My laptop, wireless card and VPN Client aren't playing nice.

April 26, 2007 8:52 PM

My laptop, wireless card and VPN Client aren't playing nice.

I recently did a reformat of my laptop and changed from Windows Server 2003 to Windows XP. It is a Dell Latitude X200, if that changes anything. My NetGear WG511v2 wireless card worked fine until I installed a Cisco VPN Client. I've tried to remedy this, but if the VPN is installed, the wireless card cannot be plugged into the computer without starting an endless cycle of Blue Screens of Death and constant reboots. The same combination worked perfectly fine when the laptop was running Server 2003.

An error message tells me that there is a hardware issue, but I can't work out why. I've tried reinstalling drivers, rolling back drivers, installing them in different orders, operating the card with and without the NetGear wireless wizard, and disabling the VPN from automatically booting on startup. I've also checked (and double checked) the Device Manager, and it says that everything is properly installed, until I install the VPN and then it disables the wireless card after I reboot in safe mode and normal mode after the aforementioned Blue Screens of Death.

Is there any hope of fixing this, or should be prepared to fork out for a new card?

posted by cholly to computers & internet (4 comments total)

What is the BSOD message? Do you have the Cisco VPN client set to allow VPN before logon? Do you have the card set to "Use Windows to Configure Wireless Network", or are you using the NetGear utility? What version of the Cisco VPN client are you using?
posted by stovenator at 1:29 AM on April 27, 2007

Also, just considering you moved from Windows 2003 server to Windows XP: Did you install the Windows XP versions of the softwware for the VPN client and wireless card? Sometimes support for different OS's is packaged in the same software, sometimes it's not.
posted by poppo at 3:40 AM on April 27, 2007

It really will be easier to troubleshoot if you can get us the error message from the Blue Screen.

My only previous experience with a bluescreen and Cisco VPN was caused by the "Start Before Logon" feature replacing the GINA.dll in the registry. Take a look at :

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Winlogon\GinaDLL

If that is CSGina.dll, try erasing this entry. Then remove and reinstall the Cisco VPN client.
posted by stovenator at 12:21 PM on April 27, 2007

The error message essentially states that there is a hardware issue and the laptop will reboot as a result. Most of the time it is not even on long enough for me to read it.
posted by cholly at 10:51 PM on April 27, 2007