WiFi card keeps crashing my laptop!
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Thread: WiFi card keeps crashing my laptop!

  1. March 28th, 2009, 12:02 AM #1
    Cyber Akuma's Avatar
    Cyber Akuma
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    Angry WiFi card keeps crashing my laptop!

    I have a Compaq Evo N620c laptop with a Compaq wlan multiport w200 WiFi card, this is a card specially designed for this laptop, it fits in a propitiary port on the screen.

    The laptop is running Windows XP Pro SP3.

    The problem is....... the drivers are INCREDIBLY unstable.

    They keep randomely crashing XP! Sometimes it will run for days fine, sometimes it crashes before it finishes booting after the login screen! But it WILL eventually crash as long as the WiFi hardware is enabled.

    It will keep bluescreening, mentioning "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" and the file "wlcom51b.sys", which leads me to suspect that it is the WiFi card.

    If I turn the WiFi card off... no crash, so clearly its the card.

    I tried to google information for this.... apparently it is a big issue with many experiencing it, but most were dead ends, one forum suggested rolling back the drivers.... but this would remove support for WPA and cause problems with SP3.... plus Windows will keep nagging me to update the drivers.

    Does anybody have any ideas on what I can try to fix this? The laptop is near useless if I cannot get it online wirelessly, PCMCIA cards stick out and keep bumping into my hand, and a USB stick is just asking for trouble with it eventually getting knocked off and likely broken.... on top of this the MiniPCI slot taken up too by a 56k modem that may also double as my soundcard or possible other hardware in the system.... not to mention I would have to completely take the system apart to run an antenna through it if I did that.

    So does anyone have any idea what I can do to try to get this WiFi card working and stop making it crash all the time?

    ... also, I tried a speedtest and noticed that it got about 2Mbps down and 1Mbps up.

    I did the same speedtest on another system and got 13.5Mbps down and 2.7Mbps up.

    What is causing this bottleneck on the laptop?
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  2. March 28th, 2009, 11:57 AM #2
    Train
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    Change the channel on the router. add a better antenna.
    Sounds like a very weak signal to boot.
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  3. March 28th, 2009, 02:11 PM #3
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    Actually, signal is at 100%, and I can't replace the antenna, its all sealed.

    Any ideas what I can do about the crashing?
    "A train station is where a train stops. A bus station is where a bus stops. On my desk I have a workstation..." - William Faulkner
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  4. March 28th, 2009, 08:36 PM #4
    Train
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    Not now
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  5. June 15th, 2009, 10:00 PM #5
    Cyber Akuma's Avatar
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    Sorry to bump this, but im STILL having problems.

    Does anybody have any ideas?
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  6. August 12th, 2009, 05:46 PM #6
    angelar
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    Dont know if you ever found a resolution. I am having the same problem with the same model. Also XP SP3.

    The blue screens always seem to point to wlcom51b.sys

    The driver for my wireless nic says Compaq WLAN Multiport W200 and driver version 7.86.19.3708

    I will post back if I find a better driver.
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  7. August 12th, 2009, 06:32 PM #7
    Train
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    You need to go to Compaq's website
    and download and install their latest wireless drivers.

    Might work as that is part of the Compaq wireless drivers.
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  8. August 13th, 2009, 12:37 AM #8
    Cyber Akuma's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Train View Post
    You need to go to Compaq's website
    and download and install their latest wireless drivers.

    Might work as that is part of the Compaq wireless drivers.
    The latest drivers are what cause this mess, older ones do not, unfortunately, the newer drivers add some important features, like WPA support.

    And they haven't been updated in years.
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  9. August 13th, 2009, 01:47 AM #9
    Train
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    More than likely true on the antique bit.
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