I have a NETGEAR WN121T wireless-N USB 2.0 adapter which has always
failed upon resume from sleep using a wireless connection, but not when using
a wired Ethernet connection. It also works perfectly via wireless connection
with my NETGEAR DG834N draft 802.11n (and another 802.11g) wireless
modem/router on Windows Vista Ultimate - both with and without the SP1
Release Candidate - from boot, but has always failed upon resume from sleep:
attempting to re-connect to the network fails, and Device Manager reports
that “Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems (code
43)�. The only remedy is to reboot.
The consequences of this are twofold: firstly, Microsoft-recommended sleep
mode is consequently irrelevant as a reboot is necessary anyway to
re-establish the wireless connection; secondly, as no wireless connection
appears to be maintained during sleep, Windows Update, backup and other
important maintenance cannot be performed during sleep.
The relevant Vista system settings are ReadyBoost active with 1860MB,
WN121T power setting “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save
power� is unchecked (i.e. blank), and power plan settings are wireless
adapter power saving mode is “maximum performance�, allow hybrid sleep is
“on� and hibernate is “never�. All drivers have always been the latest
(fails with drivers both from Microsoft and NETGEAR).
(Non-relevant factors would appear to include that the motherboard has no
disks directly attached (the 1TB of RAID10 disk storage is provided via an
OEM h/w upgrade to an LSI 8308ELP MegaRAID board), as the failure also
occurred prior to this upgrade – albeit prior to SP1 and with the then
drivers available in July 2007.)
It seems clear that this issue is either a general failure in Microsoft
sleep functionality for wireless networks, or a specific issue in the NETGEAR
WN121T drivers whereby they do not accommodate the Microsoft sleep
functionality. Either way, it would seem a NETGEAR driver v, Microsoft sleep
functionality issue.
This issue has been repeatedly reported to Microsoft for some 6 months via
Problems & Solutions and more recently via the SP1 Release Candidate
reporting facility, all without resolution.
Can YOU help? Do you know of any remedies? Can I help you? Have you
experienced any wireless adapter failures only after sleep on Vista
(regardless of adapter)? Have you experienced any NETGEAR WN121T wireless
adapter failures only after sleep on Vista? If so, have you reported them?
If so, to whom - and what response did you get?

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Vultch