Vista - Netgear WG311v3 stops working after half an hour or so

I have Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit and a NetGear WG311v3 wireless card installed into a PCI slot.

Whenever I start up Windows and browse the Internet, the connection seems just fine. However, after an undetermined amount of time (or perhaps triggered by a certain amount of data I've downloaded), the connection cuts off. I then look in Device Manager and see the yellow warning symbol next to my wireless driver. When I look further, it says "This device cannot start (code 10)". Nothing I do seems to work, except restarting my computer. ANd when I do, I have to manually connect to the wireless network again.

There is no password on the router, and all the other desktops and laptops in the house connect to the router just fine without any connection problems after any amount of time or data.

I have tried re-installing the drivers (even by uninstalling, shutting down, removing hardware, booting up, installing drivers, shutting down, re-inserting hardware, booting up) but it still does the same thing.

There may be a conflict somewhere with other hardware, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what it may be. I have even tried installing the Marvell chipset driver instead of the NetGear driver, but it still does the same time-out problem.

I can stay connected for hours if I don't do any heavy downloading (just surfing and reading), but once I start downloading large files, the connection drops and I have to reboot again, which is a huge pain because the files I download can be quite large and I have to start from the beginning after I reboot.

Can anybody help with this problem? I've Googled this problem and tried everything out there.

Hello TerranRich,
The card isnt getting too hot is it, just a thought.

Thank you very much for your reply. I have taken the computer case cover off and tried to feel near the network card, and it doesn't seem hot at all. I had already thought of this, as I'd had a similar problem with my NVIDIA card, and that was the cause of the problem with that particular piece of hardware. However, it does not seem to be the case with my wireless network card.

Hi, what version driver are you using for the Netgear ?, is it a Netgear driver ?.

Currently, the driver is the official WG311v3 driver from the Netgear site. But I have tried the Maxwell chipset driver. While the network card works while using the chipset driver, it still does the same thing (disconnecting after a certain amount of data has been downloaded).

(LIke I said, I've tried everything I've found in my Google searches, including using the chipset driver instead of the official Netgear driver, which doesn't change the situation for the better OR the worse.)

This is quite likely the driver you are using but here is the link to it, v3.1 (just in case), another long shot, have you tried uninstalling the driver and just using the windows driver, grasping at straws now lol,


Answer

Just looked at all the drivers and they all seem to be for x32 systems, so maybe the windows driver might work better,

Actually, that is where I got my Netgear driver from, and it's the same exact file I already have in my Downloads folder.

I would try the windows driver and if that does not work can you try the Netgear in another computer on the network, its begining to look like the card may be duff, from what i have read this is more than likely, but you never know the windows driver might do it, i have got everything crossed, lol. good luck.

I am using the exact same Netgear as you. What you need to do is to set the preferences in your network settings. Just logging on your Netgear doesn't save your settings. Good luck!