Wireless will not work when dual-boot with Windows XP&Vista

When you dual-boot your SUSE/openSUSE linux with Windows XP or Windows Vista and I’m sure Windows 2003 or Windows 2008, Wireless Adapter may not work. You may be to see Wireless adapter but not able to start and connect using the wireless adapter.

This could be caused by Power Management settings in Windows XP. To resolve the problem, you might want to disable the Power management on the adapter in Windows XP.

To disable Power Management on your Wireless in Windows XP,

1. Click Start – right-click “My Computer” and select properties.

2. Click Hardware – Device Manager.

3. From the list under Network Adapters, select the Wireless Adapter. (say Intel Pro Wireless or Broadcomm). Right-click and select properties.

4. Click the Power Management tab and uncheck “Allow this device to turn off this computer to save power”. Click OK.

This should fix the problem. Alternatively, this can be disabled by Windows Registry.

NOTE: Backup Windows Registry before making any changes and the author cannot be responsible for any corruption of your windows system.

1. Click Start – Run, type “regedit” and press enter.

2. Navigate to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002bE10318}\]

3. There will be list of folders numbered 001 002 …Click on and each of them and look for your Wireless Adapter (008 on mine).

4. Look for the DWORD “PnPCapabilities“, double-click and change the value to 38. If it isn’t there, create one (righth-click select New-DWORD, name it as PnPCapabilities and set the value to 38).

Reboot your computer, check if your Wireless in Windows looks OK. Reboot into SUSE/openSUSE and you should now able to configure and connect using your Wireless.