BSOD, wireless network adapter driver?

[MisterAlexGuy]

Hi everybody,

First, thank you all in advance for any help and input you can offer.

Several days after a clean installation on my old computer, which ran XP, I've begun getting crashes, specifically when watching lots of streaming video. But not at other times when doing very light web browsing, or anything else in particular.

The culprit, according to BlueScreenView (NirSoft), is the driver for my wireless network adapter (Linksys WUSB54G v.4).

To test this, I disconnected the wireless adapter and plugged the computer directly into the router, and did all of the things that always seem to bring on a crash. When nothing happened, I opened three separate Firefox windows and watched streaming video from different sites on all of them, simultaneously for a couple of hours. Again, no crash. But it crashed again after 5-10 minutes when I tried the very same thing on the wireless connection.

The driver installed is the one that Windows Update automatically downloaded and installed after I plugged in the adapter. My research into it revealed that it was made by a different company (Ralink, not Linksys) in order to extend the adapter's compatibility to Windows 7 64-bit, which it was not originally supported by.

So what can I do now? Is there a potential fix to this, or would it simply be more practical to buy a new wireless adapter and replace my current one (on indefinite loan from a friend)?

 

[zigzag3143]

Hi everybody,

First, thank you all in advance for any help and input you can offer.

Several days after a clean installation on my old computer, which had XP, I've begun getting crashes, specifically when watching lots of streaming video. But not at other times when doing very light web browsing.

The culprit, according to BlueScreenView (NirSoft), is the driver for my wireless network adapter (Linksys WUSB54G v.4).

To test this, I disconnected the wireless adapter and plugged the computer directly into the router, and did all of the things that always seem to bring on a crash. When nothing happened, I opened three separate Firefox windows and watched streaming video from different sites on all of them, simultaneously for a couple of hours. Again, no crash. But it crashed again after 5-10 minutes when I tried the very same thing on the wireless connection.

The driver installed is the one that Windows Update automatically downloaded and installed after I plugged in the adapter. According to my research, it's the most recent one, put out by RaLink specifically for Windows 7 64-bit, which was supposed to resolve the driver-caused crashes.

So what can I do now? Is there a potential fix to this, or would it simply be more practical to buy a new wireless adapter (current one was lent indefinitely by a friend)?

Driver can and often do become corrupt. re-installing would help that situation. Let us know if it happens again

Ken

 

[MisterAlexGuy]

Driver can and often do become corrupt. re-installing would help that situation. Let us know if it happens again

Ken

I will give that a try and report back as soon as possible. Thank you, Ken!

 

[MisterAlexGuy]

Ken: I finally un-installed and re-installed the drivers for the wireless adapter. I was hopeful, but after about 10 minutes of flash/streaming video, my system blue-screened. Thank you all the same for the help.

 

[MisterAlexGuy]

Problem solved. Picked up a new $30 wireless adapter.