Intel Core Duo Laptop 1.73GHz, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB HDD, dual booting Vista Home Basic & Windows XP Home SP3.

All was OK on my Vista laptop till a few days ago. Suddenly the built-in WLAN stopped working -- with a message about installing the driver for the hardware.

When trying to install the driver, Windows Vista gives the message :

"Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while trying to install it.
Atheros AR5005G Wireless Network Adapter.
The system cannot find the file specified."

Have tried to use an upgraded driver from the manufacturer's site, with the same results.


I've disabled the device, rebooted and tried again. Uninstalled the driver, rebooted, and tried again. And get the message :

"The best driver software for your device is already installed."

I've used a working Netgear Wireless USB adapter (which works perfectly on 2 other systems), but get the same result with it's own driver : "cannot find the file specified".

Then the same thing started happening with the driver for the built-in ethernet. I got the same message while trying to reinstall the driver, but after a reboot, it's now working.

The hardware seems to be OK -- the WLAN and the ethernet adapter both work fine with XPH on the same laptop.


Please, please help !!! Much appreciated.