Wireless Card Causing BSOD

[adamleetucker]

I bought a TP Link Wireless N PCI Express Adapter for my PC and installed it. I kept getting the BSOD. I then tried installing newer drivers off TP Link's website. I am running windows 10. When installing the Windows 8 drivers (there is no windows 10), still a BSOD. When installing Windows 7 drivers, there are still BSOD until I disable the Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller #2 in my Network Adapters. This works for a few weeks, and then I will get a random BSOD. While I can live with this, I want to know what the issue is. I bought a different wireless card with a different company and the frequency of BSOD is even worse. Additionally, there are no issues with BSOD when the device is removed. Any ideas?

 

[Ralston18]

My thought would be a physical problem with the PCIe slot on the motherboard. Some crack or short that is intermittently making or breaking connectivity with temperature related expansion/contraction or physical movements however small.

Those wireless adapters have antennas that stick out the back and are quite subject to being bumped, banged, twisted, etc. that can physically cause problems inside the card and its hosting PCI slot.

Especially so as it seems you have narrowed down the circumstances quite nicely.

Would take a close look at the PCIe slot and how well the adapter(s) is/are truly fitting into the slot. Should be firm and snug. No wiggle.

Look for debris inside the PCIe slot, dust, hair, paper scraps, dead insects, etc.. Anything that could be interfering with connectivity. Check around the area for signs of cracking, other loose connectors, wires, and components. Will the slot itself move or wiggle on the motherboard? Be sure to turn off the power before checking anything inside the case.

 

[adamleetucker]

My thought would be a physical problem with the PCIe slot on the motherboard. Some crack or short that is intermittently making or breaking connectivity with temperature related expansion/contraction or physical movements however small.

Those wireless adapters have antennas that stick out the back and are quite subject to being bumped, banged, twisted, etc. that can physically cause problems inside the card and its hosting PCI slot.

Especially so as it seems you have narrowed down the circumstances quite nicely.

Would take a close look at the PCIe slot and how well the adapter(s) is/are truly fitting into the slot. Should be firm and snug. No wiggle.

Look for debris inside the PCIe slot, dust, hair, paper scraps, dead insects, etc.. Anything that could be interfering with connectivity. Check around the area for signs of cracking, other loose connectors, wires, and components. Will the slot itself move or wiggle on the motherboard? Be sure to turn off the power before checking anything inside the case.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. It turns out now I am able to have everything enabled with no BSOD. The reason why I don't believe it is a physical problem is because as soon as I change the driver, there are problems. With the current driver and setup, it seems like I am good to go. But I will have to wait another couple weeks to see if there is a problem. Do you think maybe it happens every couple weeks with this driver because it somehow tries to update itself, crashes, then reverts? If so, how would I stop this device from ever trying to update?

I mean, if it was truly a physical problem, changing the driver wouldn't change the frequency in which the bsod happened correct? More specifically, it seems like the windows 8 driver caused the bsod, and the windows 7 driver causes little to no issues.

 

[Ralston18]

That is quite possible.

Did not pick up on the driver to BSOD correlation. Apologies.

You can stop Windows from updating. Generally not recommended although the automatic updates can be very problematic.

May be that Microsoft may just do something to either directly or indirectly fix the problem. Would not be too optimistic there.

Keep an eye on the drivers and updates. Especially what the updates are intended to fix or otherwise "improve". [Will concede being somewhat cynical about the latter. No matter what product or manufacturer.]

Also keep a copy of the working driver handy. Definitely a nuisance to have to reinstall every couple of weeks or so should that become the case.

 

[adamleetucker]

Another BSOD happened today. It didnt look like anything was trying to update. Any other ideas? I updated the chipset, and pretty much everything else except the BIOS. Should I do a fresh windows install?

 

[adamleetucker]

Additionally, when viewing the blue screen log, every time it says it is caused by the driver ntoskrnl.exe, which is no help to me. Anyone have any ideas? I am now trying the most updated driver meant for windows 10 made by the chip company, not tp link. I tried it before and it didnt work, but that was before i updated drivers on other devices

 

[Ralston18]

Take a look at the Event Viewer logs.

Right click on any warnings or error codes for more information.

Should find out more with respect to ntoskrnl.exe

 

[adamleetucker]

Take a look at the Event Viewer logs.

Right click on any warnings or error codes for more information.

Should find out more with respect to ntoskrnl.exe

Just to update the situation, I found out the chipset in the wireless card was AR9287 and my computer was automatically using a driver for a different chipset. I just installed that one and the device has been working better than usual. Is it possible this could have been the reason for the bsod? I ask because I wont be able to find out for about a week without problems. Additionally, its kind of weird that when i tried a second card, my computer would just so happen to instal a second wrong driver to make the computer crash...crossing my fingers though

 

[Ralston18]

Will cross my fingers as well.....

Not unusual to end up with the "wrong driver".

Installing the wrong/incorrect driver can result in any number of results that range from total failure to some random appearing event.

Not always the result of an End-user error either. Drivers are always problematic and even more so with so many online sources offering them up for download.

Some drivers are poorly written, others improperly identified, many online are obsolete, and an error on the hosting website can easily bring about the download of the wrong driver.

All too many sites are just offering up anything at all just to get "hits". Usually try to get you to, or trick you into, downloading something else. Generally that something else is not good.

And even though all may be correct it can be that there may be some conflict between a driver and something else running on the host machine. Either one by itself may work well. Together then the "perfect storm" and you get obscure error messages at best. Intermittent BSODs at worst.

And a good driver can become corrupted - just in the general nature of things.

Downloading and reinstalling the proper driver solves many problems. Identifying and finding that driver, however, may take some effort. Especially if it is an older version that works when the newer version will not.