Wireless driver is eating my RAM

Drenlin

Drenlin

Active Member
So I'm running on an ancient Dell right now...2.8GHz P4, 1GB DDR RAM...integrated graphics. Normally only having one gig works fine, but the longer I leave it on, the more RAM my wireless card's driver eats up. I've seen it go as high as 350MB...which is more than a third of my available memory. Restarting clears it out, and puts it back around 30-40MB, but that's really inconvenient at times. The card is a Linksys WMP54G, which is fairly common, so I assume the problem is fairly common as well, but google's turned up nothing so far...halp?

I'd be happy if I could just make it dump its cache every so often, or even limit it, but I can't find a way to do either.
 
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You aren't using their wireless utility as well are you? Try reinstalling the driver, updated driver preferred, and get rid of their wireless utility and let windows manage the wireless.
 
Well the only way to get the driver is to use the disk to install it. I have version 4.51, and Linksys only has up to 4.1 on their site. I've tried the "add new hardware" thing, but Windows wouldn't find the driver on the disk OR on the web, so the only way to get wireless working was to install their monitor again. You can opt to use XP's wireless tool, but it doesn't shut of their monitor, which has no "exit" or "close" option. Killing it with task manager didn't work either...

I do know where the driver is on the disk, though. Is there a way to install it manually, without their monitor?
 
Install the driver normally and then just disable their utility from starting up in msconfig or you can install the driver manually. The driver should be in a folder on the cd.
 
Well, for some reason, it doesn't work when you disable the manager at startup, but it's holding a steady 6.5MB right now using XP's utility, and for some reason the icon isn't in the tray. I'm not sure what happened but I'm not complaining, haha. Thanks :)
 
You mean the windows wireless tray icon isn't in the tray? Goto network connections and right click on your wireless connection, click on properties, tick the box that says show icon in notification area when connected.

I hate using vendors wireless utility, I always let windows manage my wireless connection. One less program to use resources.
 
Nah, Linksys's icon was gone...however, two restarts later, it's come back. I've got it disabled and so far the driver is taking up 14MB...hopefully it'll stay like that? As long as it's not topping 350MB again, I'm good...

And I agree, it's not a pleasant tool to use. :(
 
i have the same card. i never never install their program anymore. when the computer says it doesn't know what it is(after a fresh install). i put the disk in and close all the autorun crap.then go to the device manager and tell it to update driver. and i pick where i want it to look. (cd drive) and a few minutes later there it is. i let windows do the network stuff. way better than the junk program on the disk. if i use the program it takes forever to connect to my router, but if i use windows it connects right away.

where did your do be do be do signature go. i liked that one.
 
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Heh, it was amusing, but it was waay overdone. I don't even know who came up with it. I decided to put something a bit more serious on there for a little bit...it's relevant to me. (It's the bridge from "Sixteen" by Demon Hunter)

So Windows will find the driver on your disk? Mine always fails...maybe I should keep trying?

What's odd is, I have another version of this card(in my brother's computer currently) that windows was able to identify within seconds with no disk. I wonder what the big difference is?
 
im sorry i told you wrong.my desktop has a WMP11 with a version 2.1 disk. my old laptop had the WMC54G as a PCMCIA card with a ver. 7.1 disk. i did the driver update through device manager with the disk tho and both worked out. i got my cards/letter/numbers mixed up

where at in ARK are you from?
 
Heber Springs...small town about an hour and a half N/NE of Little Rock. I've got family from the Memphis/North MI area though...where are you from?
 
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