Need help installing 3Com 802.11b PCMCIA adapter - Solved. Turns out WinXP's default driver was freezing the system.

[Swanny]

Hello all,


I just bought a 3Com AirConnect 802.11b adapter and am trying to install it on a new Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop. The laptop has XP home on it. The problem is that XP is messing up the hardware installation and I can't stop it. When I put the card in it does the auto detect and then proceeds to auto install stuff, all without any input from me. The problem is that it must install that wrong driver, because it causes the whole system to freeze. The only way to unfreeze it is to remove the card. Then when you put the card in again it just freezes immediately. I'm used the system restore to go back and try again, but it screws up every time. I can't figure out a way to stop the auto hardware installation. Also, the device doesn't show up in the hardware manager, so I can't change it there after the first attempt.

So, how do I make it so it doesn't start it's stupid auto install the first moment I plug in the card? Any other ideas? And yes, I've waited for about 10 minutes once. It also freezes in the boot if you put the card in and then power up the machine. Once you take the card out, it continues to boot normally

Thanks for any help,
Swan

 

[Swanny]

Well, it's fixed.

It turns out that Win XP has the wrong default driver for this card (3Com AirConnect 3CRWE737A). I had to find a way to stall the auto install program while I loaded the right driver before it could freeze the system.

Right before the crash, Zone Alarm told me Services and Controler Ap was trying to access the internet, which I had given it permission to do. I stalled the process out by just leaving the permission window up and neither granting nor denying access. I guess the program was just waiting for ZA to either allow or deny the internet to it. Anyway, while it was stalled I went into the hardware manager and installed the proper driver from 3Com.

That seemed to make everything work