[Poochure]

I have two computers. One's borrowed. A couple of weeks ago my wireless signals on both were lowered significantly, so over the past two days I have been trying to troubleshoot drivers for the wireless cards myself before going to my landlord (who has the router in his house) about the issue, although I have had absolutely no experience with wireless internet period prior to a few months ago. I found the device manager on both computers, and on the borrowed one I was able to double the signal by updating the driver. However, on my own computer, it is not as easy.

...not sure what specs might be needed....
It's a Toshiba Satellite
Intel Celron 1.30 GHz, 1.21 GB RAM
Windows XP Pro 2002 SP3
1394 net adapter
Atheros AR5005GS Wireless Network Adapter, date 5/29/2004, version 3.1.2.12

I go to my device manager, double click on the Atheros AR5005GS, and run the hardware update wizard, which brings up a list of two adapters to select from (?) - but they are the same only in different locations (?).


Selecting the first to update is successful, but, the signal remains low. Selecting the second, which is supposedly digitally signed, brings up a warning:


So, doing the same thing I did with the borrowed computer to my own is not producing the same results, and this same driver-in-differnt-locations-but-one-without-a-logo thing is throwing me off and I don't know how to proceed.

Help, peez.

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Hi Poochure
Uninstall the present driver and then try the second driver, you can always remove it if it is no better.
WHQL = Windows Hardware Quality Labs which is where drivers are tested before approval, it would however be impossible to test and approve every driver ever released this however does not mean they are bad.

[phillpower2]

Hi Poochure
Uninstall the present driver and then try the second driver, you can always remove it if it is no better.
WHQL = Windows Hardware Quality Labs which is where drivers are tested before approval, it would however be impossible to test and approve every driver ever released this however does not mean they are bad.

[Poochure]

Hello, Philpower, and thank you!

So, just to make sure, you are recommending that I uninstall the driver that I was able to update (first in list), but gave me no better signal results by doing so, and go forward with ignoring the windows warning with the second driver in the list and install it?

I don't have back-up for anything on the toshiba, at all. I failed to mention that.

[phillpower2]

Download and save both network drivers somewhere safe that you will remember, uninstall the present network drivers, restart the computer and then install the digitally assigned drivers, let us know how it goes.

[Poochure]

Hi Phil!

Thanks again. I am really confused, likely because, again, I am new to wireless.

Through the wizard it seems that the same driver is stored in two different locations? Does it need to be and if all goes awry I am to be putting the driver back in two different locations?

I only have had experience with the wizard within the past two days, so this is all very unfamiliar to me. I don't see a way to specify how and where it is stored.

[phillpower2]

I am not sure why you are concerned if the driver is stored in 2 places or not as it has nothing to do with the issue that you asked for assistance with but FWIW those 2 folders probably contain different information, drivers in one uninstaller or hot fixes in the other for example.
After saving the new drivers go into the Device Manager, network adapters, click the + sign, uninstall the device, reboot and install the new drivers.

[Poochure]

Hi Philpower, and thanks again for trying to help me.

I think that I was just trying to understand what was going on, if there were one or two drivers....

I did as I understand you had suggested- backed up the files (er, drivers?) in a safe location, then went into my device manager, double clicked on the Atheros AR5005GS Wireless Network Adapter in the Network Adapters list, and selected 'uninstall driver (advanced)'. It prompted me to make sure I wanted to uninstall the driver, created a restore point.

While trying to uninstall, I did not see a list of those files (er, drivers) in the above picture that I saw when I was trying to update..in order to select the first or second driver, er, file...just the 'Atheros AR5005GS Wireless Network Adapter' was the option.

It prompted me to verify that I wanted to uninstall the driver, created a restore point, then the little wireless icon went away on my screen. I rebooted the computer. It told me that it 'found new hardware' (Ethernet Controller), and that my system had detected a wireless network within range. I went straight to my device manager to...'reinstall' the driver, and it (both files, er, drivers) are still there. I, however, am lost - HA! I have not touched any settings or done anything other than view the device manager since the reboot.

Edited by Poochure, 08 October 2011 - 11:45 PM.

[phillpower2]

Hi Poochure
Ensure that you still have the drivers that you saved, go into Control Panel, Add/Remove programs, if the previous software is still there uninstall it then double check in Device Manager that both are gone, if not uninstall them there again, reboot and then manually install the digitally assigned driver and see how it goes.

