Windoze XP SP3 problems.......

[97f150]

I know, I know, I should just upgrade my laptop. Almost a year ago when SP3 was released for XP, and was installed in an update, my laptop quit connecting to my secured network wirelessly on its own. Even if I went to available networks and found my network it would run a loop acting like it was trying to connect and immediately disconnect. Will connect to an unsecured network with no problems. To work around this, I would find an unsecured network and connect to it, then it would connect to my secured network. Changed routers in this time, no cigar, so I just kept doing it that way and lived with it.

I reformatted my laptop a few days ago. With SP2, lo and behold, it connect automatically. No sooner then SP3 is installed, its back to being unfriendly with secured networks, leading me to believe that SP3 is the culprit. I researched a bit, and found that there was a patch to fix this. I downloaded the patch and installed 3 times. 3 times is not the charm in this case. Anyone else have issues with this? What would I be losing security wise by rolling back to SP2? I would only use that as a last resort as support stopped for XP SP2 in July. Its not a big deal at my house where networks are plentiful, but is proving a PIA at my dads house when his network is secure and there are no other networks to "piggy back" off of.

 

[saberz]

Updated the wireless driver? Sometimes if its a manufacturer laptop(Dell) you can goto the card manufacturer's website and download an updated driver.

Marvell, Intel, RALink for linksys wireless and so on.

 

[JustinH]

Boot the computer to an Ubuntu Linux Livecd.

Run the OS from the cd, and see if you have the same wireless problems.

If no problems exist in linux, then it is a windows problem. If you have the same problems, then you will want to replace the mini-pci card in the laptop.

I have seen them go bad!

 

[barlowc]

But he said that it worked with XP SP2, so we know it's not a hardware problem.

97f150, do you have SP3 AND ALL CRITICAL UPDATES applied? If it's just SP3, I would suggest installing all the updates. If you have a problem with all the updates, like Anies suggested, you may want to check the appropriate hardware manufacturer for an updated driver.

 

[97f150]

Thanks guys. It is an MSI wireless adapter. I updated the driver and all is well, cant believe I didnt think of doing that before lol. I found a few other drivers that needed updating and I went ahead and did those too. Any thoughts on drivers carrying virus'? After I installed all the drivers, I am getting prompts upon start up that my firewall dosent recognize, and when I research some of them come up as malware, so I have been hunting those down and getting rid of them. My firewall blocked them but I am trying to remove all of them from the system.

Its weird, all drivers were downloaded and installed from the manufacturers respective websites- MSI driver from MSI site, etc, etc.

 

[barlowc]

Originally Posted By: 97f150
Any thoughts on drivers carrying virus'?

Not likely if you're getting the drivers from a trusted source, meaning the device manufacturer. Did you get the drivers from the device manufacturers, Windows update, or some other 3rd party source?

 

[97f150]

I went to the manufacturers website and from there I was redirected to a mirror- CNET was the download site.

 

[Buffman]

CNET is okay. Were you using windows to manage your wireless networks before? I always turn that off and use the card's software to manage connections. I'd figure out what's managing them, and then try to establish the connection again. IF you have SSID turned off, turn it back on so the laptop can see it (turn it off once connection has been established). Run WPA, or WPA2 over WEP

 

[wavinwayne]

Sorry, I can't offer a solution to your problem; but I thought I would add that I am running XP SP3 on my netbook which connects to my home secured (WPA2) wireless network automatically. So that makes me think that XP SP3 is not the culprit here. Strange that you don't see the problem with SP2, though..... wish I could help more.

 

[97f150]

I updated the driver and it now automatically connects to my network. My network has always been WAP2, with the hardware controling the connection.