Over the last year I purchased several hardware components (monitors and keyboards specifically) that had rather large stickers proclaiming they were "Certified for Windows Vista". Since I'm still running XP I didn't give it too much thought, I figured it was just there to assure the computer illiterate. (Plug and play, am I right?) However, a recent "issue" with a new build finally opened my eyes.

The computer in question, due to the nature of the cable jacks in the house, had been using a desktop wireless card (A Belkin F5D7000) for internet connectivity. This card worked fine when this old PC was using XP. never had any signal problems, etc... It also worked well when originally installed on the new computer/Vista build. The rule of thumb is always to use the latest drivers, right? In this case it would be the "8 series" drivers for this card. On Belkin's website it specifically said it supported Vista.

Fast forward to a few weeks after the build (last week), the signal was randomly dropped. Disconnecting and reconnecting to the wireless network seemed to work, but after a few minutes it was dropped again. The time it was functional was always random and always short. Considering that the whole purpose of this computer was for non computer savvy people to check their email and do a small bit of gaming, this was incredibly frustrating. Not only for them, but for me, who was called in to "fix" the problem every five minutes. The conversation always went something similar to this:

Quote

I can't even begin to diagnose the issue if I can't recreate the problem. I finally just sat and watched and was absolutely amazed at what I saw (the following repeated itself every time I reconnected manually within a time-span of 5 minutes).

>Connected successfully.
>Works perfect for a random bit of time.
>All of a sudden network drop, cannot identify, etc...

Anyone who has done any home networking for any length of time knows that just doesn't happen for no reason. Running through a list of the possible culprits:

>Router issue
>Signal issue
>Card issue
>Driver issue

Unfortunately I approached it in this exact order. I ended up redoing the network (which was good, finally put WPA on it) and ensured the signal was getting to the other side of the house. After wasting the afternoon on an ultimately frivolous pursuit, I checked out the card/driver situation. A quick Google search led me to several reviews/complaints of this card's compatibility with Vista (in particular certain driver versions advertised to work did not).

I hate this. If your product or driver description says it works with X, Y or, Z it had better work with X, Y, or Z. Even as a programmer/tech savvy individual, I don't have the resources to hand-write drivers for a desktop wireless card. That's the worst part, knowing exactly what the problem is and unable to fix it.

As it turns out the "7 series" drivers were reported to be quite stable with Vista. I am happy to report that the card has been stable/operating flawlessly since the driver change/rollback.

I have the time, patience, and resources to solve this type of problem. What if someone else had this issue and didn't know how to approach/solve it? They take their computer to a shop and lose functionality while the tech their diagnoses the problem?

Moral of this story:

Manufacturers, make sure your hardware/software works!