NB: I understand why you asked about what appeared to be two lots of drivers however it is vital that All traces of previous drivers are removed before installing new ones as you can have all sorts of conflicts if not.

[Poochure]

Good morning Philpower,

net5211.inf and oem36.inf are the files that are saved in My Documents. Are these are the files you refer to?

The Atheros AR5005GS Wireless Network Adapter seen in my Device Manager is not visible through my Control Panel or Revo Uninstaller, however, there is an Atheros Wireless LAN MiniPC Card Driver and an Atheros Client Utility.

What to do now? I did not want to take a shot in the dark so I figured I'd ask before I proceeded.

Thanks, again!

Edited by Poochure, 09 October 2011 - 10:45 AM.

[phillpower2]

Hi Poochure

net5211.inf and oem36.inf are the files that are saved in My Documents. I am hoping that these are the files you refer to

If these are the latest ones that you downloaded then yes.

however, there is an Atheros Wireless LAN MiniPC Card Driver and an Atheros Client Utility.

Uninstall these please, reboot and install the digitally assigned driver manually as in do not allow the hardware wizard to choose the driver for you as you need to select the driver you want to install yourself or you will end up back at square one with the wrong driver installed.

[Poochure]

You are so quick, thanks!

The net5211.inf and oem36.inf files were obtained via the hardware wizard. After I updated them through the hardware wizard, I navigated to the /windows/drivercache and c/windows/inf folders, copied, and pasted them into a folder in My Documents. I feel silly for asking this, but when you suggest "manually install the digitally assigned driver" does that mean copying these files from My Documents and pasting them back to their original locations in c/windows/drivercache and c/windows/inf?

Roger that on uninstalling Atheros Wireless LAN MiniPC Card Driver and an Atheros Client Utility

Edited by Poochure, 09 October 2011 - 10:45 AM.

[phillpower2]

feel silly for asking this, but when you suggest "manually install the digitally assigned driver" does that mean copying these files from My Documents and pasting them back to their original locations in c/windows/drivercache and c/windows/inf?

Not silly at all so ask whatever you need to, having a question but not asking it however would be silly.
To manually install a driver you do not allow the hardware wizard to install the driver, you select the driver yourself, this can either be the "Have Disk" option or the "browse" option depending on where the drivers are located, so for example if you saved them in a folder on your desktop (my preferred location) you would choose browse, desktop, the folder that the drivers are saved in and then install.

[Poochure]

Thank you so much, Philpower!

Through Revo, I selected advanced uninstall for both Atheros Wireless LAN MiniPC Card Driver and an Atheros Client Utility programs and their components. The computer rebooted, and I went into the Device Manager, and then the Network Adapters list. I double clicked on the Atheros AR5005GS Wireless Network Adapter and tried to manually update the driver via the wizard, but ran into complications...so I thought that I would see what driver is assigned to it at this point. I am sorry, I know you did not instruct it, but I was curious. Now, the Device manager is saying that the Atheros AR5005GS Wireless Network Adapter's assigned driver (.sys file) is working properly and is stored in c/WINDOWS/system32/DRIVERS folder.

So, did I mess up the uninstall? Do I go ahead and move forth with attempting to manually install the net5211.inf and oem36.inf files through the device manager wizard?

Edited by Poochure, 09 October 2011 - 12:08 PM.

[phillpower2]

You are welcome Poochure
From post #12

To manually install a driver you do not allow the hardware wizard to install the driver, you select the driver yourself, this can either be the "Have Disk" option or the "browse" option depending on where the drivers are located, so for example if you saved them in a folder on your desktop (my preferred location) you would choose browse, desktop, the folder that the drivers are saved in and then install.

I double clicked on the Atheros AR5005GS Wireless Network Adapter and tried to manually update the driver via the wizard, but ran into complications...

Right click instead of double click as this will allow you to read the options in the drop-down box one of them being to manually choose the install drivers option, at no time do you use the Hardware Wizard, also be aware that you must start afresh if the install doesn`t go correctly.

So, did I mess up the uninstall? Do I go ahead and move forth with attempting to manually install the net5211.inf and oem36.inf files through the device manager wizard?

It is possible that the driver has already installed correctly so try connecting to the internet to check the performance before you do anything further,

[Poochure]

Hello Philpower!

I connected to the wireless network and I now have firefox open and am accessing the internet, with the same signal strength (low - two bars).