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WG311v3 working in Windows 7 x64 (64bit)

By Brendon Pilt
[June 24 2009]
 
*Disclaimer: I take no responisiblity if this stuffs up your machine*
Ok, well I had some troubles getting my Netgear WG311v3 working in Windows 7 RC1 64-bit with more than 2Gb of RAM (I'm using 8Gb). It would run fine using official Netgear v3.1 drivers if I only had 2Gb of RAM, but I was getting sick and tired of having to turn off, then restart my computer to add more RAM to play games at their potential (but then also not being able to play online unless I got my network cable out). So I searched for a fix and never really found anything that worked. I ended up fixing it myself by combining a few answers. Here is how you too, can get your WG311v3 working with more than 2Gb of RAM.

First you'll need to download and extract the Marvell v1.0.0.53 driver.

Marvell v1.0.0.53 Driver: DOWNLOAD HERE
or got to THIS page and go to Libertas 802.11a/b/g Wireless (MRV-8335) and select Version 1.0.0.53 beta under the heading Windows Vista 32/64bits

Next you'll need to manually force Windows to install this driver as it will not do it automatically. So go Start -> Control Panel -> Device Manager. Here you'll see a list of all your devices. You should see a little exclaimation mark next to your Netgear WG311v3. Right click on this and select "Update Driver Software...". Now select "Browse my computer for driver software". Choose "Let me pick from a list of drivers on my computer". Click "Have Disk..." and browse for the file MRVW13B.sys (32-bit) or MRVW13C.sys (64-bit). Unfortunatley these drivers are not signed so it will ask you if you really want to intall it, so click yes.

Now, since Windows Vista RC1 and on require all drivers to be signed, we need a work around. This is easy, but teadious. What you need to do is...
When booting your computer, press F8 before Windows loads. Then select Disable Driver Signature Enforcement. Done!
There is an alternative though. It is called ReadyDriverPlus and it pretty much presses the F8 button for you and selects the Disable menu automatically

ReadyDriverPlus v1.1: DOWNLOAD HERE
More info here: http://www.citadelindustries.net/readydriverplus/

ReadyDriverPlus 0xc000000f error on boot - Windows7
Windows 7 RC1 installs a hidden 200mb partition purely for booting the OS. ReadyDriverPlus needs to be installed there. This is tricky and I'll add screenshots later, but here is how you do it:

Start Menu -> Right click Computer (or My Computer) and select Manage. You'll now be at Computer Management screen
Click Disk Management
There will be a blank 200mb drive (partition) without a letter attached (or maybe it does have a letter, i think i removed it so it didnt show in windows). This is where ReadyDriverPlus needs be be installed.
Because it doesnt have a drive letter, we need to assign it one, this is easy.
Right click the blank drive. Click "Change Drive Letters and Paths..."
Click "Add"
THen choose a letter beside Assign a new drive letter or path for 200Mb NTFS Simple Volume..... Click OK
Now install ReadyDriverPlus to this partition and you'll be good to go.
You can remove drive letter but to uninstall ReadyDriverPlus, you'll need to assign the partition the letter again.
You can find the letter in your registry. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ReadyDriver Plus_is1\InstallLocation