Kuthrow

Okay, first let me start off with a little background on whats going on. Broadband was just installed in my home (Previously unable to get it), and I've been working on setting up a wireless router so that my mother can use her laptop online while I use my desktop. Setting up the router was simple (D-link WBR-1310). However when i attempted to install the wireless card in my mothers laptop (Sony PCG-FR130, D-Link DWL-G630) I initially had a very difficult time getting the drivers to install from the disc, and in fact had to download drivers (connected the laptop to the router directly by cat5) to finally install them.

Something I noticed, and that my mother had mentioned to me before was that at times it seemed that the laptop would just sit idle for several minutes and do nothing. When I say nothing, I mean nothing, no processor nor hard drive activity, I've even tried watching the task manager while this happens and the processor sits at 0% activity. Anyway, I shrugged it off for the time being, and continued trying to set up the wireless card. But when I would load up the program for setting up a connection, it would just sit there and never really even attempt to find a connection.

Okay, I figure theres probably something wrong with the card, so my mother picks up a Linksys WPC54GS on her way home from work, and I get to trying to install it. When I go to install the drivers, I encounter the "lag" problem where it just sits there doing nothing for several minutes. Finally it installs, and I get to the software for finding a connection. No matter how many times I've tried rebooting/reinstalling the software when I get to this screen nothing happens. I've tried clicking the "manual setup" button, and nothing happens, not the slightest reaction.

So, I've decided that the problem most likely lies with the laptop itself, since I had a similar problem with both devices (also my mother stated she has seen the 'lagging' problem numerous times). Initially I thought this 'lagging' problem might be a problem with the CD/DVD drive, however I've encountered it several times when not using a CD. This morning I ran benchmarks on the processor & hard drive, but both seemed to show normal results, from what I could tell. I've also checked for viruses, but turned up nothing.

The only options I can think of as to what to do in attempt to fix the problems are a hard drive wipe, backing up the crucial files and reinstalling windows. But I think chances of this actual fixing the problem are...low. The only other thing I can think of to do would be to replace the laptop...but thats not financially possible at the moment.

This is all I can think of at the moment, hopefully someone smarter than me can use this information to help me out. And if anymore information is needed, I'll gladly oblige :)

PanamaGal

How much memory is in this laptop?

Kuthrow

256 MB

Kinda on the low side for XP, but I've seen plenty of people run XP on less. Also, I forgot to mention before. I've tried cutting out most of the unnecessary processes running in the background to see if it made any difference, and it didn't.

EDIT:
Okay, I just did a quick online search on the laptops model number, so I could do a quick copy/paste of the specs for you here to save you from having to do a similar search...and I got these results

"Specs: With 1.67-GHz Mobile Athlon XP 2000+, 512MB DDR SDRAM, 40GB hard drive, DVD/CD-RW combo drive, 14.1-inch XGA display, 3 USB 2.0 ports, 1 FireWire port, 7.5 lbs. system weight"

Now, you'll notice the specs list it as having 512MB of RAM, and I mentioned it having 256MB. Which I notice is...a problem. Before when I was running a series of tests on the laptop I noticed that the motherboard had 2 RAM slots, one had a 256MB card, the other showed nothing.

So, I'm now thinking that perhaps one stick of RAM has already died (2x256 sticks would have been 512), and now perhaps the second is failing as well? But I'm sure the test I ran showed no problems with the RAM...hmm, I shall run the test again and post the results in a minute.

EDIT 2:

Okay, I just ran the test again, and these are the results:
Integer Assignment: 8,908
Real Assignment: 9,177
Integer Split:12,895
Real Split: 12,669
(On a side note, I'm not too familiar with memory benchmarks, but the program I use has a listing of how different speeds of memory should perform, and thats what I based my earlier decision of 'seems to be running ok' on)

Kuthrow

Ah, I forgot to mention, and I'm just over the 30 minute time limit on editing, but the RAM is PC2100 DDR SDRAM(SODIMM).

EDIT:

Okay, hmm, I did some more looking around online over the past few minutes, and noticed that every other site I've seen with specs listed for the PCG-FR130 has it listed at 256MB of RAM, looks like that first one was misleading as the maximum amount is 512MB. So, nix on this whole line of "one stick of ram died, now maybe the other is too" Hurm... >.<

hwm54112

Welcome to TSF,

You may not need the drivers. Try using windows wireless zero to configure the wireless adapter. Start>run> services.msc. scroll down to wireless zero, right click on it>select properties. set it's startup type to automatic.

Unplug power cable from modem and router - wait one minute, plug in modem. wait another minute, plug in router. wait another minute, boot computer

You might want to try a USB adapter. I don't care for them but there is a possibility the pc card slot isn't working. You might try to uninstall/re-install the drivers for that first as well

For the lags, check your power settings

Kuthrow

Wireless zero was already running, but still to no avail, either using the drivers that came with the card, or going to the control panel, and going into the wireless conection properties. I just can't seem to get anything to show up. (I guess the next thing to try would probably be to check and make sure the wireless portion of the router is working and/or replace the router).

The computer does seem to at least recognize that the wireless card is there, and can tell what it is. So I would think that if it works enough to do that, then it should be functioning properly.

As for checking the power settings, I'm not sure exactly what I should be checking? If you mean the Power Options in the Control Panel. The settings for turning things off are all set to never. Other than that, I don't know of anything that might be causing the lags?

Kuthrow

I'm still having no luck with either the lagging problem or the wireless card, if anyone has any more suggestions? They'd be greatly appreciated.