try looking at http://www.windrivers.com/

Hope this helps

Magoo

No techie me but so glad that I listened to advice here and also from
a knowledgeable computer guy to choose XP over Vista.
Took a bit of finding but bought a Acer with XP Pro installed late last year,seems to detect and connect to local wi-fi in about a minute.

Had no problems with the laptop at all,just as well coz I wouldn`t have a clue what to do if it went wrong.

Now I`ve written that I guess my machine will crash.

Gonzo,, from boot up it takes 10 minutes to detect wifi networks and sometimes drops out later but it is the slow connect at statup that pisses me off ,, once connected it runs fast.

Right, not sure if any of this will sort it but it certainly won't make things any worse.

First off, if the problem is only occuring at boot-up you need to look at what else is running. Unless you're careful with installs or regularly 'clean' your machine then chances are you've got all sorts of apps in your start-up file that you realy don't need to open every time you turn on the machine. This is the number 1 cause of delays when booting up and is easily fixed. Just follow the instructions here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?page_id=131&page=22 (it's part of a very useful set of tips and tweaks for Vista which you may want to take a look at).

There's also a known issue with power saving settings on laptops screwing up wifi connections which is why I asked if yours was dropping out once it eventally connected. Go to Control Panel->System->Hardware Tab->Device Manager. Select Intel Pro under Network Adapters. Right Click and Select Properties. Under Advanced tab, there is a setting for Power Management. There should be a slider with Max Battery on one end and Max performance on the other. You have to set it to Max Performance.

Gonzo the power managment was set not to turn of wireless on this unit and I notice now that wireless connects on boot up but then disconnects for 10 minutes ,then it comes back and is OK , there are minimal programs running on startup so its a mystery to me.

Did you set the power management for the wireless to max performance? You need to do that as well as selecting the option not to turn it off (crazy I know but that tab is worthless in terms of fixing the problem).

There is no max performance option or advance tab ,,its on or off only on Device drivers ,Networking /wireless option in Vista.

You're right, like an idiot I'm giving you XP instructions :dunce:

I'll have another look tonight and see what I can come up with.

I will keep tweaking ..but fanks for all advice.

Last night and this morning it connected in 2 minutes but at lunchtime it took 15 minutes ...but nothing has been changed ..I am confused