifi miniport adapter to be working properly to work itself.
It has an error (a yellow triangle an with exclamation on it) and that code number is 10, (The device cannot start)

On the program's website, it recommended to just disable and reenable and then the exclamation will go away. But it didn't. I tried updating the driver, and windows update found a driver (unsigned though) but it cannot install the driver because the device cannot start.

So it doesn't update because of its original error. (it cannot start)

Any suggestions on getting Microsoft Virtual Wifi Miniport Adapter properly working?

First off any external package that purports to add access point functionality to Windows 7 is quackery pure and simple. It's a built-in feature and always has been. Uninstall the rogue software, report it's name here and destroy the miniport it created from an elevated command prompt thusly:

netsh wlan stop hostednetwork
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=disallow

Now set the wlan hostednetwork SSID and WPA2-PSK/AES passphrase or key and start the wlan hostednetwork thusly:

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=<my_ssid> key=<my_key>
netsh wlan start hostednetwork
netsh wlan show hostednetwork

Pitfalls:

1) ad hoc networking MUST be disabled on the wireless adapter
2) a Hosted Network capable wireless adapter is installed in the local computer. The driver for the wireless adapter must implement the wireless LAN device driver model defined by Microsoft for use on Windows 7. To receive the Windows 7 logo, a wireless driver must implement the wireless Hosted Network feature.
3) network connection sharing for use by other computers and devices requires the use of Internet Connection Sharing (ICS).

See also:
About the Wireless Hosted Network (Windows)
Using Wireless Hosted Network and Internet Connection Sharing (Windows)

how does the command "netsh wlan stop hostednetwork" know to stop Miniport Adapter ??

and if i do create my own wireless hosted network on my laptop, how can i stop this network from appearing/sharing after i finished using it? (when iPod internet is not being used)



i went on the website, thanks for providing the link, and i found a driver for my exact card/supported hardware ID but it's dated 6/9/09 where the atheros driver i have dated 3/2/10(says HP and the driver)

so i dont know whether to use Microsoft Update Catalog June '09 Driver or HP Website March '10 Driver.

since i have the '10 driver installation files, it cant hurt to try the june 09 driver on the catalog site right?

EDIT: i used the 6/9/9 driver and upon installation a BSOD, and another bsod after restart so i uninstalled it in safe mode and luckily i had the previous driver installation files so im back to normal. so i can't use microsoft update catalog's drivers.

joseph10444 said:

<snip>
how does the command "netsh wlan stop hostednetwork" know to stop Miniport Adapter ??

To quote from "the Matrix", "there is no spoon". The "Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter" is just that -- virtual. It is a software representation of a device for which there is no real hardware. When you issue the command "set hostednetwork mode-allow" from within the "netsh wlan" context, the Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter is instantly created. Try this:

1) Start, type "netsh" and press enter. A network shell prompt window will display.
2) Start, type "network connections" and press enter. The network connections window will display.
3) Look for the Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter. If it's there you need to destroy it before trying to switch drivers. To do this follow step 4, otherwise continue to step 5.
4) Select the network shell prompt window, type "wlan set hostednetwork mode=disallow" and press enter. The "Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter" will disappear from within the network connections window. You may now update the driver for your Atheros wireles lan adapter with a WHQL driver from catalog.update.microsoft.com.
5) Select the network shell prompt window, type "wlan show drivers" and press enter. Look for the values of "Type" and "Hosted network supported". They should be "Native Wi-Fi Driver" and "Yes" respectively. If not stop and post back.
6) Select the network shell prompt window, type "wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=<choose> key=<8 to 63 characters>" and press enter. The "Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter" will appear within the network connections window. It's state will be "Not connected".
7) To share your internet connection with devices connecting to your new "Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter", select your internet connection from the connections window and press alt+enter. From the Sharing tab enable the "Allow other network users to connect..." option and press OK.
8) Select the network shell prompt window, type "wlan start hostednetwork" and press enter.

joseph10444 said:

and if i do create my own wireless hosted network on my laptop, how can i stop this network from appearing/sharing after i finished using it? (when iPod internet is not being used)

stop sharing: netsh wlan stop hostednetwork
stop appearing: netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=disallow

