Firmware upgrading?

milltown

Simple version, how's it done?
Long version, my wi-fi cards don't have native XP support. Because the desktop one is working through a PCI adapter I was able to use a different manufacturer's driver (Nortel cards = rebranded Symbol cards, Symbol have xp drivers) without any problem. The laptop card shows in device manager as a Nortel card and so won't let me install the symbol drivers. I got what appears to be a generic driver from windows update which seems to work well enough.
I'm thinking it's the firmware on the card that's identifying it as a Nortel (sound right?) and wondering if I can flash it with the Symbol firmware and have it recognised as a Symbol card. There is no utility for XP with the cards to upgrade the fimware so is it possible?

fatherdougalmag

I don't think you can do that.

You'll need to hack the INFs to achieve what you want. If I get you right, you've got a Nortel PCMCIA adapter in your laptop and you want to install the Symbol drivers for this card. If that's the case, here's what you need to do.

Note: these drivers are obviously rebranded. I don't know if they're Symbol devices rebranded as Nortel or vice versa. But the following will only work if both devices have the same plug-n-play ID (which they probably do).

Seeing that you've got it going on your desktop machine (how did you do that?) the easiest thing would be to copy the INF file that was used to install it there into the WINDOWS\INF directory on your laptop. To find out (on your desktop machine) which INF was used to install the device, you have to go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class

Here you'll find a list of device classes. You're interested in Network Adapter ({4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}). So open that key and, if you have more than one network adapter, you'll see instances of each network adapter enumerated starting at 0000. You should be able to pick out the Nortel one easy enough (just look at the DriverDesc field). When you find the correct key, you'll also find a field called InfPath. This is the INF used to install that device. So just copy this from the WINDOWS\INF directory on your desktop PC to the WINDOWS\INF directory on your laptop.

So now the WINDOWS\INF contains two INFs that support your wi-fi adpater. One of the INFs is for Nortel, the other (which you have just copied) is for Symbol. You'll need to repeat the above procedure on your laptop to determine the Nortel INF that was used to install the adapter on your laptop. Once you do that, find it and rename it in the WINDOWS\INF directory. Change the INF extension to IN_ or anything non-INF. Now, go to Device Manager on the laptop and remove the device. When it's finished, get Devicec Manager to re-detect new hardware or unplug-replug the PCMCIA adapter. This time round, it should use the Symbol drivers to install the adapter.

I did all that from memory/experience so let me know how you get on.

milltown

Cheers FrDougal I'll give that a go tomorrow.