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Question

Linksys WMP54G Driver causes BSOD error

Jun 22, 2012 7:26AM PDT

Now I hope you all can bear through this as I'm extremely Noobish and am not too knowledgeable about my system specs.

Anyways I have what I believe to be a Dell Dimensions 300 with Windows XP Pro. I had inherited this from a guy who told me all it would do was say "Low Voltage" when you turned it on. So I took it home and started tinkering with it, replaced the battery, started it up, and used the Admin back door to log in.

Now here's my problem. I was wanting to give this to my friends little girl for games and stuff, so I thought I'd be nice and install a wireless PCI card. I had a Linksys WMP54G laying around so I slapped it in there and downloaded the latest drivers from Cysco's site and installed them. Everything installed ok, but as soon as I attached the antenna I get the BSOD error: STOP ERROR: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and something about removing driver RT2500.SYS driver

Since then I've tried different versions of the drivers as I'm not sure what version my card is and I get the same message. Any help with this would be appreciated enormously!

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Since it's XP did you remember to...
Jun 22, 2012 7:41AM PDT

Install motherboard drivers before cards and their drivers. I'm encountering folk that didn't live with XP or never had to install it.
Bob

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Answer
Worth a try
Jun 22, 2012 7:44AM PDT

I did a quick Google search for BSOD RT2500.SYS and found a number with similar issues.

I had a look at this one, http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=185955 which appears to fit your situation that you're not sure what version the card is.

Look at the first reply to the original poster. Note how the attempted fix was all done in Safe Mode.

See if that helps.

Mark

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Thank you
Jun 22, 2012 8:58AM PDT

Thank you both for your replies.

R. Proffitt: When I got the desktop running I didn't bother with a wipe and reinstall (Probably should have though) just left it as is. Thank you for the tip. I'll be sure to remember that if I ever do.

MarkFlax: I tried to follow this process last night the best I could but was unable to locate the rt61.inf mentioned in the post. The only .inf file I could see in the Driver folder was a Rt2500.inf. But it still installed everything ok, but still I got the error as soon as the antenna was attached after reboot. Thank you for taking time to research this for me though. And if you guys have any other advice I'll gladly give it a shot.

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Crash and burn
Jun 23, 2012 1:41AM PDT

Well after trying the same method again I have successfully manged to make it the point to where I actually want to take this out back and use it for target practice.

Everything was done in safe mode. But apparently I cooked something because after I tried rebooting, all I get is a pitch black screen. No windows logo.

But can't complain too much when I got it for free. Anyone want to see what a .45 hollow point looks like ripping through a Linksys WMP54G on a high speed camera?