Desktop Problems with ASUS USB-AC56 Wireless Adapter

Status
Not open for further replies.

thunderpanda

Reputable
Aug 28, 2014
12
0
4,510
In short, my wireless adapter is not working on my desktop, on a wifi network that not a single other device has had any problems with. Additionally, this specific adapter was tested on another computer and worked perfectly.

System specs:
- custom desktop
- Windows 7 64bit.
- Gigabyte P55A-UD6 intel Motherboard
- Intel 875k i7 processor
- Corsair 750w PSU

Wifi Router (I'm positive this is not the issue as other wifi networks are affected)
- Linksys AC1900

Wireless Adapter: ASUS USB-AC56
- Works fine on my Windows XP Lenovo T60 Laptop

Adapter Driver (According to device manager): Version 1026.6.1217.2013 from Realtek Semiconductor Corp.


Symptoms
- Cannot connect to most wireless networks.
- When connecting to primary network, it tries for a while, then says maybe the password is wrong (Which seems to be what it says no matter what when it fails)
- Password is definitely correct (Quadruple checked, and used other devices successfully after re-entering the same password)
- Other devices including phones and laptops connect perfectly, every time to this network
- Even a laptop, literally using this exact adapter, worked perfectly on this network
- I did successfully get it to connect to my Galaxy S4 phone being used as a hotspot, and that for some reason worked, though they were inches from each other.

Other important, strange symptoms:
- Computer will not shut down with adapter plugged in. The moment I unplug the adapter, it finishes shutting down
- Same goes for starting up. Screen goes blank after windows loading screen unless I unplug it
- Can't finish uninstalling drivers for the adapter, while the adapter is plugged in. The moment I unplug, it finishes.
- USB flash drives don't appear, or appear VERY slowly when plugged in, if the adapter is also plugged in. Again, the moment I unplug it they work fine.
- A bunch of other random system related things don't work until I unplug the adapter

So I don't know what's up... Seems to me to be some kind of conflict, but I can't figure out what it would be. It is very very frustrating though... I have this new router and it works amazingly and every device connects perfectly to it, except my work desktop, the only one even using an adapter that can fully utilize the power of the wifi.
 
Solution
Absolutely. Anytime there is a hardware issue a BIOS update, if it addresses that issue, is a good thing to do. I didn't previously suggest it as USB support isn't USUALLY an issue as far as the bios goes. Anyhow, I'd update it. And you shouldn't need to update several revisions, just update your bios to whatever version is the most recent version.
In device manager double click network adapters, go up to view and select show hidden devices, right click on any wireless adapters including the current adapter and select uninstall and make sure to check the box that says uninstall device drivers as well. Do all of this with the adapter unplugged. Reboot and then reinstall the most recent drivers for the device located here:

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wireless/USB-AC56/DR_USB_AC56_102362252013_Windows.zip (ASUS driver, not realtek driver. The Realtek hardware component may be used in multiple devices and have differences from ASUS application of the hardware component.)

 

thunderpanda

Reputable
Aug 28, 2014
12
0
4,510


Hmmm this didn't seem to work either. I couldn't even get to the point where I could select a network to connect to. While looking at my network devices, I would plug in the adapter, and it would just hang there for a while. Nothing would work. And again, things like plugging in / out a usb drive would have no effect while the adapter was plugged in. The second I unplugged it, the device would show up in the network connections list, only to disappear immediately after (since now it's actually disconnected).

What's weird is I don't see the driver in the "Network Adapters" list in the device manager, even when displaying hidden ones. I think I installed it right, I had to use a PnPUtil command line command since there is no executable or anything in that driver you linked me too, and it said the driver was installed successfully.

I also didn't see the previous driver in the list beforehand, so I used the uninstall wizard contained on the cd that came with the adapter. I guess it's possible it left something, but I don't know how to find it if it's not showing up in the device manager!

Anyway, sadly that did not work :( Thanks for the help though! Any other suggestions?

 
Maybe the adapter is not the core problem. Try going into device manager and under Universal serial bus controllers there will be about four or five different "types" listed in there. Right click on one from each "group" and select update drivers and then automatic update and let windows see if possibly there are updated drivers available. Also, if you have any devices in device manager with an exclamation or question mark next to them we need to get that addressed as it might be related, in the even there are any.