It might be more convenient to leave it allowed and start it on demand. It will not restart automatically after restarting your computer or on resume from any suspend mode. You can start or stop it on demand from Start, type "netsh wlan start hostednetwork" or "netsh wlan stop hostednetwork" respectively or by creating some rudimentary .cmd files.

joseph10444 said:

i went on the website, thanks for providing the link, and i found a driver for my exact card/supported hardware ID but it's dated 6/9/09 where the atheros driver i have dated 3/2/10(says HP and the driver)

so i dont know whether to use Microsoft Update Catalog June '09 Driver or HP Website March '10 Driver.

since i have the '10 driver installation files, it cant hurt to try the june 09 driver on the catalog site right?

EDIT: i used the 6/9/9 driver and upon installation a BSOD, and another bsod after restart so i uninstalled it in safe mode and luckily i had the previous driver installation files so im back to normal. so i can't use microsoft update catalog's drivers.

Please post the exact search string you used to locate the driver on the Microsoft Update Catalog.

Please note that your reported bugchecks (BSODs) can easily have resulted from changing drivers while the "Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter" was instantiated. Please be sure to "netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=disallow" prior to updating your WiFi adapter driver software.

joseph10444 said:

thanks for your instructions.

it is true, miniport adapter was still in the "ON" mode while switching drivers

in update catalog, i searched up "ar5009" which is the model of the card and the correct drivers appeared. i used the one from 6/9/9 and since there were 2, i used the bigger file.

i will edit this post after i disallow the miniport adapter and try installing the '09 driver from Update Catalog Website

EDIT: the driver successfully installed with the disabling of the miniport

but the driver itself had a problem!
Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be malicious software from an unknown source. (Code 52)

after a restart, it wouldnt work so i went back to my previous drivers, again lol.

So the only problem i'm having here is finding a WHQL driver. or a driver that works with miniport adapter.

I dont know if i should try the other drivers that came up in the search query.
there was a june of 2009 driver
and an april of 2009 driver.

the june one doesn't work but idk if i should go further back to try april's driver. arent earlier drivers worse than newer drivers?

Simply searching for an arbitrary string like "ar5009" could return the wrong driver. To ensure that you have exactly the right driver for the hardware you have installed please follow these steps:

1) Start, type "devmgmt.msc" and press enter. The device manager window will appear.
2) Expand the device tree to expose your Atheros wireless adapter, select it and press enter.
3) Select All and Copy the value(s) of the Hardware IDs property of the Details tab.
4) Paste into a reply.

joseph10444 said:

well in the driver that i found through ar5009, i compared the the supported hardware id and it matched so that was why i downloaded it.

but:

PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_002A&SUBSYS_3041103C&REV_01
PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_002A&SUBSYS_3041103C
PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_002A&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_002A&CC_0280

Fair enough. Most people don't know to check the hardware ID. I did find that the card IS supported and a website that claims the minimum supported driver version for SoftAP functionality is 8.0.0.238.

Virtual Router - Wifi Hot Spot for Windows 7 / 2008 R2

Atheros apparently does a wretched job of publishing drivers to catalog.update.microsoft.com. The latest driver there is 2.0.0.75. HP also does a wretched job of posting drivers for their products.

Thankfully, opendrivers.com has a likely candidate at http://www.opendrivers.com/driver/21...-download.html.

It's recent (09/26/2010), version 9.1.0.328 > 8.0.0.238, is WHQL-signed, appears to exactly match your hardware ID exactly and has the necessary includes for netvwifibus.inf to get hostednetwork support.

Before installing the driver, it would probably be a good idea to clean up the current driver you have installed for the Atheros adapter. Do a "netsh wlan show drivers" from a command prompt and look for the INF from the old driver in the command output:

INF file : C:\windows\INF\oem2.inf

Use device manager to uninstall the device. Look for a checkbox offering to "Delete the driver software for this device" and enable it if it appears. Look for the INF file above and delete it if it is still present. This ensures that Windows cannot consider the driver you installed previously a better match than the new one you are trying to install.