How to get my Linksys WPC11 card running? (GRT796)

[ChrisOfTheOT]

So my internal WiFi card died last week and after panicking and buying an impressive but unnecessary Devolo network kit for nearly £80, I sent it back to Amazon and got a £9 PCMCIA WiFi card instead.

It's an unbranded Linksys model WPC11. But I can't get the drivers to load to save my life. I'm sure when I did something similar on my old FX401, Windows loaded the drivers automatically. Now the Hardware Install Wizard says it can't find any files relating to my hardware - in spite of the fact that they're right there on the disc!

Note that I'm trying to install this as a PCMCIA adapter (Device Manager), not a Network Adapter (which I think is for internal cards, isn't it? ). If I do try the Network Adapter route, the Wizard does find the drivers but I get the same 'Device cannot start - error code 10' report that I get with the internal WiFi card.

I am, therefore, stuck! Please help, peeps, if you can. :smileygrin:

Cheers,

Chris

[Blencogo]

Hi Chris,

Not sure I can help - you don't say if you are connecting through a router in Infrastructure Mode or not.

The usual procedure for a Linksys PCMIA card is to insert the disc without the card inseted and click on 'install' to load the drivers.

Reboot your computer with the card inserted and Windows should find the drivers and you can configure your wireless settings.

............................or maybe you have a dodgy card!

[kee-lo_]

Hi again Chris,

Did you put the CD in first, rather than the PCMCIA card? If you didn't then there's going to be some work to do.

First of all, remove the card.
Then put in your CD and boot up
Run the setup, it should copy the drivers to the correct places
It should then say put in the card
Then you set the channel, SSID and WEP depending.

[ChrisOfTheOT]

Duplicate - sorry.

[ChrisOfTheOT]

Totally fed-up with this now! Gents - I do thank you for your help with this... and note that you both say to put the CD in first. Irritatingly, the setup PDF says to put the card in first! Either way, I get the same result...

In Device Manager, the drivers get "installed" to Other Devices and are marked as 'Unknown Manufacturer". The Properties therein say that 'No device driver is installed'. If I uninstall the driver (which it insists is not there), Windows offers the New Hardware Found Wizard on every reboot. However, whatever selection I chose for the driver install, I get 'No driver found for your hardware'.

If I shortcut this to the Setup file on the CD, nothing happens! (I've downloaded the files from the Linksys website and Setup does nothing from there either. Ooer!?) If I try to right-click/Install the Autorun.inf file, I get 'Installation failed' - and that's it.



Note that a Linksys utility always loads, offering me setup options for the card - which it says are successful - but when I chose the Activate Now button, it fails.

Blencogo - surely I can't have a dodgy card, on top of a dodgy internal card. Noooooooooo!

Kee-Lo - I followed your instructions exactly, except I cannot run the Setup (nothing happens at all). Surely this is my ignorance, not a hardware failure, again?

Humph. (Thanks for the pointers, though. If you've anymore, I certainly need 'em!)

Chris

P.S. I'm accessing a Vigor router, which works fine from Anna's Dell.

[William]

It's an unbranded Linksys model WPC11. 

Hi Chris,

Why is it an "unbranded Linksys" could this be a clue or a red herring?

[rich912]

A shot in the dark here Chris, but have you considered the possibility that there may be a conflict with the internal WiFi card? Obviously you cannot remove this in Device Manager but have you tried disabling the device?

[kee-lo_]

You have a point Rich

[rich912]

Thanks Kee-Lo.

It has also occurred to me that with this series the WIFI card is located in a compartment on the underside of the notebook (I think). If disabling the device has no effect then possibly a physical removal of the device may.

[ChrisOfTheOT]

Afternoon gents... Humph. I've spent far too long on this (again).

William: It's a pukka card, but old and not offered by Linksys anymore. (I imagine that the electronics are still made and sold to a third party for dirt cheapness. Since someone somewhere went to all the expense of designing and installing machinery, why not still use it? See: Digital Webrontics on eBay, or the link to their website. Quite legit!)

Rich: The internal WiFi card is disabled anyway - it crashes to computer or causes it to freeze when booting. If I enable it, I have to use Safe Mode to recover...

I have been all over the Newsgroups and Linksys site, and now believe that I've bought a rubbish card. :smileyblush: Lots of people have had these problems with the WPC11. The Linksys site offers advice about driver conflicts, and the removal of 'old' drivers from the Registry (see: Linksys Support) But if the card can't be removed then Windows will only keep putting the files back on reboot. I am completely fed-up! (The Linksys page noted links to this Microsoft Knowledge Base article.)

Linksys also say to disable the normal Ethernet card too: see here. It only makes me angry that I should have to mess about so much - why couldn't they sort out these irritating problems? This card had at least four different versions! (I've got v3.)

The only thing that seems to have worked for a couple of people was to use the Win2000 drivers. Now, if I can only get hold of some W2K drivers! (None on the Linksys website, obviously...)

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Not very cheery,

Chris

P.S. I did find an MS explanation of the error codes though: here.