[Deepsycher]

Today I found a display D Link Wireless 4 port network router with a 54 mbps usb adapter at a good price. So I brought that with a 16 port 100 mbps switch which I was satisfied with.

I took one look at the unit and typically it is MADE AND CHINA!
There were labels on the hub and usb adapter that said something about inserting the cd first before connecting. I experienced a similar problem with a usb to serial port adapter a year ago when I had to manually clear up the registry and then install the software. Can't explain why for that instance but this is not the same.

I did everything according to the manual and I still couldn't locate the drivers after installation. I went to the D Link support site and tried various drivers as the firmware of this one was not listed.

All I got was an error message stating that the driver is not 32 bit or not for the operating system. So I tried another computer. Same result but I could not find the drivers anywhere. After spending hours looking through the ini files there was no hope. I looked around and a lot of people seem to be having many problems on installing the driver for this usb adapter and a lot of dead end threads which are quite annoying. The stupid thing is that I can choose any other driver like a usb keyboard and mouse which shows up on device listings.

I noticed the word RT2500 on files and the ini file. I searched around and discovered that it was the name of the chip. I thought it was made by D Link. Packard Bell sold a very similar looking design and next thing I see Belkin do it too. Looking where to go for the maker of the device, RaLink made it not D Link. Unfortunately same result with their drivers.

After hours of frustration of every experiment I tried the ini files just won't work. I got it to work on Windows 2000. I tried Vista drivers but the same result.

The solution:

Now then I copied the drivers from the D Link directory from Windows 2000 to the laptop. In the driver folder there is a win64 folder. Assuming it containted 64 bit drivers. I wanted to see what happened and you know what the device listenings worked! Except course the drivers didn't work.

As the 64 bit driver files are identical to the 32 bit drivers files. I copied the xp driver files to a new folder then I copied the 64 bit inf and catalogue files over.

Fantastically it worked apart from the last problem which was a blue screen "irq less not less or equal to." Happened randomly. After checking the date it was a 2004 driver and now for this I replaced it with latest RaLink drivers and now it is working so far with no problems.

For those of you with the same problems to make it work on Windows 2003:
Simply put instructions:

(1) Install from the original cd and get the drivers:
/program files/dlink/drivers/
(2) Make a new directory named such as w2003
(3) Copy all the files from folder /drivers/ across to w2003
(3) Go into the win64 directory
(4) copy across and overwrite:
Dr71WU.inf
Dr71WU.cat
NetRt61G.INF
NetRTUSB.inf

(5) Go to Ralinktech website and get the latest 2006 Windows 2000/Xp drivers.
(6)Install them and after it is finished go to the directory:
\Program Files\RALINK\RT7x Wireless LAN Card\Installer\WINXP
(7)Copy across to w2003 folder:
rt2500usb.sys
rt2500usb.cat
rt73.sys
rt73.cat
acAuth.dll
setacl.exe
SelectCard.exe
RaSwap.exe

Hope I got all the necessary files to move listed here. It should install perfectly after getting the right inf and cab files and latest drivers. I might post the compilation that worked for me on a driver site. I am not good within the software side such as this but I'd say the whole thing looks badly designed.

[Deepsycher]

Well I have no problems now. I can move round the house without disconnecting that network cable from the docking station which runs into a risk of freezing. The network card on the docking station is not supplied power when I unplug the mains adapter which is just a stupid design.

Now I am thinking of making a battery cartridge to replace this no good Lithium battery. One day I'll phone up Toshiba to ask about the charging pins and how much cells are present in the battery then I can get ready for an explosion in attempting to condition it using the new charger.

One disappointment about this Wireless router is the adapter. Correct voltage wrong plug and there is no way to modify the plug. At the moment I am using my only spare 5 amp multi adapter so soon I'll have to buy a travel adapter.

I have never been frustrated for years about driver installation. Usually I get frustrated when I am trying an experiment that won't work involving a lot of guess work until I get bored. Last night I felt the same but this is misleading like the Wintv card I sent back a year ago. Badly constructed inf files I think. As for limited knowledge I don't know what strings to change.

Last of all. Health concerns:

Can close range high frequency radio waves affect health after long term usage?
Never settled. Always worrying about something.

This post has been edited by Deepsycher: 22 February 2007 - 09:33 PM