USB Wireless Networking Adapter issues Windows 7

[sakmmeeks]

OK so I have an ASUS P6T Deluxe v2 with a 920 i7 running stock cus of what is going on. I've had this box for years and have only upgraded the gpu, ssd, memory to 12gb.

I used to have a direct connection to the router, but recently moved and need to setup a wireless connection..I have a wireless pci card that works (I'm using it now) but its in-between my x-fire setup as its the only slot available. My x-fire is blocking the last pci port So off to the store to buy a usb network adapter.

Problem: Wireless USB adapter is detected and installed in device manager, but is disabled and won't enable. Power is there, you can see the light on, but not working and cannot enable thru device manager or network/sharing even after complete uninstall/reinstall and disabling/enabling.

Running Win7 Ultimate 64bit.
Yes I have all drivers up to date.

Tried 2 different adapters so It's def my computer. Not sure if its windows or bios issue? 1st one NetGear Wirless N 600 v2, 2nd one is a Cisco/Linksys AE3000. Both worked on my room mates laptop running win7 32 bit. Both did not work on my computer but were detected and appeared installed however could not ever enable them and would hang during installation detection phase.

What I've tried for solutions:
netsh winsock reset
checking the wlan services and making sure its set to automatic
updating drivers/chipset of my mobo (also tried the previous version to be sure this wasn't the culprit)
Uninstalling/reinstalling on multiple usb ports all doing the same thing

I dunno what else to try. I've tried everything. There is something stopping the wireless adapters from being enabled within windows. Is it possible its a BIOS issue? I'll try updating that next, but the current BIOS only gives me the option to turn on/off the usb ports and they are all set to enabled and I tried w/ and w/out usb legacy also.

Freaking driving me nuts all I wanted to do was keep some air between my two graphic cards and can't for the life of me figure out why my computer is not enabling the wiress usb adapters!@#$

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I really think its a USB driver issue of some kind..but I believe I'm all updated?! Windows Update/Asus website what else can I check?

Thanks in advance! Off to work.

 

[trents]

Do you have legacy USB enabled in bios? Are you using the adapter in a USB2 or USB3 port? I'd play around with those variables. Sounds like there's an IRQ conflict going on perhaps.

 

[OnDborder]

I had this issue on one of my setups with a usb adapter. I had to use the software on the cd that came with the adapter..

 

[sakmmeeks]

I've tried both the software on the CD and on their website.

Going to check IRQ's n such...and if I have to, do a complete reinstall of the OS but as a last resort.

I don't think my x-fire is going to like having a network adapter in the middle of em. Not to mention the top graphics card is just shy of actually touching the card..its just too close I can't keep it like this for long if I plan on gaming..i'll prolly melt the network card and fry my gpu at the same time lol.

Anyone else have any suggestions? I'm at a loss here..I've googled the problem and it seems others have had it before, but can't seem to find a solid solution.

EDIT: checked out IRQ's and Windows shows no conflicts, but the wireless usb adapter is unlisted in system information. When I go through the device manager it is assigned to IRQ#17 which is shared with the wireless PCI card and the onboard network card. Turned off PC, removed wireless PCI card, went into BIOS and disabled onboard LAN entirely. No dice. You can't change IRQ's but you can set priority thru the registry. Doesn't help tho. Damn wireless USB card is blinking in my face, but win7 refuses to enable it properly. Very strange how it appears enabled on the device manager, but in networking/sharing it shows disabled.

I'm about to give up..it shouldn't be this difficult to install a wireless usb adapter. I am likely going to have to reinstall my OS which is a shame...and I worry this will even fix my problem. Will be doing a fresh install next week with minimal hardware and will install that usb adapter before anything lol. Extremely frustrating. If anyone has ANY suggestions I'd really appreciate it. Thanks again.

 

[sakmmeeks]

OK fixed it. Was Zonealarm! I just thought of it last second..I was just exiting the program at start while I was attempting to activate the usb adapter after each trial/error attempt.

I have no idea how, or why, it would so such a thing. Obviously if I install a wireless network adapter I want to use it. The software should prompt the user or something that informs and gives an option to allow/deny instead of no response at all! Geebus.

Regardless it's fixed. Disabling/exiting the program didn't make a difference, I had to remove the program by uninstall.

 

[trents]

I have frequently had trouble with audio drivers not installing correctly and have found that if I install the audio drivers first before any others it usually solves the issue.

 

[sakmmeeks]

Ok..well this turned out to have nothing to do with drivers or audio. All other devices usb/pci/etc, were all working. I was convinced it was a usb or chipset driver issue. Whatever tho, its over now and I can get back to using my pc again! Very happy I didn't need to reformat. Thanks for the responses guys.

 

[zachenos]

Screw you Zone Alarm!!

I have wasted three hours of my life and several trips returning "non functioning" USB wireless adapters (AE2500) because zone alarm is a piece of crap software program that blocks crap and doesn't even tell you!!!!!

The SECOND I uninstalled Zone Alarm the adapter worked perfectly!

Thank you for mentioning this in your post !

 

[kraven]

I can't believe people are still using that junk.

I used AVG until it got too bloated so I switched to Avira. That went downhill as well and now I'm using Microsoft Security Essentials. Works great, no problems. Doesn't throw a lot of false positives or interfere with anything I've found (yet).