Advent 5612 Network Card Nightmare

[Scoobaru]

Guys need some help please;

Customers computer is running Vista Home Prem and runs fine until I turn on the Wireless then it's either 5- 10 minutes connected then crashes or blue screens.
The machine is clean and free of infections.
I've tried un-installing/re-installing drivers, I even tried using the onboard destructive recovery to no avail.

Can anyone suggest how I can check if it's either the Installation, Wireless Card or the Motherboard without completely reformatting the drive?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated

 

[Scoobaru]

Panic over, fortunately the machine is still under warranty and can be returned.

Although I would still love a reply so I know for future reference.

Thanks

 

[DarDar]

Its going to be difficult to rule out the card or mobo without a spare card to try. Saying that....


If you build a ubcd with the drivers for the wireless card inserted, you should be able to boot to that and connect to the wireless network if the card/mobo is ok. Just remember to use the xp drivers for the wireless card rather than the vista ones. This would be fairly foolproof way of checking although a bit longwinded.

If you want a quicker test, try puppy linux or ubuntu live cd. They may not have the drivers to interface with the card though so its not a definitive test.

Another alternative is to use a usb wireless device as it may be something to do with the networking stack. Also check if there is a manufacturers wireless utility instead of using the vista one.

 

[studiot]

For future reference when you post, try including more details, like the wifi card details would have been useful this time, what did device manager say about it?