Well I’m frustrated. When we moved into this house, we planned for one of the bedrooms to be the office / sewing room. What we didn’t realize was that there isn’t a phone or cable outlet in that room. Cable may not sound essential, but we have a cable modem, and we had planned to put the router in there. So no cable, no router. And getting cable and phone in there means Beau Hunk has to go into the attic and run wires down the walls. We’re not ready to do that just yet.
So plan B was reached – instead of connecting the desktop to the router via ethernet, I bought a wireless card to put in the box, and we left the router in the living room on top of the TV. I ordered a Netgear WG311 on Amazon for a decent price and free shipping. Done. I installed the card on Saturday, and it was a pain in the ass from moment one.
First it wouldn’t find my network. When I finally got that solved, it kept dropping the connection. Then when I would try to shut down to re-establish the connection, the computer wouldn’t shut down right. When I did get it shut down, when it restarted, it wouldn’t find the connection again. I repeat, a total pain in the ass.
I got the connectivity and network finding problems solved, but then realized that every time the machine tried to go to standby or hibernate, Windows would hang. When I knew for a fact that the Netgear network software was the problem, I called the helpline.
Which of course, was of minimal help. The first thing the person suggested was that I try the card in another box. What the fuck? It’s not like I have a stable of boxes just sitting around. So, no. Then he told me that the card doesn’t work because I have an AMD processor, not an Intel. You’re fucking kidding me.
I ask you, does this page dedicate a single word to saying that this product isn’t compatible with AMD processors? And of course, I’m too much of a dumbass to have gone to Netgear’s product page to have looked at the full product description that includes this vital nugget of information. (I am also apparently too much of a dumbass to look at the reviews, most of which say “don’t buy this product!!!”. Guess I could have noticed that before I bought!) At this point, I don’t know if I’m more disgusted at Amazon for leaving it off, or me for trusting their description over that of the manufacturers. But since it’s easier to blame Amazon for my stupidity, I’ll just aim my indignity their way.
But there’s one part of this for which I can’t even pretend to blame anyone else. This card came with a $10 rebate. So yesterday I got all industrious and filled out the paperwork, cut the UPC off the box and sent off for my ten bucks. Amazon doesn’t take returns of items that are missing UPC codes. Argh!! I think I just fucked myself for $10.
Now I’m stuck with a card that works for the most part, but won’t let my computer standby, hibernate or shut down. I’m going to do try uninstalling it tomorrow and see if I can make it work with just the drivers and not the Netgear software. If that doesn’t work, I guess I have to buy a new card. Oh yay. I guess that’s what I get for being all efficient with my rebates.
Well, that and being a dumbass.