Atheros Wireless N Card - Page 4

Cool,

I'm making some headway in the driver mod.
I've modded the INF so it now can transfer files at full speed and no Parity errors.
This is not stable yet as it after while goes into slug mode 2% max of 300Mbps

I did manage to install the Gigabyte driver and it worked.
But this is also very unstable, I cannot get it installed again without errors
My modded INF way looks to be the fastest as I can get up to 28% of 300Mbps bandwidth, where as the proper driver only gives 18%
This would give me slightly higher throughput over the broadcom card.
This is all very frustrating.
I see at notebookreview there is a huge thread on Parity errors and Gigabyte WLAN cards, athough no fix though.

1:10am now, best get me to bed and do some more work tomorrow.

Thanks for all the work pieter,

I wish these systems played better with the cards.
I guess I will hold off for a while (still waiting for the release of the DIR-855 router, so no rush on my end).

I was wondering if people are having the same/simmilar issues with the SparkLAN WPEA-214N based on the same chipset?

D.
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Just made some progress with the Gigabyte CD.

Because I'm running Vista x64 the CD won't autorun as OS is not compatable.
This will then mean you need to do the install manually.
Here is what I found:

If you point the 'Found new driver' to the driver files it will install happily.
BUT here is where the problems begin, parity error when the WLAN card get even a little busy.

If you run the Utility installer from the N300 directory as I did, same thing happens Parity errors.

Here is how to fix or avoid the parity error problems:
If you have a driver still installed even the one that Widows finds after uninstalling one, REMOVE this also.
You should be left with Windows wanting install a driver.
Now reboot.
Once rebooted, Windows will still be wanting to find the driver again (or it might be a yellow triangle in the device properties.
Now run the Demo32 app (in the /bin/ directory) point it to the file it looks for in the same dir.
Now install drivers.
And you now have a working driver.

Now the odd thing Celly is if I now update to the newer driver .73 the parity errors come back for me.
I do believe you can update to the newer drivers.
The installer must do somethng in the registry.
I cannot break into the installer (I'm very good a this) but it does expand it's self in the temp dir.

I have made a driver that works (really fast) wth the latest driver.
But after standby it goes really slowly.

When checking the PCI list in the system properties the Gigabyte shares the same IRQ as the one of the chipset components.
This is where the inpsiron might be getting all the problems from.
I did see a huge thread at notebookreview with mostly inspirons and the parity error.

But the card works in Vsta x64
The above will probably also apply with Vista x86.

[UPDATE]
Forget what I said, it only works for a while, then more Parity errors.
Bugger, curses and profanities ^%#&^%$#%#

Pieter, you my friend are an extreme modder to say the very least

Is there a driver in the world you haven't somehow modded yourself?

I'm sure there must be a driver I've missed somewhere

I've now got the Gigabyte in my Toshiba A100-912.
It works in here with Vista, although when I upgrade to the .73 driver the link becomes really slow.

I also had a hell of a job getting it to hook up on 11a, finally worked after about a dozen attempts.
11g works better.
Not too impressed with this card, not having done any speed tests yet, but it feels slower.

Do you have a multiport router ?
Are you able to hook up another machine to your router ?
Set it up as a server (enable file sharing)
Then on your Gigabyte based lappy grab a file from the other machine, then
Do a ctl+alt+del and task manager then networking.
Now keep an eye on the % networking used.
You should be getting around 18-28% (I am anyway, hopefully more)
With the .42 drivers I get 18% this is quite slow compared to the broadcom which does 50%
With my modded driver I can get it to 28%
It will be intersting to see what someone else gets.

I have a feeling that doing a Vista review might not be pretty for this card.

I would just like to see what someone else gets, the card seems so slow in file transfers.
I don't do much file transfering either, but in my review I'd best do some benchies of real life performance.
Surfing only uses about 2% Utilization even with all my Vista x64 issues I could still surf happily but file transfers would take forever.
I may have a faulty card, if your % is getting close to 50%

In Windows XP I get a lofty 9% network Utilization, this is terrible.
But having the Client utility makes hooking up to the router a breeze.

Not sure if I should review this card or not.
As I have a feeling that the Broadcom is going to kick it's butt severely.
I have tried it on 2 machines with fresh OS installs and same slow results.

Atheros's vista driver is very flaky, have you tried any XP machines?

Atheros hasn't ported over there Client Utlity for Vista 32 let alone vista 64.

The reason we get month windows update drivers is they have alot of work ahead to make there cards run as good in XP.

I have been following this since the Vista beta's

This is a real bummer to hear as I was hoping this card would be the one to buy.
But, as it is giving the same exact problem as my previous gigabyte card I may have to wait.
Has anyone else tried the SparkLAN WPEA-214N based on the same chipset to see if it gives the same problems?
I am tempted to go ahead and get it on the off chance it will work, but I suspect that the atheros chipset is do blame, not the manufacturer.
(Plus the shipping to Japan will take longer than I would like).

