HELP !!! installation of wireless usb adapter gone wrong

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PC Hobbyist

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I was installing the MA111 wireless usb adapter from Netgear and ran into serious problems. Here is what I did:

  1. First, I ran the CD and installed the driver. No problems there.
  2. Then, I plugged in the usb adapter and I got the "new hardware found" window asking me to choose the location of the driver. I chose the "recommended" rather than looking in a specific location.
  3. Then I got a window with a list of options, asking me to select the one that best fits the description. All of the options pointed to the cd (drive D) except for the first one which was highlighted and pointed to a location in the c:windows directory.
  4. I chose that one that was selected and immediately the computer shut down - black screen - then restart.
  5. Upon restarting, the screen stayed black for a while and you could see (really faded) the windows xp boot screen. Eventually, the boot screen came up normal and I got to the login screen. At this point, the computer shut itself off again, restarted and did the same thing as described.
  6. This happened a total of three times until eventually, as soon as the welcome/login screen appeared, I pressed Ctrl-Alt-Del and got a black screen with the "classic" little windows logon pop-up window. I logged on (no password needed here) and finally got to the desktop. I was somewhat relieved at that point.
The computer now can be restarted and it eventually makes it to the regular "home-user"-style logon window and you can click on the user name to continue. The only problem now is that it still takes a long time when starting up - still this black screen with a really light faded windows xp boot screen for a while (as though it had started to fade in, but froze in the process) until the boot screen comes up and then it's all normal in terms of speed.

I ran a system restore and checked that the installed driver was no longer there (in the device manager). All seems to be gone / restored, but the problem persists with the lengthy startup.

I was doing this for a friend and so I feel really bad that it's not my computer and now it's not quite like it was before. Any help in fixing this is GREATLY appreciated. Even though she can use her computer right now, I get the unsettled feeling that it is not too stable anymore. I can't imagine what I could have done wrong. I have done this several times before and never encountered this.
 
Another thought just crossed my mind. I could set the computer to an earlier restore point to see if that helps. The poblem is that the option I would have that is closest to today would be June 6. That's about 4 months old. I don't know what she would lose if I were to do that. I mean, will files created during these past 4 months also get erased? or programs she has installed during that time? or? or? or? What exactly gets "undone" during the revertion to an earlier restore point?

EDITED / updated info:
I googled around and found others who had similar crash experiences with these drivers and win xp. I'll forget about installing this adapter, but still need help in fixing the slow booting problem I mentioned already.

Here are links to others who also had these crashes.
http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-MA111-802-11b-Wireless-Adapter/dp/customer-reviews/B00008XOHI
http://tech.yahoo.com/pr/netgear-ma111-802-11b-wireless-usb-adapter-/1991320694
http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t6915-problem-installing-wireless-usb-adapter.html

And here is a link to the adapter I'm talking about.
http://www.netgear.com/Products/Adapters/BWirelessAdapters/MA111.aspx

I hope someone can help or answer my system restore question.
 
Last edited:
A restore sounds like it would be easiest. Only thing it would affect would be ANY programs she has installed since then would not be installed anymore. Files are still there, just the registry has been reset back to an old date...

For futurew reference DO NOT USE USB ETHERNET ADAPTORS. You got lucku before it was actually installed... They are usually a pain to keep connected and work as they are supposed to.
 
Thanks Trizoy, I might try that 4 month old restore point, since I have no other points to choose from. And as far as using usb ethernet adaptors... for about 2 years, I have used a siemens adapter that matches my siemens modem and have had no problems. I use it in a home network. I guess I have been lucky with that too.
 
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