 
You might also try disabling IPv6 in networking. Since the adapter works in you XP system, which does not use IPv6, perhaps it's possible that on your windows 7 unit the adapter IS trying to use IPv6 and possibly your router doesn't support it or has it disabled. Just another thought.
 

thunderpanda

Reputable
Aug 28, 2014
12
0
4,510
I think you are right, I don't think it's an issue with the physical adapter itself, but rather the way my computer is handling it. I also don't think it's a problem with the router, as I have major issues all over the place, just having the adapter plugged in, well before I even attempt connecting to a network.

So it's definitely my computer. I tried doing the automatic driver updates on my USB groups, it said they were all up to date.

I should note, however, that I've had problems with my USB on this computer in the past. I had an issue where flash drives would disconnect after about 10 or 15 seconds of file transfers. I believe that certain drives I never solved it for, while other flash drives work fine as long as I'm using the usb 3.0 ports. Either way, it points to an issue with my chipset I believe. I don't think there have been new drivers for it in years unfortunately.

And I do have one, single device which hasn't installed properly and has a yellow exclamation point. It is under "Other devices" and it is the "Marvell 91xx Config ATA Device". It has been saying this for years, and it never successfully installs a driver.
 
You tried right clicking on it and selecting update driver, update automatically? If you haven't tried it for a while try it again. There may be native windows drivers available for it that were not available in the past or just updated Microsoft approved drivers.

Do you have a SATA controller add in card installed in one of your PCIe slots on the motherboard? If you haven't had the case open, take a look. I think I have the drivers for your device but I need to know if you have the marvell add in card or if it's integrated to the motherboard.
 

thunderpanda

Reputable
Aug 28, 2014
12
0
4,510
Yep, I tried on everything listed under Universal Serial Bus Controllers. No luck, it said they were all up to date.

And no, I haven't installed any add-in cards; it's built in to the motherboard!
 
After a bit of research I found some information and it seems the two issues may be related. Since the SATA drivers are an integral part of the chipset design and are all tied in together it seems instability or lack of accurate driver information in one may affect the other. The Marvell device is a SATA controller needed to properly operate non-ide drives and other Serial hardware. More likely than not the onboard controller in the BIOS is set to IDE instead of AHCI and it needs to be set to AHCI for the Marvell drivers to work correctly. Go into BIOS and see if you can change the controller type to AHCI. It may require reinstalling windows to change this but in some cases it can be done after installation.

http://pricklytech.wordpress.com/2014/02/04/windows-8-1-enabling-ahci-after-installing-windows/
 

thunderpanda

Reputable
Aug 28, 2014
12
0
4,510
Oh, no, I am unable to update the driver for the Marvell device. It says it is unable to find a driver.

And it looks like in my BIOS, my main settings was already set to AHCI, though two settings, eSATA ctrl mode and GSATA ctrl mode were set to IDE, so I changed them to AHCI. Didn't make a difference.
 
Here is the Marvell console driver. You should be able to see the device installed under storage controllers instead of being a remarked device after installation. It might not fix the other issue with the usb, but it might. In any case it's never good to have incompletely or incorrectly installed hardware so try it and see what happens. This is directly from the Gigabyte page for your board.

http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Driver/motherboard_driver_marvell_console.exe
 

thunderpanda

Reputable
Aug 28, 2014
12
0
4,510
The Marvell Console driver install went well and I am no longer seeing any errors in my device manager, which is great. BUT, unfortunately it didn't seem to affect the wireless adapter at all, same problems :/
 

thunderpanda

Reputable
Aug 28, 2014
12
0
4,510
Definitely progress, I appreciate it! I feel like if I could find better drivers for USB, that might be the best thing to try... I can't seem to find any newer for my chipset though.

I'm also looking at just going with a different brand adapter and hoping that works... It's giving up, I know, but... Might run out of options soon here!
 
I'm sure you don't want to hear this, but if you installed windows 8.1 with the classic shell so it looks and acts like windows 7 but with the hardware support of windows 8, you wouldn't be having this problem. But, I also understand not everybody has a copy of windows 8 laying around. Heh. I'll keep trying to find drivers that work.
 

thunderpanda

Reputable
Aug 28, 2014
12
0
4,510
Hah thanks... I guess I'll consider windows 8. But I fear change, so there's that...

