anwserman
Nov 27, 2003, 12:54 AM
I need help with my laptop!
Doing routine maintaince with my laptop - a Dell Inspiron 1100 with Windows XP Home. I went to Windows Update and downloaded all of my Critical Updates and Service Packs. I installed them, and chaos started to form, wreaking havok with my D-Link DWL-G650 wireless PCMIA networking card.
The system freezes up at random intervals (if the NIC is in the PCMIA slot).
Now, this has never happened before I updated Windows, so I tried using System Restore - and I found out that I cannot return my computer to an earlier date. So, I'm screwed there. I downloaded the latest drivers for the NIC card from my main computer, burnt them to CD and installed them on the laptop with no avail. I uninstalled the new drivers (and essentially the card), put the card in and I installed it with the original drivers that came with the installation CD. Still doesn't work. So, I'm sitting here with an essentially broken laptop (which is my mom's actually so she's pissed that I messed around with it... "you don't fix what isn't broken....") that freezes whenever the wireless NIC card is inserted.
Now, here comes the kicker.
IT TYPICALLY WORKS FINE WHEN I'M NEXT TO MY WIRELESS ROUTER!
Unforunately, the room the laptop is kept in is upstairs, and the router is in the basement. Thing is, we didn't have this problem at all until I installed the updates. So, that makes me believe that Microsoft screwed up a patch (no, really?) that is causing the drivers for the NIC card to go haywire. Unfortunately, contacting tech support costs a whole lot of money - which I might have to do.
Another thing I should mention is that when I was upstairs working on the laptop - testing it out in various places around the house to see how well it works - in the laptop's room, NIC card wasn't removed, computer was surfing the internet quite fine at the time (I put the NIC card in right next to the router in the basement, then I went upstairs and plopped into the chair to test out the laptop). I surfed the internet for a bit with no hiccups, and then I used the Safely Remove Hardware feature (or whatever its called), and successfully removed the card. I pit it in again after about 15 seconds, and BAM! I got a BSOD... surprisingly.
There is a problem with your computer and Windows has shut down to prevent any damage to your computer.
This problem could be caused by a bad device driver. Please... (yada yada yada).
BAD_POOL_CALLER
0x000000C2 (it ends with C2, forgot how many zeros.)
Turn off the computer, turn it back on again and Windows loads up normally - and says it has recovered from a serious system error. I send the debug report (since the NIC card was connected to the wireless network in our house... somehow), transferred the report. The website analyzed the report and determined that it was caused by a unknown device driver. It said to click the link to for more information, and I did and the laptop froze again - no mouse movement, just your typical computer hang. Screen completely stationary.
So, I'm stuck. I called D-Link, the manufacturer of my card, and they said that I should try to remove the drivers from my system, download the latest ones, install them again. Well, I can guarentee that it won't work since I already tried that. I've searched Microsoft's site, and the only thing about the stop error is that it says "how to debug the file" to see which driver is causing the problem. No need to do that since I know its the D-Link NIC card, since removing the card gets rid of any problems I might be having.
So, I'm thinking I might have to reformat the laptop and start over from scratch and not install any security updates (it shouldn't be that big of a deal since my mom is using the laptop primarely, and I would have a firewall on the computer to help prevent intruders), but I don't want to spend the hours sitting there, getting something to work again that should have stayed working in the first place.
God, MICROSOFT SUCKS. Any suggestions?
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: anwserman on 2003-11-26 22:01 ]</font>
Doing routine maintaince with my laptop - a Dell Inspiron 1100 with Windows XP Home. I went to Windows Update and downloaded all of my Critical Updates and Service Packs. I installed them, and chaos started to form, wreaking havok with my D-Link DWL-G650 wireless PCMIA networking card.
The system freezes up at random intervals (if the NIC is in the PCMIA slot).
Now, this has never happened before I updated Windows, so I tried using System Restore - and I found out that I cannot return my computer to an earlier date. So, I'm screwed there. I downloaded the latest drivers for the NIC card from my main computer, burnt them to CD and installed them on the laptop with no avail. I uninstalled the new drivers (and essentially the card), put the card in and I installed it with the original drivers that came with the installation CD. Still doesn't work. So, I'm sitting here with an essentially broken laptop (which is my mom's actually so she's pissed that I messed around with it... "you don't fix what isn't broken....") that freezes whenever the wireless NIC card is inserted.
Now, here comes the kicker.
IT TYPICALLY WORKS FINE WHEN I'M NEXT TO MY WIRELESS ROUTER!
Unforunately, the room the laptop is kept in is upstairs, and the router is in the basement. Thing is, we didn't have this problem at all until I installed the updates. So, that makes me believe that Microsoft screwed up a patch (no, really?) that is causing the drivers for the NIC card to go haywire. Unfortunately, contacting tech support costs a whole lot of money - which I might have to do.
Another thing I should mention is that when I was upstairs working on the laptop - testing it out in various places around the house to see how well it works - in the laptop's room, NIC card wasn't removed, computer was surfing the internet quite fine at the time (I put the NIC card in right next to the router in the basement, then I went upstairs and plopped into the chair to test out the laptop). I surfed the internet for a bit with no hiccups, and then I used the Safely Remove Hardware feature (or whatever its called), and successfully removed the card. I pit it in again after about 15 seconds, and BAM! I got a BSOD... surprisingly.
There is a problem with your computer and Windows has shut down to prevent any damage to your computer.
This problem could be caused by a bad device driver. Please... (yada yada yada).
BAD_POOL_CALLER
0x000000C2 (it ends with C2, forgot how many zeros.)
Turn off the computer, turn it back on again and Windows loads up normally - and says it has recovered from a serious system error. I send the debug report (since the NIC card was connected to the wireless network in our house... somehow), transferred the report. The website analyzed the report and determined that it was caused by a unknown device driver. It said to click the link to for more information, and I did and the laptop froze again - no mouse movement, just your typical computer hang. Screen completely stationary.
So, I'm stuck. I called D-Link, the manufacturer of my card, and they said that I should try to remove the drivers from my system, download the latest ones, install them again. Well, I can guarentee that it won't work since I already tried that. I've searched Microsoft's site, and the only thing about the stop error is that it says "how to debug the file" to see which driver is causing the problem. No need to do that since I know its the D-Link NIC card, since removing the card gets rid of any problems I might be having.
So, I'm thinking I might have to reformat the laptop and start over from scratch and not install any security updates (it shouldn't be that big of a deal since my mom is using the laptop primarely, and I would have a firewall on the computer to help prevent intruders), but I don't want to spend the hours sitting there, getting something to work again that should have stayed working in the first place.
God, MICROSOFT SUCKS. Any suggestions?
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: anwserman on 2003-11-26 22:01 ]</font>