Ralink RT61 crashes PC

summertime · 18 Jun 2010

Hello!
I have a Win7 Pro x64 PC and use it to host my home network via a Ralink RT61 wireless card.
For a year, the host PC has been crashing if I put the wireless card under any "strain" i.e. download anything larger than 5MB via the wireless network using my Vista Business laptop.

Today the wireless card's driver was updated automatically (from version 2.1.0.0 to 3.0.9.1) but now the wireless card does not work at all - I cannot connect to the wireless network from either machine and am asked to "(ICS) Select WAN Adapter". Neither of the 2 options selected enable the wireless card with it's new and "improved" driver..
If I roll back the driver, I can immediately access the WAN via the card but have the same freezing issues that have plagued me for months!
Pu-lease help me out here!! I have been looking for a solution to this problem for a year now...

1. Are there any new developments?
2. How do I stop my PC from crashing?
3. Why do I have such hassles trying to network a Vista and 7 machine?

I came across a blog claiming that 4 x 1GB DDR3 RAM chips may be causing the wireless card to crash the PC. Is this true?

Thanks in advance..

baarod · 18 Jun 2010

summertime said:

Hello!
I have a Win7 Pro x64 PC and use it to host my home network via a Ralink RT61 wireless card.
For a year, the host PC has been crashing if I put the wireless card under any "strain" i.e. download anything larger than 5MB via the wireless network using my Vista Business laptop.

Today the wireless card's driver was updated automatically (from version 2.1.0.0 to 3.0.9.1) but now the wireless card does not work at all - I cannot connect to the wireless network from either machine and am asked to "(ICS) Select WAN Adapter". Neither of the 2 options selected enable the wireless card with it's new and "improved" driver..
If I roll back the driver, I can immediately access the WAN via the card but have the same freezing issues that have plagued me for months!
Pu-lease help me out here!! I have been looking for a solution to this problem for a year now...

1. Are there any new developments?
2. How do I stop my PC from crashing?
3. Why do I have such hassles trying to network a Vista and 7 machine?

I came across a blog claiming that 4 x 1GB DDR3 RAM chips may be causing the wireless card to crash the PC. Is this true?

Thanks in advance..

Any combination of RAM above 4GB can cause some Ralink cards to crash. Try this: give me the exact hardware ID from device manager and I'l fing the driver that works.
It's in the details tab of the device in device manager.

summertime · 19 Jun 2010

"Any combination of RAM above 4GB can cause some Ralink cards to crash. Try this: give me the exact hardware ID from device manager and I'l fing the driver that works.
It's in the details tab of the device in device manager"

Thanks baarod

Just to reiterate and to be clear, I have 4 x 1GB of DDR3 1066 RAM.

The Hardware ID details for the "Ralink RT61 Turbo Wireless LAN Card" are as follows:

PCI\VEN_1814&DEV_0301&SUBSYS_25611814&REV_00
PCI\VEN_1814&DEV_0301&SUBSYS_25611814
PCI\VEN_1814&DEV_0301&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_1814&DEV_0301&CC_0280

Not sure if it's relevant but the PCI Bus details for the wireless card are: Intel 82801 PCI Bridge - 244E (Driver 6.1.7600.16385)

Hope that helps..

baarod · 19 Jun 2010

summertime said:

"Any combination of RAM above 4GB can cause some Ralink cards to crash. Try this: give me the exact hardware ID from device manager and I'l fing the driver that works.
It's in the details tab of the device in device manager"

Thanks baarod

Just to reiterate and to be clear, I have 4 x 1GB of DDR3 1066 RAM.

The Hardware ID details for the "Ralink RT61 Turbo Wireless LAN Card" are as follows:

PCI\VEN_1814&DEV_0301&SUBSYS_25611814&REV_00
PCI\VEN_1814&DEV_0301&SUBSYS_25611814
PCI\VEN_1814&DEV_0301&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_1814&DEV_0301&CC_0280

Not sure if it's relevant but the PCI Bus details for the wireless card are: Intel 82801 PCI Bridge - 244E (Driver 6.1.7600.16385)

Hope that helps..

