Superhub Wireless Adapter Issues [Archive]

View Full Version : Superhub Wireless Adapter Issues

Gashman

11-08-2011, 14:49

Hello,

I was provided with a wireless N adaptor (WNDA3200) when I recently switched to virgin media, didn't have too many issues, occasional drop now and again but hitting the sync button fixed it. Yesterday I turn on my PC and I'm not getting a connection, I hit the sync button but nothing happens. I reset the superhub but still nothing. My laptop can connect fine using its built in card. But the adapter isn't working. I have no idea what is wrong, Device manager isn't picking up the Adapter but windows makes its beeping noise when I plug it into a usb port. (Im using Windows 7 64)

Any idea's on what could be wrong?

on a side note, anyone know what it would cost and how i would going about getting a cable point installed. I would much prefer to just have a wired connection.

Cheers,
Gashman

(Sorry if this is the wrong forum, not sure if this should be under networking)

thenry

11-08-2011, 14:56

have you got any drivers installed? go into device manager, show hidden, find the adapter, remove, install again

regarding cable point, not sure but you could have a look at the electrical powerline (mains) way - something like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-PA211KIT-200Mbps-Powerline-Ethernet/dp/B004INVKP4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313071086&sr=8-1

Gashman

11-08-2011, 15:22

I'm not seeing anything netgear related in device manager. however i did just search through the netgear folder, and ran the uninstall, and it asked me to unplug the adapter, so it seems it knows that its plugged.

As for the powerline adapter, that looks reasonable :) gona have a look around.

Cheers for the help.

Gashman

11-08-2011, 17:36

thenry

11-08-2011, 17:47

the drivers are on the stick itself.

AndyCalling

11-08-2011, 19:19

So, I've been messing around a bit and I've notice then under Devices and Printers in the control panel its displaying the Adapter as a DVD/CD ROM device. Is this normal?

If so its got the yellow ! icon next to it and says its drivers are corrupt or missing. Anyone know where I can get the driver? I can't find anything on the netgear site and google isn't helping either.

any input would be much loved :)

The adapter should show up as both a wireless network card and as an optical drive. It does this because it has the drivers on a chip inside and it pretends to be an optical drive to expose them to you. It's like a flash drive, but shows up as optical because it is read only. I know that you can write to some optical drives, but they don't have to be writeable so provision is there for such to be read only. Not so with flash sticks, so this is why it shows up as optical instead.

Remove the relevant optical drive and wireless network card devices from 'Device Manager' in the control panel. Agree to delete the drivers when asked. Then remove the stick.

Plug in the stick and then open the optical drive and run the driver install (if Autoplay doesn't offer to run it when you plug in the stick).

You should then be able to sync and connect.

Do you have a desktop computer (or any other PC) available to test the stick with if this fails?

Gashman

11-08-2011, 19:39

AndyCalling

11-08-2011, 19:56

I've removed all the drivers I can find. I may be being fairly dense here but how does one open the optical drive on the stick? Its not showing up anywhere, i.e my computer/devices.

In the mean time I will try sort out another PC to try the adaptor on. (Currently using a fudged laptop that it won't work on.)

Thanks for the replies.

Well, when you disconnect the stick after removing the drivers, then wait a bit, then reconnect it your PC should detect it as a new device. It should then install a standard optical driver from Windows' driver store and it should show up in Windows as a normal optical drive like any other.

If it doesn't do that, that's not a good sign.

You could try removing the drivers, removing the stick and then rebooting your PC before trying to reconnect the stick. If it's still not detected then you really need to test it on another PC. If it fails there too then get on to Virgin for a replacement.

By the way, I assume you're turning off the built in wireless on the laptop before you do any of this. It shouldn't cause a problem if you aren't doing so, but you know what drivers are like. The things can mess with each other in unpredicatble ways. It pays to be sure.

Gashman

11-08-2011, 21:18

So, it turns out that deleting a reg key for another problem I had fixed this problem. I'm not going to complain.

Anyways Cheers for all the help. :)

AndyCalling

11-08-2011, 21:45

Well, great. Testing on another computer would have got you there, but you lucked out and skipped to the end. Nice one.

What was the reg key and the other problem? Perhaps this could happen to others, and this thread might help them too, so do tell.

Gashman

11-08-2011, 22:00

I actually did try it out on another PC, it didn't work. So yeah, I'm fairly confused, but everything seems to be working fine at the moment.

As to my other problem, it's not actually affecting me in any way. But my DVD drive is spouting an error in the device manager. But it still works fine, so i did a bit of googling and came across http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982116 (i was getting the first error, Code 31) . It says to delete the Upper and Lower filters. Deleted the Upper filter(There wasn't a lower one), restarted, plugged in the adaptor and bam up popped the auto run.

So as you said I lucked out. :cool:

AndyCalling

12-08-2011, 00:15

I get it now, so a fault that caused optical drives not to show took out the fake optical drive on the stick. Good catch.

As to why it didn't work on the other PC, it may be because auto run was disabled (as I do on mine). You probably could have opened the drive in Windows explorer as normal (My Computer) and run the driver install directly.

If the optical drive was missing on the other PC as well, and yet it is now working on your PC, that's odd. I suspect aliens, call Torchwood.