Hi, I just recently decided to take the plunge and upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7, and have been going through a number of the usual system growing pains to bring my system back up to what I usually use. Now, I'd thought that I had all the wireless network all sorted, as I've had access to my wireless network for the past two weeks with no trouble. However, in the middle of browsing today my wireless device suddenly stopped working, saying no network was detected. When I checked it in network connections, the wireless device was disabled, and enabling it seemed to do nothing. So, I unistalled the drivers for the device, and tried to reistall them again from the driver cd, and later from a dowload from a site taken from the laptop I'm writing this from. Both times I get the message from Windows that the drivers weren't installed successfully. I've tried doing the manual update from Device Manager, but even when I point it in the right direction I get the "Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it" followed by "the system cannot find the file specified". At this point I don't know if the driver somehow broke, or some malware is preventing me from accessing the driver and using it, or even that the actual hardware of the reciever simply burnt out. I though I'd ask the experts before simply going out and buying a newer, hopefully more compatible wireless access card.

The wireless device I'm using at the moment is a Linksys Compact Wireless-G USB Adapter (model WUSB54GC V1.2), and my Windows 7 install is the ultimate edition. I'm hoping you folks might have some more ideas, because at the moment I'm fresh out. Thanks as always.

1. download the driver http://homesupport.cisco.com/en-us/w...SB54GC unzip the folder. downoad ver 1



2. manually install the drivers in the device manager windows.

click on the properties on the wireless adapter device. go to "drivers" tab. uninstall your driver (when you plug the wireless usb adapter windows automatically installs it's own drivers) uninstall the windows driver.



3.Manually update the driver. choose "let me pick.." click have disk. browse for the linksys driver you just downloaded in the drivers folder "rt73.sys" let it update.

The ONLY available driver download TAB (V1.2) is dated 2005 and is hence horribly out dated and essentially abandoned for purposes of W7:

Linksys by Cisco - WUSB54GC Support

You may have a fighting chance if you go to the chip set manufacturer’s site and/or read the assorted comments/guidance on potential W7 driver success in this matter:

Persistent Ramblings » Blog Archive » Installing WUSB54GC on Windows 7

Download the USB(RT2500USB) driver from ralinktech.com.

If you had version 3 it has a Windows 7 driver. I wonder if it would work with the version 1 device?

I think you would be best off to pick up a new one that has a Win 7 driver.

I've tried both the driver from the Linksys site and the manufacturers site as well. However, whenever I try to install either through the Device Manager it tell me that either my drivers are up to date (even if its the ones the card installs) or that "the driver was found but there was a problem installing it" with the problem being "the file was not found". At this point I almost feel it would be easier to simply buy a newer model, but my concern is that even a new card will have this problem because something on my system is blocking the device from installing. I tried plugging the card into this laptop, which is also running Win7, and it detected and installed fine.

I did manage to get my system to install the drivers correctly for the card once last night, but in the network adapters screen it still doesn't let me enable the device for network acess.Also, I noticed that when I first plug in the card after uninstalling the drivers for it, an unkown device also appears in the Device Manager in addition to the card.

If it was me I'd buy a new one. They are reasonably cheap from places like Amazon, NewEgg or TigerDirect, $25 to $35.

I don't like USB wireless devices. They usually work but I've had problems with them. I would buy a Wireless PCI card and a antenna, Good info here: Whats the best wireless adapter for a desktop?

So I went out and bought a new D-Link Wireless-N USB wireless card today (model DWA-130), and suprise suprise, it's having the exact same problem. The drivers install just fine for this one, but when I try to connect to a network none appear, and troubleshooting it tells me there might be a problem with the driver, even though it installed just fine. Clearly something is interfering with the cards on my system.

Is it possible to disable the default windows 7 connection manager and use the proprietary one that comes with the card, as trying to open it now will only flash up the windows connection manager, which is useless so far.

On previous card:

tried plugging the card into this laptop, which is also running Win7, and it detected and installed fine.

How does the DWA-130 work in your laptop? That would eliminate a fault card.


Maybe your security software (firewall?) is interfering with your driver install or need to try install with (formal) admin rights:

Run as Administrator - Windows 7 Forums

Sorry that didn't help, hopefully you can return it.

As VopThis said, try disabling the Windows Firewall via Control Panel. If that doesn't help disable your anti-virus.
Only do this for testing purposes. If doing so to either resolves the problem then need to figure out how to allow the router to work with the firewall or your AV software.

I tried disabling both, but there was no change. The DWA-130 also works fine with the laptop. I noticed that it also adds an unknown device to the device manager in addition to the card when I plug it in on my computer.