TP-LINK WN861N defective?

replica9000 · 06-05-2012, 11:51 AM

I recently bought a TP-LINK WN861N from Newegg.

It worked fine for the first day, and now it doesn't work anymore. The weird thing is this:

When it worked:

Code:

05:02.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR922X Wireless Network Adapter (rev 02)

Now that it doesn't work:

Code:

05:02.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5008 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Atheros Communications Inc. Device ee1c
	Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
	Memory at d0300000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
	Capabilities: [40] #80 [0000]
	Capabilities: [80] #00 [0000]

I don't see how this can go from AR922X to AR5008. The chip itself says it's a 9223. I've even gone as far as digging up XP with the included drivers. Tells me Code 10, device cannot start. I'm going to assume something is defective...

TP-LINK_SupportForce · 06-07-2012, 03:58 PM

Unfortunately all of the TP-LINK drivers are not officially supported by Linux.

However, I have found a 3rd party driver that may help you with your adapter install, the ath9k driver which is a driver for all Atheros IEEE 802.11n PCI/PCI-Express chipsets – this includes the one for your TL-WN861 (AR5416). Here is a link to the driver: http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k

replica9000 · 06-07-2012, 10:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TP-LINK_SupportForce

Unfortunately all of the TP-LINK drivers are not officially supported by Linux.

However, I have found a 3rd party driver that may help you with your adapter install, the ath9k driver which is a driver for all Atheros IEEE 802.11n PCI/PCI-Express chipsets – this includes the one for your TL-WN861 (AR5416). Here is a link to the driver: http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k

When lspci was reporting the chip as an AR922X, it was using the ath9k driver and working fine. The next day lspci was reporting the chip as an AR5008, and I was unable to load any Atheros related drivers. Even under WinXP, using official drivers the chip wouldn't work. I've already RMA'd the chip, so hopefully the replacement works.

replica9000 · 06-17-2012, 09:18 PM

Just an update:

I received the replacement WN861N wireless adapter. Popped it in and it was working fine. Chip reported itself as a AR922X. Rebooted a couple hours later, chip reports itself as a AR5008, and doesn't work. Tried everything I could think of and couldn't get it working. Popped the chip out, popped it in, works fine again. Reboot, stops working.

After some testing, I've found that if the chip is warm when the OS is booting, it doesn't initialize correctly. Seems to be stable once initialized. May be the chip itself, or a hardware compatibility problem.

This chip is replacing a Broadcom BCM4318 54g in a Gateway MX6445.

Edit:

Quote:

Originally Posted by TP-LINK_SupportForce

this includes the one for your TL-WN861 (AR5416). Here is a link to the driver: http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath9k

That page is out of date, and that info may refer to rev 01 of the WN861N, I have rev 02, which is a AR9223.