And thanks for the link. It got me thinking about trying different drivers for everything, and then also got me thinking about my motherboard BIOS version.

According to my registry, I am running the following BIOS version:

GBT - 42302e31 Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG

The BIOS date listed is 7/14/2010. I found this page on the gigabyte site: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3234#bios
that has all the BIOS versions listed. There are a couple newer ones than that, including one which claims to have better USB3.0 compatibility. Do you think it's worth trying to try and flash a new version? The gigabyte site makes it sound kind of risky, so they suggest not doing it if you don't absolutely need to.

What do you think?
 
Absolutely. Anytime there is a hardware issue a BIOS update, if it addresses that issue, is a good thing to do. I didn't previously suggest it as USB support isn't USUALLY an issue as far as the bios goes. Anyhow, I'd update it. And you shouldn't need to update several revisions, just update your bios to whatever version is the most recent version.
 
Solution

thunderpanda

Reputable
Aug 28, 2014
12
0
4,510
Okay I'll work on that.

Also, I noticed something interesting while messing with drivers... Whenever I have the adapter plugged in and I check out its drivers in the device manager, it's always the same two drivers; a realtek one and a Microsoft one. I can't ever get it to display the drivers from the manufacturer. Is this normal?

I also have an issue, if the adapter is plugged in, the driver installs just hang and never complete. Same goes for uninstalling. Running the automated setup from the disk DOES complete, though I don't think it really does anything since the drivers listed don't change.

Once I unplug the device, the install will usually say it has now completed, though, again, nothing changes. I even took steps to ensure Windows couldn't install its own drivers for the device. But when I did this, in the device manager, the device claimed it had no drivers at all. Even if I tried to manually specify one and install it, the install wouldn't finish unless I unplugged the device, and then again, it would claim it installed successfully. But then when I install it back in: Nothing. No drivers. I don't get it!
 
It seems likely you have an onboard wireless adapter that is interfering. Go into device manager and right click on the integrated wireless adapter and select disable. Then, install your device driver package again for the usb adapter. When it says plug it in, plug it in. A lot of the usb wireless adapters don't like the device to be plugged in until they tell you to. Try this though.

Download the following driver package and unzip it to a new folder on the desktop. Plug the adapter in (After disabling the onboard adapter) and go to device manager. See if the usb adapter is showing up there and if it is go to it's properties by double clicking the device. Click on update driver on the driver tab and then select browse my computer for drivers. Browse to the folder you unzipped the files to and find the correct .inf for your device. Follow the remaining prompts. Alternately, you can try just installing from the desktop folder you unzipped the files into but if you run into trouble with the installation you might have to do it the other way.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wireless/USB-AC56/DR_USB_AC56_102362252013_Windows.zip
 

thunderpanda

Reputable
Aug 28, 2014
12
0
4,510
Unfortunately I don't have an onboard wireless adapter, so that won't help me. And I've also tried what you described, it's still the same problem; the install hangs until I unplug the adapter. And it doesn't show up in the device manager unless it's plugged in. I've tried getting that dialogue up, unplugging the adapter, THEN trying to install the driver from a folder on my desktop, and it claims it installed it, but when you plug it back in it either says there is no driver if I have auto driver installs disabled, or if not, it just installs the same generic drivers.

I'm about to try the BIOS flash though, so maybe I'll get lucky with that. I'll keep you posted.
 

thunderpanda

Reputable
Aug 28, 2014
12
0
4,510


OMG it worked!!!!!!!!!!! I flashed the BIOS to the most recent version (turns out mine was really old), and it's working perfectly! It immediately recognized the device, and was able to connect no problem to my network. Additionally, all the problems with usb drives and whatnot hanging while it was plugged in have disappeared as well! I can't believe that actually worked... Whelp, thanks for your help, it is much appreciated.

It's funny, I've always updated all my drivers from the manufacturers site, but the BIOS update is on a different page, so I never thought to try that. Who knew!

And for anyone with the same issue, here is where you can get the BIOS update: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3234#bios

And an interesting note as well... The generic drivers still appear to be showing up in the device manager under this device. Maybe I'm confused about how drivers work, but either way, I'm just excited this is finally working. My laptop could really use a rest from all this tethering to my desktop!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.