BSOD with DWL G650

If you are getting the Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) with your Dlink wireless network card, in my case the DWL G650 but other models get it to. It's based on a dodgey AR5211.sys driver which is an older Atheros driver. The solution is the following;

OPTION 1

The following steps may solve this problem in versions of Windows XP:

In preparation for these steps:
A. Download the latest version of the DWL-G630 drivers from support.dlink.com.
B. Consider setting a Restore Point. For additional information about System Restore, click Start, click Help and Support, type system restore in the Search box, and then press ENTER.

1. Go to Add/Remove Software
2. Remove your G630 software
3. In Explorer, go to %windir%\system32\drivers and, if you see AR5211.sys, rename it to AR5211.old. (Note: it may have already been deleted by Step 2, above.).
4. Reboot your computer and log on
5. If Add/Remove Hardware wizard comes back up, choose Cancel
6. Install the latest DWL-G630 software that you downloaded earlier.
7. The software should install and your network card should now be enabled or detected. If it is, proceed normally. If it is not...
8. ...Click Start, Run, and run compmgmt.msc and open Device Manager ... click the name of your computer at the top of the tree, then click the icon to scan for new hardware

This worked for me.

OPTION 2

Even better solution is to go to this website and check if your card is in the compatibility list. If it is then download the latest Atheros driver and install that.

I'm using Atheros drivers intead of D-Link drivers on D-Link DWL-G650.
Atheros drivers supports 54Mbps in ad-hoc mode (D-Link drivers only 11Mbps).
Atheros drivers are much better when there is no line of sight between antennas.
I've got up to 150KB/s with D-Link drivers and up to 1500KB/s with Atheros.

It is a bit complicated to setup once installed, so if you are in no way technically minded then don't do this and stick with OPTION 1

Just remember:

1) BEFORE you do this,UN-INSTALL any previous D-Link drivers (using Device Manager)

2) PULL OUT the card

3) SHUT DOWN

4) Install the Atheros drivers by running Setup.exe from EXTRACT directory

5) and ONLY THEN insert the card (that's really important)