Win7 WiFi Miniport Driver

29 Jun 2009 9:27 PM

Mark H

Seems Win 7 has installed a "Virtual WiFi adapter" via WiFi Miniport Driver.
Since this functionality is not supported by any network adapter drivers I
have, is it safe to disable this feature to find out if it is the cause for
my Wireless Adapter (USB) randomly dropping out?

Thanks

30 Jun 2009 5:13 PM

Pavel A.

Mark H wrote:

> Seems Win 7 has installed a "Virtual WiFi adapter" via WiFi Miniport
> Driver.
> Since this functionality is not supported by any network adapter drivers
> I have, is it safe to disable this feature to find out if it is the
> cause for my Wireless Adapter (USB) randomly dropping out?
>

Does your adapter work in Vista SP2?

--pa

30 Jun 2009 5:43 PM

Mark H

My Linksys Dual-band Wireless USB adapter works fine in Vista, SP1, SP2, XP,
but crashes the OS when Win 7 attempts to reset it after it randomly drops
out. The errors typically point to inability to recover from sleep mode (but
the computer wasn't asleep.)

The PCI card (Wireless-N, nearly same model) works fine.

When I dual NIC'd the computer using both the PCI and USB devices
simultaneously, this Virtual Miniport Driver showed up in Device Manager.
The USB device continues to fail, so I removed it, but the Virtual Miniport
is still present. There are also several other "Hidden" Miniport drivers
that apparently don't really do anything other than confuse me as to what
may be momentarily running to kill the USB device.

So, I wanted to remove the virtual networking aspects to see if they were
part of the problem with the USB device.

Show quoteHide quote

"Pavel A." <pave***@NOfastmailNO.fm> wrote in message
news:O4zWZYa%23JHA.4648@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Mark H wrote:
> > Seems Win 7 has installed a "Virtual WiFi adapter" via WiFi Miniport
> > Driver.
> > Since this functionality is not supported by any network adapter drivers
> > I have, is it safe to disable this feature to find out if it is the
> > cause for my Wireless Adapter (USB) randomly dropping out?
> >
>
> Does your adapter work in Vista SP2?
>
> --pa

1 Jul 2009 4:43 AM

Pavel A.

Have you tried to bridge the USB and PCI cards?
Then the "Virtual Miniport" could be the bridge driver.

--pa

Mark H wrote:
Show quoteHide quote

> My Linksys Dual-band Wireless USB adapter works fine in Vista, SP1, SP2, XP,
> but crashes the OS when Win 7 attempts to reset it after it randomly drops
> out. The errors typically point to inability to recover from sleep mode (but
> the computer wasn't asleep.)
>
> The PCI card (Wireless-N, nearly same model) works fine.
>
> When I dual NIC'd the computer using both the PCI and USB devices
> simultaneously, this Virtual Miniport Driver showed up in Device Manager.
> The USB device continues to fail, so I removed it, but the Virtual Miniport
> is still present. There are also several other "Hidden" Miniport drivers
> that apparently don't really do anything other than confuse me as to what
> may be momentarily running to kill the USB device.
>
> So, I wanted to remove the virtual networking aspects to see if they were
> part of the problem with the USB device.
>
>
> "Pavel A." <pave***@NOfastmailNO.fm> wrote in message
> news:O4zWZYa%23JHA.4648@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> Mark H wrote:
>>> Seems Win 7 has installed a "Virtual WiFi adapter" via WiFi Miniport
>>> Driver.
>>> Since this functionality is not supported by any network adapter drivers
>>> I have, is it safe to disable this feature to find out if it is the
>>> cause for my Wireless Adapter (USB) randomly dropping out?
>>>
>> Does your adapter work in Vista SP2?
>>
>> --pa
>
>

1 Jul 2009 6:01 PM

Mark H

I did not try to bridge these cards.

