OK so i decided to set up a wireless network at the house, sounds simple. Set the router up (netgear) set security so it won't get bootlegged by neighbors. Installed my card (microsoft mn-720), and when i try and go wireless my lap top (gateway) locks up. My friends can use my network wirlessly. I thought it was the card, so i got a hawking 2.4 and same thing. Some times it will connect and work for about 2 min then lock everything up. So then i thought well maybe it's the router and tried a couple other common networks and same thing, but there was one time that I got it to work for about an hour on common network. I contatced gateway tech support, it was a joke. I uptated windows and looked for updates on cards and router. Anybody have any ideas, everyone else I've asked can't figure it out.


Thanks,
Saulgoode :banghead:

Buddy at work had same problem with his Toshiba. It was a conflict with the drivers/Windows. There was some setting that we could just not find to remove abnd install fresh drivers. Ended up wiping the drive and reinstalling XP. That cleared it and all is working good now. It definitely sound like a problem with the network card or drivers for your fixed and wireless network cards for you network. Shifty deals with the wireless side more than I do, so he may have some better insite into your hangup.

I need more information to really understand what you're dealing with.

What version of Windows are you using?

What are you using for encryption on the wireless router? WPA - PSK (pre shared key) or WEP?

Thanks for the tips guys. I have reformatted my hardrive and reinstalled windows with updates since the router was installed and that didn't clear the problem up.

Running Windows XP, with WPA-PSK security. (WEP was defalt). I give my friends the security code and they can log in and use the network fine.

Saulgoode

This post is going to be long and I'm going to ask several questions which should hopefully give me all the info I would need to make a good decision about the problem....

Does it still occur without WEP or WPA?

What is the model number of the computer?

What happens when the computer crashes...do you get a blue screen, does it reboot on its own or does it just freeze?

If it freezes, please understand this and answer this question: There are two types of freezes (hardly any computer users know this): you have a software freeze and a hardware freeze. Hardware freeze is normally caused by a hardware conflict, like ... the video card doesn't like the sound card, so it locks up the entire system. This can be caused by an IRQ (resource) conflict or other things. A software freeze is one where a piece of software has a problem or conflict (one driver conflicts with another) and locks up your computer, preventing anything from working.

You can tell if you have a hardware freeze or a software freeze really easily - just push the "caps lock" and "scroll lock" keys. If the keyboard does NOT light up to show the caps lock and scroll lock is active, you are experiencing a hardware freeze. If the caps lock and scroll lock LEDs light up on the keyboard, it's a software lockup. Which are you seeing?

Do you see any errors in the Application Log or the System Log? You might have no clue what these are, so I will tell you this (see supporting pictures below): Right-click the "My Computer" icon with your mouse. Choose "Manage" from the menu. This will open the Management Console. You should see inside there "Event Viewer". Expand the Event Viewer tab and look at the application log and system logs. Look for a red circle with an X in the middle. Double-click it to see what it says inside. See if you notice any error messages - if so, feel free to post them here so I can see if they're related to the problem. These are all timestamped, so look for event logs that happen around the time that the computer freezes up!

Lastly, what is the model number of your computer?

I ask the last question because I'd like to look for BIOS and driver updates for your computer. It's possible by flashing BIOS you might fix the hardware conflict or by updating other drivers for the stock hardware and chipsets in your machine, you might resolve the problem this way.

Shifty, I ran the tests you sugested and this is what I found:

Installed the microsoft MN-720 card into my lap top (gateway 400VXT), it connected to the server, I opened a web page it loaded then froze. It was a hardware freeze, the caps lock and scroll lock lights didn't come on.

I rebooted and checked the logs as you sugested, application was clean, but I got a Dhcp (source) none (category) 1002 (event) N/A (user) error in the system file.

That's all I got, if you have anyother sugestions or tips I'm all ears.

Thnaks,
Saulgoode

Install the card. Do not do anything that would normally cause the computer to freeze. Open a DOS prompt/command prompt (Go to Start>Run, then type cmd into the box and click OK).

