Wireless Adapter Causing Computer to Freeze?

[MisterFriday]

Greetings everybody,

I've had this problem for a few days now. When I am going about my business and browsing the internet, working with spreadsheets, et cetera, I will sometimes find that the internet on my computer is not working for some reason. In other words, I will attempt to open up a link or webpage and nothing will load. This is despite that I have full bars of wireless reception, according to the system tray icon.

Then, as I attempt to disable/re-enable the adapter, or even if I continue to go about my business, the computer will inevitably and completely freeze. It will be entirely non-responsive, and if I'm listening to something, the audio will pause and continue to play the current sound at the current volume at a high frequency of repetition.

I really have no idea how to deal with this. I have already re-installed drivers for my wireless adapter (TL WN722N) and otherwise, my computer seems to function normally.

Does anyone know what might be causing this strange issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[sandravlado]

Hi.

so, you have tried the latest drivers correct?

Is this adapter under warranty? If it is, I would return it and ask for a replacement.

 

[MisterFriday]

Yeah, that was one of the first things I did. I'll give it a try again (now that I think of it, during driver installation, the computer restarted itself a few times, seemed a bit odd). The adapter itself is actually a few years old so the warranty is almost certainly over.

 

[sandravlado]

Restarted few times out of blue, or it was a scheduled reboot during the driver installation?

You should check Event Viewer for any errors or warnings.

 

[MisterFriday]

Well, they seemed to be scheduled reboots, in that the setup always popped up after the reboot, but since there were a few of them, it seemed a bit dodgy to me.

There are a bunch of critical Kernel-Power errors (I guess from me shutting the computer down by holding down the power button when it crashes). More promisingly, there are a bunch of WLAN-AutoConfig errors: "wlan extensibility module has failed to start". That seems like it's related to the issue, although perhaps not the freezing.

 

[sandravlado]

Take a look at this article:

Event ID 10000 — Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Extensibility

Also, try to plug wireless adapter in another USB port.

 

[MisterFriday]

I have already implemented two of the steps... I've tried to disable and re-enable the adapter many times with no positive outcomes. I've never tried to mess with the mentioned service, though. And I have also re-installed the driver.

I'm going to change the USB port and re-install the drivers again, in case there was something weird with the last installation.

 

[MisterFriday]

I re-installed drivers and changed the USB port. So far I've had a few good hours... let's hope my luck holds out.

 

[sandravlado]

Let us know about the progress.

 

[MisterFriday]

Thanks for following up. I haven't had any crashes so far... hopefully my luck holds out!

 

[sandravlado]

How's going mate? Everything fine?

 

[MisterFriday]

I have had no crashes so far, so I'm just going to call this issue solved. I'm really surprised that all it took was a swapping of USB ports to do it... oh well. Thanks very much for your assistance.

 

[sandravlado]

I am glad you solved the issue my friend. I hope this is it. Have a nice day

 

[quelsena]

I realize this thread is over a year old but I'm having the same problems with the exact same adapter, and even after trying the same fixes it still won't work. My adapter is only a mnth old. I'm wondering if just buying a new one would be the best thing for me to do.

 

[MisterFriday]

Have you tried reverting to old safe points? How about cleaning your registry and re-installing drivers?