Problem with Win7 and USB wireless lan adaptor

Liampope

Liampope

Liampope

Soldato
Joined
8 Jan 2010
Posts
3,379
Location
Bedford/Stavanger
Hi there,

So I got my super duper ebay-special i5 rig (will ipdate that thread properly later), and it's got Win 7 on it which is totally alien to me since I'm still with XP :).

Trying to get it online with my USB wireless dongle thingy which works fine on my old XP rig (that I'm tyrping on now). Branded as 'Addon', but the drivers that came with it are for Ralink hardware.

Here's what happens in Win7:

If i insert the USB thingy before installing drivers, a little box comes up identifying it as an 802.11 wlan adaptor and saying it's installing the software, with a sort of rotating 'i'm doing something, honest' icon on the right. However, this box will sit there forever. Also, win7 wont even shut down unless I remove the USB adaptor, and similarly will not start up with it plugged in either.

If I try to install the drivers first (have tried a few versions and all are supposedly for Win7) they install just fine. But when I plug in the adaptor the same as above happens. If I try to install the drivers with the thing plugged in, they just wont install. With the drivers installed, the adaptor shows up in device manager/network places and even says it's working properly. However it shows as disabled, and can't be enabled :(.

At a loss now - is it the hardware, the drivers, or something I'm doing wrong?

Any help appreciated. Should I just buy another USB dongle even though this one works fine in my old rig? Running a cable from the router wuld be apain in the bum, too. Cheers,

Liam
 
Well yeah - as long as it's gonna work. Don't think I'm doing anything wrong in my win7 noobness, so you're probably right I just need a new adaptor that will work on win7. I sent a webnote to OCUK and they said the edimax ones work for sure with 7. They're also out of stock :(. Anyone tried the other cheap one? And what are those dead expensive ones all about - what do they do the cheap ones dont?
 
Cheers - I noticed the OCUK value one is an edimax and ordered. Hopefully it'll work.

Now I just have to figure why my akasa card reader is recognized as some sort of infra red reciever when I plug that in and doesn't work :( :( Ah the joys of a new OS
 
Ah sorted it after a google. Nah it's not anything to do with IR. Had to choose reinstall drivers, then let it search the computer and it finds the IR thing and usb storage device as combatible options, so you choose the correct one. God knows why it thinks it might be a IR reciever??
 
An update in case anyone searches for this...

The new one from OCUK had the same problem - software appeared to install but device shown as disabled and any attempt to enable it and it'd be disabled straight away.

Googled a bit and it seemed a common problem getting wireless USB adaptors working in win7 64. Solution? I was doubtful at first, but it worked - motherboard bios update(???). Couple of threads I was reading, this worked on a Gigabyte mobo, which made me think maybe it's a Gigabyte thing as I have a UD5, but also an Asus. Odd.

Hope this helps someone else...
 
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