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Cannot connect WNDA4100 with Windows 10!!!
I just upgraded to Windows 10 about 2 days ago and as soon as I upgraded, my WNDA4100 Network Adapter quit working. The LED's no longer light up when it is plugged in. I went to netgear's website and downloaded the latest firmware which says it is compatible with Windows 10. After I install the firmware, I go to device manager and click properties on the adapter and I get this error message:
Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)
{Unable to Load Device Driver}
%hs device driver could not be loaded.
Error Status was 0x%x
I have tried running the firmware install in windows 8 compatibility mode as that was suggested by other people, but it never finishes installation. It doesn't lock up, but nothing ever happens. Netgear is not willing to help me one bit cause it's older than 90 days, blah blah. If anyone else has the same trouble, I'd greatly appreciate some help. I am currently using a really long ethernet cord that stretches my living room. I really don't want to have to buy another adapter and with windows 10 being so new, idk what new adapter would even work.
I just updated to Windows10 and had a similar problem (driver works, but could not connect to 5Ghz). I dug through forums and found similar problems to mine (and possibly yours?).
This link has a nifty quick-fix, and possible reason as to why you are experiencing this problem.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-hardware/wnda4100-loses-5ghz-after-81-update/d7ea4ec7-d60c-4216-b611-b6803324897e?auth=1
If you don't want to read through it, I'll quote the specifics here:"Hey there,
I encountered this exact same problem this morning - I ended up finding a way around it after some research.
- Press the Windows + X key, then select "Device Manager" from the menu in the lower-left hand corner of your screen.
- Find your Netgear WNDA4100 adapter under "Network adapters." Right click it and select "Update Driver Software..."
- Select "Browse my computer for driver software."
- Click "Let me pick..."
- You should see one driver from Microsoft and one from Netgear. Select the one from Netgear, click Next, and follow the installation prompts.
If you do not see the driver from Netgear, navigate to their support site and download the standard Windows 8 driver. After installation, you should see both.
For whatever reason, 8.1 defaults to the Microsoft driver. After enabling the Netgear driver, you should have full access to the 5GHz band.
Hope this helps!"
With windows 10, this worked for me, only there's a few differences in the steps that I'll outline here,
For the list of drivers, you should see a few drivers listed for your netgear adapter, next to them will be little certificates. You should see at least one that says "NETGEAR WNDA4100 N900 Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter (NETGEAR Inc.)" Select this driver (I had 2 listed, so I used the topmost listed) and finish the install process. This should reset your adapter driver and allow you to connect to either of your networks using the genie software.
I hope this helps, as I am glad it fixed mine.
18 Replies
Unfortunately any version after 2013 will not work with windows 10, however build into windows 10 you could go back to update driver from device manager, select from browse my computer/ let me pick/ select the netgear driver only. this should get you rolling.
I just updated to Windows10 and had a similar problem (driver works, but could not connect to 5Ghz). I dug through forums and found similar problems to mine (and possibly yours?).
This link has a nifty quick-fix, and possible reason as to why you are experiencing this problem.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-hardware/wnda4100-loses-5ghz-after-81-update/d7ea4ec7-d60c-4216-b611-b6803324897e?auth=1
If you don't want to read through it, I'll quote the specifics here:"Hey there,
I encountered this exact same problem this morning - I ended up finding a way around it after some research.
- Press the Windows + X key, then select "Device Manager" from the menu in the lower-left hand corner of your screen.
- Find your Netgear WNDA4100 adapter under "Network adapters." Right click it and select "Update Driver Software..."
- Select "Browse my computer for driver software."
- Click "Let me pick..."
- You should see one driver from Microsoft and one from Netgear. Select the one from Netgear, click Next, and follow the installation prompts.
If you do not see the driver from Netgear, navigate to their support site and download the standard Windows 8 driver. After installation, you should see both.
For whatever reason, 8.1 defaults to the Microsoft driver. After enabling the Netgear driver, you should have full access to the 5GHz band.
Hope this helps!"
With windows 10, this worked for me, only there's a few differences in the steps that I'll outline here,
For the list of drivers, you should see a few drivers listed for your netgear adapter, next to them will be little certificates. You should see at least one that says "NETGEAR WNDA4100 N900 Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter (NETGEAR Inc.)" Select this driver (I had 2 listed, so I used the topmost listed) and finish the install process. This should reset your adapter driver and allow you to connect to either of your networks using the genie software.
I hope this helps, as I am glad it fixed mine.Well I have the exact problem but when doing your fix the Yellow exclamation mark disappears but after taking minutes it says that "This operation returned because the timeout period expired."
Still no lights on dongle. Still not detectable by genie.
I have 4 drivers listed and tried all of the 3 netgear ones and get the timeout with all.Please remember to uninstall the Netgear Driver from the programs on the computer (device manager). Pull your adapter off, shut down, re-install your adapter after restart and then go to device mgr/ update/ select browse my computer/ let me pick/ select Netgear Driver from the list.
Just the ticket! I followed your instructions, specifically the details in your note at the end, and it worked like a dream! Thanks for this .... much appreciated.
U r a genius!!!!! I had the same problem when updating to Win 10. I followed your directions and now have 5ghz frequency up and running....
Thank You
Hi,
I was having this exact same issue after searching through fourms and articals I found this one it solves this issue. It is a work around but does the trick. What you need to do is revert back to a prevous version of your drivers when your wifi actually worked. Check out this video walks you through perfectly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p84nq9mhvwM. Hopefully netgear fixes the "updated" drivers soon. Absolute garbage, but this should fix the issue, did mine.
Good luck
I am sooooo frustrated! Since upgrading to WIN10, my WNDA4100 hasn't worked. I've tried everything ... uninstalling, reinstalling, downloading Netgear's plug in for Win10 (which by the way is labeled Windows 10 but when downloaded has a Win-8 file folder label), etc. I went out and purchased a 100' ethernet cable so I can connect. After reading the comment about lack of support for products purtchased 90 days ago, I went out today and bought another 4100. Will call support to get it to work and will let you know the instructions if it does.
I'm having the exact same issue! Attempted to upgrade to the Windows 10 driver and now the genie program will not launch and the drivers do not install correctly. I've tried running the program in every combination of admin, compatibility, restarting, updating, removing, reinstalling, and even rolling back to previous versions of the drivers. It's utterly ridiculous that updating the driver completely killed my computer's wireless connectivity.