Reboot-loop problem with D-Link DWA-542 n-protocol wireless-carddrivers

September 6, 2008

About four months ago I purchased a D-Link DWA-542 n-protocol wireless

card for use with a legacy desktop whose motherboard I had just

replaced with an identical “new” (sealed in original package) Intel

D845GEBV2 replacement motherboard that I bought on eBay for a

reasonable price. The motherboard works fine but I have had no end of

difficulty with wireless card.

Various problems, including the one that I am about to describe, led D-

Link support to recommend that I exchange the originally purchased

wireless card for an identical replacement which I did on July 22.

With the latest D-Link driver available for that card at the time,

this card worked well for about six weeks and then I began having the

same problem that I've had with the original card, namely a continuous

“reboot loop” starting just before the logon-authentication screen

appears (i.e., after the XP splash screen and momentary blue-screen

that follows it just before authentication). The only way to reboot

once the DWA-542 driver is installed is to boot in safe mode and

remove the driver. When I reinstall the latest D-Link drivers in

normal mode the card works perfectly but I can't reboot. On the

advice of D-Link technicians I have tried the DWA-542 in all of the

available PCI slots and removed the only other PCI card. Changing

slots makes no difference so this is obviously not some exotic IRQ

problem. Furthermore, the reboot problem persists until the driver is

removed whether or not the card is physically present.

D-Link is now insisting that the problem lies in my BIOS settings. I

have checked all potentially relevant BIOS settings and do not believe

that to be the case. Specifically, all PCI slots are set to allow

automatic IRQ allocation. Furthermore, this explanation overlooks the

fact that the replacement card worked just fine for about six weeks.

Here is what I have tried so far:

1. rotate the wireless card through all PCI slots and remove the only

other PCI card in the machine;

2. completely remove antivirus software from machine, reinstall

driver, and test for reboot loop—still there;

3. enable boot logging and examine boot log for clear indication of

what is failing to install—all of the D-Link drivers are failing to

load but so are a great many other things;

4. check the system display under event viewer for system events

associated with failed boot-ups with D-Link drivers installed—the only

promising system-error event was the failure of a PC-Cillin (my anti-

virus software) driver to load which is why I removed PC-Cillin

completely to see if the problem would go away but it didn't; the only

other system error associated sometimes (only sometimes!) with the

failed bootup is the following, about which I could find no useful

information anywhere:

Plug & Play service not ready. EFS server will not try to detect

interrupted encryption/decryption operation(s).

My next step will probably be to use msconfig to try to figure out by

a process of elimination what is interfering with boot up when the

wireless-card software is present but that could be a long and painful

process—and may well take far more time than I have available to give

to it. I'm really hoping someone has a better idea!

I am leaning toward some sort of hardware (highly unlikely since

physically removing the card makes no difference to the “reboot-loop”

problem) or software conflict as an explanation but so far I just

can't seem to get to the bottom of the problem and would welcome any

suggestions to help me do so.

Thanks in advance for any help!

September 6, 2008

Re: Reboot-loop problem with D-Link DWA-542 n-protocol wireless-card drivers

Re: Reboot-loop problem with D-Link DWA-542 n-protocol wireless-card drivers

<paquette@uwo.ca> wrote in message

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