Expand this cab. In device manager select update driver software and point it at the expanded files. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/561353/Ralin...3c7fe888b0.cab

summertime · 20 Jun 2010

Please explain in a little more detail.
How do I expand the file? Have extracted and saved them all (although this made no difference to their appearance)
How do I "point" the device manager to a file? Am only able to point to a folder and not down to a file (after extracting each of the folders from your cab, it still doesn't appear as a driver option)

Thanks

baarod · 20 Jun 2010

summertime said:

Please explain in a little more detail.
How do I expand the file? Have extracted and saved them all (although this made no difference to their appearance)
How do I "point" the device manager to a file? Am only able to point to a folder and not down to a file (after extracting each of the folders from your cab, it still doesn't appear as a driver option)

Thanks

Right next to the details tabs where you found the hardware IDs is the driver tab. Select that, click Update driver, then browse..., and select where you expanded the cab. You should expand the cab by just double clicking -- Windows knows how to handle cabs.

summertime · 21 Jun 2010

Thanks baarod

I'm not getting this right and am feeling a little stupid here..

I had done as you suggested. The cab file expands and I can see 4 files:
netr6164 security catalogue; netr6164 detup information; netr6164 system file and RaCoInstx.dll (any further expansion efforts allow me to "extract" each of the files but this does nothing to their appearance).

All of the above files remain in my downloads folder and when I point the device manager to my downloads folder where all the cab files, I cannot see them. If I leave the device manager pointed at the downloads folder, it tells me that my driver is up to date and there is no rollback option i.e. this is v2.1.0.0 of the driver (the one it comes with and that crashes)...

baarod · 21 Jun 2010

I'm doing screen shots from expanded files to finish.

1) Files expanded to D:\Mike\Desktop\driver....

2) Getting ready to browse to D:\Mike\Desktop\driver...

3) It should go from here...

summertime · 21 Jun 2010

[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Sean/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.png[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/Users/Sean/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.png[/IMG]Mike - I thank you for your time and for even going to the effort of screen shots to finish...but we're not there yet.
Please go back to the very beginning of my query. This driver version (3.0.9.1) does NOT work for all the reasons I painstakingly went through previously.

To reiterate, once this driver version is loaded, the network card is locked, I cannot connect to my WAN on either machine and I get "Windows was unable to connect to xx WAN" and am invited to trouble the problem when trying to manually connect and am then pointed to this forum for help when troubleshooting fails...

Please man - I have been at this for a year now. It is completely ridiculous that I cannot set up a network between these 2 versions of Windows' software. After I went through the agony and frustration of Vista, I expected a little more ease of use from 7.

I am trying to run a business and my video edits and renders are constantly interrupted and work lost because I have to force a reboot 3 or 4 times a day when the machine freezes. Please don't make me seriously think about crossing over to the dark side like all of the other editors whose only justification for paying premium for Apple for editing is that it is "stable". Not such a small thing to me any more...

This is a WIndows7 and Ralink driver issue and I cannot access any help with Ralink. Are you able to help me?

Thanks
Sean

baarod · 22 Jun 2010

summertime said:

[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Sean/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.png[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/Users/Sean/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.png[/IMG]Mike - I thank you for your time and for even going to the effort of screen shots to finish...but we're not there yet.
Please go back to the very beginning of my query. This driver version (3.0.9.1) does NOT work for all the reasons I painstakingly went through previously.

To reiterate, once this driver version is loaded, the network card is locked, I cannot connect to my WAN on either machine and I get "Windows was unable to connect to xx WAN" and am invited to trouble the problem when trying to manually connect and am then pointed to this forum for help when troubleshooting fails...

Please man - I have been at this for a year now. It is completely ridiculous that I cannot set up a network between these 2 versions of Windows' software. After I went through the agony and frustration of Vista, I expected a little more ease of use from 7.

I am trying to run a business and my video edits and renders are constantly interrupted and work lost because I have to force a reboot 3 or 4 times a day when the machine freezes. Please don't make me seriously think about crossing over to the dark side like all of the other editors whose only justification for paying premium for Apple for editing is that it is "stable". Not such a small thing to me any more...

This is a WIndows7 and Ralink driver issue and I cannot access any help with Ralink. Are you able to help me?

Thanks
Sean

Lots of post being worked on -- lost track of the original problem. I think I can help as I have the same card and network it fine. I'll need to reconfigure it and work it out tomorrow morning....