Blue Screens on 8.1 Pro with current drivers for TL-WDN4800 v1

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Blue Screens on 8.1 Pro with current drivers for TL-WDN4800 v1

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
Blue Screens on 8.1 Pro with current drivers for TL-WDN4800 v1
Blue Screens on 8.1 Pro with current drivers for TL-WDN4800 v1
2015-01-06 04:32:06
Region : UnitedStates

Model : TL-WDN4800

Hardware Version : V1

Firmware Version :

ISP :


I've been experiencing blue screens (bugchecks / BSODs) on a system running Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit with a TL-WDN4800 v1 PCI card installed. The interesting thing about the blue screens was that they occurred exactly once every 24 hours after the last system boot.

It took me a while to narrow the problem down to the driver for the TP-LINK wifi card. I had more blue screens while I was trying to uninstall the driver.. I had to remove it in safe mode. The card is now using the generic atheros driver (athw8x.sys) offered by Windows and I haven't had any more blue screens since then.

I was using the current driver for it (link), dated 5/6/2014, which officially supports Windows 8.1. (I installed the driver only, not the TP-LINK software.) The blue screens didn't occur until after the most recent Microsoft upates / patches that went out on December 17 2014 -- I suspect something in those updates broke something with that driver.
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#1
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Re:Blue Screens on 8.1 Pro with current drivers for TL-WDN4800 v1
2015-01-06 13:37:34
https://www.atheros.cz/atheros-wireless-download.php?chipset=65&system=8

For windows 8.1 x64.
Official driver from Atheros
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#2
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Re:Blue Screens on 8.1 Pro with current drivers for TL-WDN4800 v1
2015-01-06 14:58:56

coca koala wrote

https://www.atheros.cz/atheros-wireless-download.php?chipset=65&system=8

For windows 8.1 x64.
Official driver from Atheros


Thanks for the link. Are you suggesting I should use the Atheros driver instead of the driver supplied by TP-Link?

Is there a known issue with the current TP-Link driver for the WDN4800?
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#3
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Re:Blue Screens on 8.1 Pro with current drivers for TL-WDN4800 v1
2015-01-06 15:29:54
No known issues. TP-LINK's official driver is also provided by Atheros, but now Atheros release a newer driver.
As the problem occurs after system update, I think the new driver worth a try. Uninstall the old driver first and then install the newer one.
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#4
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Re:Blue Screens on 8.1 Pro with current drivers for TL-WDN4800 v1
2015-01-06 15:41:09
I see. As I mentioned in my first post, I uninstalled the TP-Link driver because it gave me problems.

I am using the generic / WQHL Atheros AR938x driver that comes with Win 8.1. I am going to go with your suggestion and try the newer atheros driver though, the one supplied by Microsoft has a timestamp from May 2013.

Thanks!
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#5
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Re:Blue Screens on 8.1 Pro with current drivers for TL-WDN4800 v1
2015-01-10 16:01:26
Just to confirm, the newer wqhl atheros driver for the AR938x chipset works fine, while the older one from the TP-LINK support page does not.
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#6
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Re:Blue Screens on 8.1 Pro with current drivers for TL-WDN4800 v1
2015-01-12 18:11:30
Nice, :cool:
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#7
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