Current mood:	annoyed
Entry tags:	drivers, linksys, wifi, wmp54g, xp x64 edition

Linksys WMP54G in Windows XP x64 Edition
So, you're running Windows XP x64, perhaps after a disastrous stint with the 64-bit Windows Vista, and you're happy except you want to add a wireless card and you're finding that most on the market don't support your OS. I had a similar experience recently that had me buying 2 different cards, only to find that they aren't supported. First was a D-Link WDA-1320, and after the experience of being told by support that they simply won't ever provide a driver, I was a little more careful in choosing the next card, a Linksys WMP54G. I'd read several reviews of people who'd gotten it to work, so I bought one.



So, I get the thing home, and I try to do an install, and I end up in the same spot as before. Software didn't install, no driver offered for XP x64. After getting a nearly identical brushoff from their phone support, I go back and read some more posts online about the issue. It seems that people are recommending the driver supplied by the card's chipset manufacturer, RALink. I grab the latest RT61 driver and try to install it, but the Windows install routine can't find the card.

What really pisses me off about this is that anyone who's actually gotten this to work has to have known that this is not all there is to it. I looked at the RT61.inf file that comes with the driver, and found that no Linksys cards were listed among the supported devices. I know my card is based on that chipset so I know it will work, and so I added my card to the list. Here's what I did, specifically.

Went to the Device Manager, and found my still-not-installed Wifi card under Network Adapters. It was obvious, since it has a yellow question mark symbol on the icon. I right-click the entry and select Properties. On the properties dialog, I selected the Details tab, and the one visible property shown under that tab is "Device Instance ID". I clicked on the value and hit Ctrl-Ins to copy it. The line looks like (all on one line):

PCI\VEN_1814&DEV_0301&SUBSYS_00551737&REV_00\4&14A7D9B9&0&4840

I then closed this dialog and opened C:\Program Files (x86)\RALINK\RT6x Wireless LAN Card\Driver\RT61.inf in a text editor, and made a couple insertions.

First, under the section [Ralink.NTamd64], I added the line:

%Linksys_0301.DeviceDesc% = RALINK_0301.ndi, PCI\VEN_1814&DEV_0301&SUBSYS_00551737

Notice that this does not contain all of the line copied from the Device Manager. The driver install routine is not concerned with anything from the &REV tag onward, so paste in what you copied and then delete from that point to the end. The line you paste should be the same length as the others in the file. If the DEV tag says something other than 0301, then I believe you'll want to use the corresponding "RALINK_xxxx.ndi" value.

Second, near the bottom of the file in the [Strings] section under "Device Description", add the following line:

Linksys_0301.DeviceDesc = "My Hacked Entry For Linksys WMP54G"

Save the file, and then make another attempt to install the driver for the device (right click on the device in Device Manager and select "Update Driver..."). Don't try an automatic install; you'll want to browse to the directory (C:\Program Files (x86)\RALINK\RT6x Wireless LAN Card\Driver) specifically. The install should work correctly from this point on, and the RALink software should then be able to find the card. In fact I'm using mine as I post this.



Let me also add that this sort of thing makes me even more ticked that Linksys does not support XP x64 with this card. It would have required no extra software development on their part; RALink has obviously done all the work already.