Windows 7 Atheros AR5008 (AR5BMB-0072TA) WLAN Driver Issue

GavinFowler said:

I recently installed Window 7 professional and had issues with an Atheros AR5008 WLAN Mini PCI card i purchased for my computer (yes my main PC motherboard has a mini PCI connection, identical to most older laptops). The AR5008 was purchased from ebay and the AR5008 model number quoted on the sellers site was: AR5BMB-0072TA.

The trouble I experienced was that my newly installed operating system would only install drivers designed for Windows XP not vista or windows 7. knowing this was not optimal for performance i wanted to understand why. After a number of converstaions I discovered that my Atheros Mini PCI AR5008 was from an Apple Mac - so my thoughts began to turn to whether this was an ar5008 clone for mac OS only.

Looking at the Hardware ID's in the device manger revealed: PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0023&SUBSYS_0087106B. Using the vendor id \"168C\" and the device id \"0023\" taken from the PCI\VEN earlier and using that with this lookup website: PCI Vendor and Device Lists, I discovered that the manufacturer was indeed Atheros. So I hadn't been sold a bad item, I knew my resolve was down to finding the windows 7 drivers.

I obtained the latest windows 7 drivers (Version: 8.0.0.171) from this url: Download Atheros AR50XX Wireless Vista/7 Driver v.8.0.0.171 | Catalog - X-DRIVERS.COM: eXtremly full software portal however after trying to install the new driver (device manager a right click and \"update device\") it just resulted in a windows message indicating \"you already have the latest driver installed\" - a statement i knew was incorrect, as i was running windows XP drivers.

Knowing a little bit about how windows driver inf files worked and doing some googling, i double check that PCI/VEN id (above) was in the netathr.inf file located in the \"www.x-drivers.ru_atheros_ar5xx_8.0.0.171-win7\32bit\" (an expanded directory from the above download) - I discovered it wasn't. so here's what i did to resolve.

1. Edit the file netathr.inf in the \"32bit\" folder and added new line to reflect the PCI\VEN hardware id we discovered above.

change (#1):

Code:

; Apple
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3072%     = ATHR_DEV_OS61_3072.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0024&SUBSYS_0087106B
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3062%     = ATHR_DEV_OS61_2062.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_001C&SUBSYS_0086106B
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3072%     = ATHR_DEV_OS61_3072.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0024&SUBSYS_00000000
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3091%     = ATHR_DEV_OS61_3091.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_002A&SUBSYS_008F106B

to:

Code:

; Apple
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3072%     = ATHR_DEV_OS61_3072.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0023&SUBSYS_0087106B
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3072%     = ATHR_DEV_OS61_3072.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0024&SUBSYS_0087106B
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3062%     = ATHR_DEV_OS61_2062.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_001C&SUBSYS_0086106B
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3072%     = ATHR_DEV_OS61_3072.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0024&SUBSYS_00000000
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3091%     = ATHR_DEV_OS61_3091.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_002A&SUBSYS_008F106B

change (#2):

This next step may be an unnecessary step - but I changed it all the same.

Code:

; Apple
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3072%     = ATHR_DEV_3072.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0024&SUBSYS_0087106B
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3062%     = ATHR_DEV_2062.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_001C&SUBSYS_0086106B
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3072%     = ATHR_DEV_3072.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0024&SUBSYS_00000000
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3091%     = ATHR_DEV_3091.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_002A&SUBSYS_008F106B

to:

Code:

 ; Apple
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3072%     = ATHR_DEV_3072.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0023&SUBSYS_0087106B
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3072%     = ATHR_DEV_3072.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0024&SUBSYS_0087106B
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3062%     = ATHR_DEV_2062.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_001C&SUBSYS_0086106B
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3072%     = ATHR_DEV_3072.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0024&SUBSYS_00000000
%ATHR.DeviceDesc.3091%     = ATHR_DEV_3091.ndi,     PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_002A&SUBSYS_008F106B

2. After saving the file, i returned to the device manager and updated the driver. NOTE because we manually changed the .inf file a warning indicating that the digital signature was invalid. To proceed you need to except the warning and continue with the driver installation.

If your experience matched mine, you will now have a windows 7 driver for your device installed. Since taking this action my internet has been stable and reliable. I do not have Win7x64 however I suspect the similar changes can be made to the .inf file in the \"64bit\" folder.

Gavin.

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