Vista device manager driver update incorrectly says newest is installed

[Guest Cacadril]

My brother has a Fujitsu/Siemens Amilo with AMD Turion 64x2 processor

and an Atheros AR5005G wireless network adapter, running 32-bit Vista

Home Premium.

 

There appeared to be no way to make the wifi work. It did show the

list of available networks, but when he tried to connect, the message

was something like "connection failed" (in a different European

language). The system showed a button offering to diagnose the

problem, but then the diagnosis was "connection failed for an unknown

reason" (all mesages translated by me). After several failed attempts

I found the corresponding event log messages, which were promised to

contain a detailed analysis. However, the analysis read: "Reason

found. Reason: Failed for an unknown reason. Status code 1,

unspecified code."

 

The Ernest Hemingway Award hereby granted for high-quality, concise

and clear error reporting.

 

(Aside, Hey Microsoft: Why is it so difficult to find anything in the

event log? Why could I not just _search_ the log in free text, e.g.,

search for "Atheros"? Why not repeat the device hierarchy in the event

log UI, so one can filter on devices? Why not group the hundreds of

"event sources" into categories that a user can understand?

Prefereably with items appearing in multiple groupings if suitable. Or

link from device manager to the event log, with the appropriate filter

turned on. Why not make the listbox for event sources wide enough to

hold more than 10% of the source's name?. Why not naming the sources

XXX instead of "Microsoft Windows XXX" so "XXX" and not "Microsoft Wi"

is all that fits in the visible part? Why not enable the user to widen

the list? The dialog has inches of unused real estate to the right of

the listbox. The diagnosis translation above is off the top of my hat

because, after the problem was fixed, I could no longer find back to

the same event log messages.)

 

My brother found the device manager property dialog. The device was

"working correctly". The driver tab said the version was 7.0.0.xxx (I

have forgotten the last part). There was a button labeled "Update

Driver". Since the computer also has a wired network interface, he

tried. It took incredibly long, then it said the most recent driver

was already installed.

 

Browsing the net I found that a) Atheros boasts a single driver code

base for all its wifi devices, and b) another owner of a non-working

AR5005G told he had driver version 7.1.0.99, which he believed to be

the most recent available. In a response, he was told to upgrade to at

least 7.2.0.199.

 

I began searching the Atheros site for a definitive truth on the

issue, but the site does not seem to have driver download links!

 

The net seems to brim with apparently un-affiliated sites that offer

driver downloads for everything, including the AR5005G, but only for

ME, XP and 2003. I must say I feel reluctant to trust random unknown

websites to provide malware-free drivers! Drivers run at a high

privilege level! Eventually I found a link off the Atheros site to

some central European site that offered a Vista 32-bit driver with

version 7.3.1.25.

 

With this driver installed, the wireless works perfectly.

 

Regards