I just went through my junk piles and put together a “Frankenstein” computer. It still had a license for XP home premium. Using a Belkin wireless usb I connected it to the internet for updates and to put some programs on it to make it seem useful. So I got the drivers from the internet, set up wireless zero, and all is good and happy. I installed avast! and Firefox but it hung up while trying to install sound drivers.
The wireless seems to work just fine for about 10 minutes, then drops out. It won’t “find” the signal, or any signal for that matter until you repair the connection. At this point you might as well restart the computer because connection will only last about a minute.
Nothing is wrong with the usb or the router, other computers stay connected and working without any problems even while Frankenstein is telling me it cannot find any wireless signals. Signal is excellent when it can find it.
The only odd thing I can find is a notification that “windows cannot find a certification to log (me) onto the internet” when it first connects. Google-fu being what it is, I get many complaints about this, but no answers.
I do have it up to xp sp2, it won’t stay online long enough to get sp3. The driver version for my belkin is correct, that is a known issue I have dealt with since getting a wireless network up. Let’s see, oh, Windows is controlling the connection, not the Belkin wireless program, although I did try it that way as well. Same problem.
So, any ideas, I have run into a wall on this. I have had other XP units on the wireless network without problems before, but that was a couple of years ago. So what am I missing?
If you read this far I should Thank you for wading through this Loooong post.
And another Thank you for any replies.
Well, for an update, I did finally find some good info with Google. Nothing worked of course, but I went off on a tangent and downloaded xp sp3 to another computer and burned an ISO cd, which is currently installing. I am hoping there is a fault in wireless zero that is fixed with sp3.
If it continues to be a problem I will probably just keep it offline, or rig up a reallllly long ethernet cable. I will probably have to install a nic first though.
Anyway, authentication is off and always was. I uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers, reset up the passcode security.
I know damn well I had this working before, back when we only had two computers, and they were both Xp.
Thanks for looking, and If you have any ideas let me know. Thanks again!
Power management for the USB ports? They might be getting turned off.
I’ve had similar problems in the past with my laptops. I hate advocating a “guess and see” approach to computer repair, but I’ve fixed a similar problem twice in my lifetime.
The first time, I went into the device manager and rolled back all the drivers to their older versions. No more complaints.
The second time, I went into the device manager, and just deleted my network adapter. Rebooted, and let the computer figure out how to use the adapter. It reinstalled the adapter, and now my internet is working. When I’m connected, though, it reads “Wireless Connection 2,” in spite of the fact that wireless connection one is dead.
Hope that helps!
I’ve sometimes seen this happen with wifi usb devices because they are very small and barely stick out of the usb port – as a consequence however, they get extremely hot, as in hot enough to actually kind of hurt to touch. Do you notice that happening?
No excessive heat, disabled and reinstalling the drivers is what repair will do, and in fact I have done manually twice now.
I managed to download xp sp3 and burn an ISO, so using a disk I got the update. The box was online for 3 hours, then I let it finish updating.
Ten minutes tops and It dropped, and after a repair it would drop in a minute.
I also looked at incompatibility with usb 1.0, but really I don’t think so.
The Belkin works just fine on the other computers I use it for. One runs Vista, the other Win 7
It also seems to be dropping the ps2 port for the keyboard…but not the mouse.
I’ve kinda given up at this moment. I built it out of scrap parts left over from people who bring me their burnt out computer. Then they go buy a new one and leave the old one here.
The wife is annoyed that I spent any time messing around with it so I’ll probably drop it back into the parts closet.
I’m still trying to figure out what to do with the Presario 700 laptop. 128 mb ram (built in) and one expansion slot that will only take 256 mb ram if I read it all correctly.