Atheros AR5B95 WLAN won't connect

Hello, hope someone can help with this!

I've just installed from fresh Windows 7 Professional (32 bit) on an eMachines 355. It previously had Windows 7 Starter edition installed and everything worked okay. However, now I'm having problems getting the wireless adaptor working.

It has an Atheros AR5B95 adapter in it and I've tried pretty much every version of the driver I can find online, with varying degrees of success. The best I've got is with the latest 10.0.0.285 version, which lets me connect wirelessly the first time the computer is switched on, but then hangs up after around 5 minutes and won't let me connect again.

All wireless networks available are display correctly, but on clicking on the one I want it (very quickly) pops up with "Windows was unable to connect...".

The only trend I can see for when it will connect is when the computer is at its coldest it lets me connect for longest. I.e., first thing this morning after it had been off all night, it connect for about 5 minutes. After leaving it for 2 hours, it connected for about 1 minute. If I've been using it and then restart it, it won't connect or if it does will only be for a few seconds. This makes me question whether it's an overheating problem (though I just cleaned the fan and then didn't help at all).

Any help greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Sam

Hi maxie, my wired LAN connection is working fine, it's just the wireless that's causing the problems...

It was version 9.1.0.209 before the reinstall (same as on the manufacturer's website). Now if I install version 9.1.0.209 it won't even recognise any wireless networks, never mind connect to any.

Yeah I did and the OS is all up to date.

Hi Maxie,

When I do that, Windows recognises that there's a device there but isn't sure what it is; it puts it in the "Other devices" section of the Device Manager and calls it "Network Controller". It fails when it tries to automatically search for drivers.

A similar thing happened this morning when I switched it on after it was off overnight: It connected for about 5 minutes before kicking me off and now won't let me connect again.