So, if anyone else has tried the other card based on the same chipset, I would love to hear how that is going.

Oh and pieter, thanks for all the hard work it save people like me the same headache!

D.

No worries, just nice to do something different to nVidia driver modding.

As it happens I'm getting sent a SparkLAN WPEA-214N direct from Taiwan.
This will be very interesting to test, hopefully it will behave better than the Gigabyte.

I've been playing with the WinXP (6.0.3.94) drivers in Vista x86, at first I thought salvation.
But after some tests the Parity error came back, only happens every now and then, and only in file transfering.

For the the XP drivers to work in the first place, I had to install the Vista drivers via the installer then downgrade to the XP drivers.
Doing a direct XP driver install caused a BSOD, then when uninstalling it the BSOD would happen again.
All this was in the Toshiba A100.
I was getting good benchmarks from the tests I managed to get done.
65Mbps is quite a boost over the 54Mbps I get from the Broadcom.
This card has huge potential, I think Atheros need to get the drivers sorted for Vista.

I've given up on this card in anything but Vista x64, I'm so close to a fully working driver.
Just some tiny niggly problems.
Even got the Network Utilization up over 40% now.
This will keep me amused till the SparkLAN turns up.

I have a feeling the SparkLAN uses the 5418 Chipset, might even be the card that Apple uses for the Macs.
I think the Gigabyte 106N uses the 5416 Chipset both are 5008 series.
The 5418 doesn't have any driver support yet, so there is a chance i may have to do some modding to even get this to work.
But time will tell.

But I must say that OxfordTec have been great through all this.
I would most certainly deal with these guys again for my WIFI needs.

Cool to hear.
If once you get the SparkLan WPEA-214N you find that it tests good, please let me know where you got it from as shipping from Taiwan should be cheaper for me in Japan than from the states.

Look forward to hearing your results.

D.

Hey pieter... just for giggles, take one stick of your RAM out if you are using two. Then run some tests. Your parity error may just go away (Just an observation I have made over the years here, call it a hunch?)

If that is true, then why does the memory parity error go away when switching to a different brand wireless card (but still keeping the same memory in?) Just my observations D.

I think I know what is causing the problem.

The PCIe bus that the miniPCIe card is controlled by is the SMBus Controller 27D4.
This on my system has a I/O conflict with a system component @ address 10C0-10DF.

What this basically means is the PCIe controller has a problem with the motherboard but only when the Gigabyte or maybe quite a few Atheros cards are inserted.
I can stop the Parity errors by setting pcieAspm to either 0 or 2 (bit 1 causess the error)
pcieAspm is Active State Power Management, or this reads the power state from the PCIe device.
The default is for L0 to be read, but I need L1 to be read or not at all to stop the Parity errors.
i just don't know if this is an Atheros problem, Dell problem or an Intel problem or even all the above.

My brain slowly fills with useless information, if I could only modify what resources the SMBus controller used (like you used to be able to do with older OS's)

Kraziepop, no laptops use Parity checking RAM so the parity error is not caused by the Memory bit another device could be corrupting the RAM in either the cache or somewhere else.
Good thought though.

Finally got some figures from the Gigabyte.

Installed another fresh Vista x86.
Installed v6.3.0.94 with a modded INF to get some better speed from the card.
I did NOT install the drivers of the CD at all went straight to 'new device found, locate drivers bla bla'....
Not a single Parity error for hours

40Mhz bandwidth test are up and here
Review will be up later.

But if you use Vista x64 avoid this WLAN card, it will probaby not work as it should especially on a Dell i9400/E1705.
I also recommend to avoid the Vista drivers in Vista x86 as on 2 machines this caused party errors (Intel Chipset based)
This could be fixed with SP1.

Vista x86 and Win XP this card has potential, but the unwary should be wary as it may need some knowledge to troubleshoot any issues.

At close range the Gigabyte gets 65Mbps vs Broadcoms 54Mbps.
After 10m the Broadcom does a little better as the Atheros just drops speed even though it still maintains a 300Mbps connection.
The Atheros has all sorts of little quirks.
I have the router at about 1.5m off the ground and I sit on a couch, if I test the router at 3m with the height difference there is a big speed difference.
The broadcom does better here, no difference.
At 20m through 2 walls the Atheros performs better then @ 15m with 1 wall, although a different wall.

I'll not keep this card myself my Wife can have this in her D820 as she's on XP pro.
I'm sticking with Vista x64 and the broadcom for now.
Hopefully at the end of next week the Sparklan arrives and I can bring better news.

Thanks for the update pieter.

I hope the sparklan fares better.

Looking forward to that review.

D.