Cannot install Proxim/Orinoco PCI card in desktop.

Has anybody had trouble installing the Proxim (Orinoco) PCI card in a desktop, in WinXP? I have the a//b/g card, Gold, and have been unable to get even the Proxim software to see it.

I followed Proxim's instructions -- first installed the software, then shut down and installed the card, and rebooted. When I hover the mouse over the icon in the tray, it says "Wireless network interface disabled", and when I open the interface, most buttons in the interface are greyed-out, including "enable radio".

The PCI slot works OK -- I have had the video card in it -- and I tried both of the available slots.

Device Manager shows "!" next to the card's name, and Properties shows "This device cannot start (Code 10)". I have tried all of the drivers on Proxim's site for this card, from oldest to newest, each time removing the card, un-installing the software and starting over. But the result is the same each time. One green light glows on the back of the card when it's in.

One thing I don't know about, and haven't tried messing with, is the firmware. I don't know whether that's that something I can or should try to upgrade for this card.

This computer used to have the Orinoco USB wireless device (which is somewhat buggy, and which Proxim no longer makes), but I uninstalled that in Control Panel, and rebooted, before installing the PCI card's software.

I've always used Orinoco PCMCIA cards in our laptops, and consider them the best, but I am finding their PCI card a frustration so far.

Any idea what's going on? Anything I can try, to make it work? Thanks for any help.

Reply to
Ted Kerin
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Wireless Zero Config is installed, but I had disabled it (I think "disabled" is the word) because it didn't work well with the Orinoco USB device. Also, the PCI card's installer offers an option , during installation, of whether to use Wireless Zero or instead use the Proxim inteface -- the latter is recommended, and I chose it. But I can try enabling and using Windows Zero. Thanks.

Reply to
Ted Kerin

Thanks for your reply.

I don't recall getting a message during, or at the end of the installation.

After installing the latest Proxim software and driver for XP, the card was not seen at all in Device Manager. So I went to Control Panel and used the Add Hardware wizard, and browsed to the location of the WinXP diriver on the installation disk, and OKd on that. This made the card at least show up in Device Manager -- but with the yellow exclamation point, and the "Code 10" error -- "This device cannot start".

When I instead installed any of the 3 older versions from Proxim's site, the card would at least show up in Device Manager, and I could see what the driver was -- but, again, the card showed with the exclamation point and Code 10, cannot be started.

Something that occurred to me only on the way to work this morning, is that I did not disable Norton Antivirus during any of the installation attempts -- I wonder if that was a problem.

Reply to
Ted Kerin

Thanks for your thoughts, and for the detailed reply.

It's possible, as you suggest, that I did not completely remove other, incompatible drivers before trying to add the correct one. I will use the technique that you describe, when I get home.

Sorry I don't understand how to open a cmd prompt, then enter the commands you describe. Do I begin with Start...Run? . It sounds like you're describing something I can do in Windows GUI, not in DOS (since you mention I might see greyed-out enrries, and the exclamation points).

Thanks again!

Reply to
Ted Kerin

Did you go into Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services>Wireless Zero Configuration, and make sure that the service is running?

I have found that some wireless card's firmware stops this service from starting automatically, even though it is set to start automatically. You have to manually start the service every time.

Reply to
SMS

Hi, Error code 10 is the word. Driver is not loaded for inf file mismatch? What is actual message wehn you load driver? Successful load or error message? Tony

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Recently, I have just plugged wireless devices in, letting WindowsXP-SP2 install the drivers, and not touched the vendor software at all. This requires having some other connection to the internet, but that's usually possible.

Uninstalling should also include removing drivers for devices that aren't present, which requires a couple of extra steps.

The Orinoco PCMCIA upgrades that I've done worked nicely. How far down rev is it?

Since the device probably wasn't plugged in when you removed the software, it might have done an incomplete job.

Open a cmd prompt, enter set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 start devmgmt.msc view-show hidden devices uninstall or delete the greyed out copies of the device you are trying to get rid of, probably under networking devices. Be sure to look at the bottom for yellow question marks, "unknown" devices. These might be partially installed. I would uninstall and delete all of the ones you don't want, and maybe the one you do want, reboot with both devices removed, and start over.

Reply to
dold

Interesting. On my laptop, the Orinoco PCMCIA software establishes the connection a lot quicker, and holds it a lot better than when I tried letting Wireless Zero do the job (especially for the first couple of minutes, when Wireless Zero would drop the connection 2 or 3 times before stabilizing).

I guess there's still a whole lot of variation to be expected in different systems.

Reply to
Ted Kerin

Thanks again -- I look forward to trying all of this, and now feel hopeful that I won't still be messing with it at 2 a.m., like last night. :^)

Reply to
Ted Kerin

Yes. Start-run-cmd. The command line is needed for the "set" line, and then you invoke the GUI. It's a stupid option, since you also have to select the view-hidden once you get into the GUI.

Reply to
dold

With WinXP and an Orinoco PCMCIA card in my laptop, I needed the "latest" drivers. After that, the functionality of the Orinoco client was substantially reduced, deferring to Wireless Zero for the "available networks" and such. That's when I stopped loading vendor drivers, and just used the Windows automatic install.

Reply to
dold

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