Show quoteHide quote

"Pavel A." <pave***@NOfastmailNO.fm> wrote in message
news:O95RKag%23JHA.3544@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Have you tried to bridge the USB and PCI cards?
> Then the "Virtual Miniport" could be the bridge driver.
>
> --pa
>
>
> Mark H wrote:
> > My Linksys Dual-band Wireless USB adapter works fine in Vista, SP1, SP2,
XP,
> > but crashes the OS when Win 7 attempts to reset it after it randomly
drops
> > out. The errors typically point to inability to recover from sleep mode
(but
> > the computer wasn't asleep.)
> >
> > The PCI card (Wireless-N, nearly same model) works fine.
> >
> > When I dual NIC'd the computer using both the PCI and USB devices
> > simultaneously, this Virtual Miniport Driver showed up in Device
Manager.
> > The USB device continues to fail, so I removed it, but the Virtual
Miniport
> > is still present. There are also several other "Hidden" Miniport drivers
> > that apparently don't really do anything other than confuse me as to
what
> > may be momentarily running to kill the USB device.
> >
> > So, I wanted to remove the virtual networking aspects to see if they
were
> > part of the problem with the USB device.
> >
> >
> > "Pavel A." <pave***@NOfastmailNO.fm> wrote in message
> > news:O4zWZYa%23JHA.4648@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> >> Mark H wrote:
> >>> Seems Win 7 has installed a "Virtual WiFi adapter" via WiFi Miniport
> >>> Driver.
> >>> Since this functionality is not supported by any network adapter
drivers
> >>> I have, is it safe to disable this feature to find out if it is the
> >>> cause for my Wireless Adapter (USB) randomly dropping out?
> >>>
> >> Does your adapter work in Vista SP2?
> >>
> >> --pa
> >
> >

30 Jun 2009 8:45 PM

Jack-MVP

Hi
If you look at the Device Manger under Network Adaptors and pull down "View/
Show Hidden Devices" you would see many such entries.
Those are Entries in the Registry and they should Not effect functional
Wireless working.
Contact Linksys' support and ask them if they are aware of incompatibility
with Win7.
Every time a new OS is on the horizon some vendors prepare themselves ahead,
others procrastinate past the last moment.
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking)

Show quoteHide quote

"Mark H" <jmhonz***@suminet.net> wrote in message
news:DB8583B7-9919-4EBD-9BCA-F3E66843BC7C@microsoft.com...
> Seems Win 7 has installed a "Virtual WiFi adapter" via WiFi Miniport
> Driver.
> Since this functionality is not supported by any network adapter drivers I
> have, is it safe to disable this feature to find out if it is the cause
> for my Wireless Adapter (USB) randomly dropping out?
>
> Thanks

30 Jun 2009 10:26 PM

Mark H

Checking Win 7 forums and Linksys, this is not a problem limited to Linksys,
but affects various wireless adapters. Wired adapters seem immune.

Show quoteHide quote

"Jack-MVP" <j***@discussgroups.com> wrote in message
news:uYgD7Oc#JHA.4944@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Hi
> If you look at the Device Manger under Network Adaptors and pull down
> "View/ Show Hidden Devices" you would see many such entries.
> Those are Entries in the Registry and they should Not effect functional
> Wireless working.
> Contact Linksys' support and ask them if they are aware of incompatibility
> with Win7.
> Every time a new OS is on the horizon some vendors prepare themselves
> ahead, others procrastinate past the last moment.
> Jack (MS, MVP-Networking)
>
> "Mark H" <jmhonz***@suminet.net> wrote in message
> news:DB8583B7-9919-4EBD-9BCA-F3E66843BC7C@microsoft.com...
>> Seems Win 7 has installed a "Virtual WiFi adapter" via WiFi Miniport
>> Driver.
>> Since this functionality is not supported by any network adapter drivers
>> I have, is it safe to disable this feature to find out if it is the cause
>> for my Wireless Adapter (USB) randomly dropping out?
>>
>> Thanks
>