When the black DOS window opens and you see the blinking cursor, type: ipconfig /all > C:\ipconfig.txt

(just so you know where the spaces are in the command, it's ipconfig[space]/all[space]>[space]C:\ipconfig.txt)

Once you do this, you should see a file at C:\ipconfig.txt

Open the contents. It should look something like this:

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : mycomputer
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : some.domain.net
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : some.domain.net
some.domain.net
domain.net

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : some.domain.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 570x Gigabit Integrated Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0F-1F-B3-13-61
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.50.72
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.50.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.50.4
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.50.4
192.168.110.5
Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 192.168.50.4
Secondary WINS Server . . . . . . : 192.168.110.5
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, June 16, 2005 2:11:44 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Friday, June 24, 2005 2:11:44 PM



Please post the contents of the file here if it looks something like what you see above.

Also, can you double-click that DHCP error and either click the clipboard icon in the details window so you can paste them here or just do a screen capture? I want to see the exact contents of the message (verbatim).

Thanks.

here is the ipconfig

here is the error

Here's one thing I notice:

Your wireless card is either not installed when you ran 'ipconfig', or it's not enabled.

The only connection showing is "Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection"
I should also see "Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection" in the list.

Can you verify this for me?

The screen shot of the ip config is without the card installed as you requested. As soon as I put the card in it locked up. Tried again and instead of if just freezing I got the blue screen, that is the first time that happened. Also after these lock ups there were no errors in the manage folder.

Thanks,
Cody

Ok this may be it, I think I got it with out it locking up this time.

EDIT: this is with the card in and no lan cable. This attempt was made after the last crash with blue screen. (the last attempts the card connected to the wirless network) now after the last crash neither card will connect to network. So this is a screen shot with the card in, but not connected to the network. I hope all this made since to you.

Sorry, I wasn't being clear. I actually needed the ipconfig while the wireless card is connected. I thought I read something about how it only crashed if you opened a browser.

I wanted to see what kind of information it was assigning to the card.

I noticed that your laptop PCMCIA slot supports both Type II and III devices. This means it should support the MN-720 adapter (assuming it's a 3v slot, which it should be)



I am curious: What happens if you boot in "Safe mode with Networking" and enable the wireless card, then try to surf the web with no network cable plugged in? Does it crash? (To boot into safe mode, tap the F8 key every 1 second when the computer is booting - until you see the boot menu)


You said you blue screened. Vital information can be obtained when the computer blue screens, but only if you turn off the "Automatic reboot". To do this, open the Control Panel. Double-click the "System" icon. Click the Advanced Tab. Click the Settings button in the "Startup and Recovery" section. Uncheck the box that says "Automatically restart" and click OK, then OK, then close out the control panel. Now, force the comptuer to clue screen again. Please write down the error code that will look like 0x0000000, the errror message given and, especially make note of the .sys file or .dll file being referenced in the error message. Afterwards, power down the computer, then power back up again.



As a last resort, I would try updating all of your drivers just to make sure it's not something related to chipsets on the motherboard or the driver given with the computer. At minimum, you should do wireless drivers, then from the Gateway site, do the drivers/downloads for: Motherboard, Sound, video, Network (where applicable), and drivers listed in the "Other" downloads section.:

Link to the MN-720 driver update:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=6790


Here is a link to download all updates for your laptop (Driver and BIOS updates):

http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/search.asp?st=pn&param=3501331


Here's a link to the support site for your laptop (it has a link to "how to" update drivers and software):

http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/Gateway/400VTX/3501331nv.shtml



You may also consider carrying the wireless access point and computer into your local Gateway shop and asking them to find the problem, especially if the laptop is still under warranty.


Please get me the blue screen message if you can. If you want me to link up the specific Gateway drivers you should think about upgrading, I will.

Thanks for the help, I'll try all the stuff you sugested and post an update.

Saulgoode