Latest Update: One commentor by the name of Bob has kindly written how he fixed his driver problems. It’s a much better solution than buying a new card, especially if you don’t have the money to spend. Thanks, Bob!
Update (June 12th, 2005): The latest version of bcmwl5.sys is now available for download, to be placed in c:/windows/system32/drivers/. This is the latest version which was grabbed from driver package that HP offers. Please create a system-restore point before replacing your bcmwl5.sys file, as this may or may not damage your system.
That dreaded file is the driver for the Linksys WPC54G and WPC54GS. They’re both wireless network notebook cards, and they both use a Broadcom chipset. BCM means Broadcom. WL means Wireless LAN. 5 means (presumably) version 5. The new drivers shipping with the cards since about 6 months ago (not sure) have been shutting down computers at random times everywhere. And so I downloaded the WPC54GS driver from linksys.com, as per a visitor suggestion. It worked for a week. Then the BSOD popped up again. I was doomed.
If you have $60 and you are willing to spend it, then do follow the following advice. However, if you do not have the money, please read Bob’s solution and/or the comments on this entry.
However, this weekend I went to BestBuy and quickly bought a Netgear WG511 card, barely even thinking about it. It was $10 cheaper than the Linksys, plus a $20 mail-in rebate. And so I installed it, which was easy enough. I finally got it working after teaching Windows some obedience lessons. It’s worked ever since. No shutdowns. No freezes. Nothing. This is heaven!So, if you’re having trouble with bcmwl5.sys, go and get a Netgear*. (I haven’t tried a D-Link card, but somehow I feel as if it could have the same problems…)
Windows XP crashes periodically on a new HP ze5730us Laptop with built-in 802.11g wireless.
The culprit identified as ‘bcmwl5.sys’. Wonder if HP or Linksys(?) will have a fix out soon?
V Virmani 23 May 04
bcmwl5.sys is most definitely a Linksys driver. I’ve no clue if Linksys will ever update their drivers, though if they do not, I’ll forever think of them as bumbling idiots who think that there’s nothing out in the real world (just like Microsoft).
I’m afraid I don’t know what one should do if the problem’s with the internal card. Buying and installing another one would probably work, though I’m not sure that they’re easily available… It’s also probable that it’s rather difficult to manually install an internal card in a laptop.
★ Hans 24 May 04
This laptop has internal wireless and wired network adapters. The crash every few days is from ‘bcmwl5.sys’
Going to disable the wireless and used the wired network since this laptop does not move around anyway.
V Virmani 31 May 04
Had the same issue with Belkin card using Broadcom chipset. Found 3.10.xxx drivers on net for HP laptop. Downloaded and extracted bcmwl5.sys and updated my driver in windows\system32\drivers. All works fine including coexistance with ethernet card. No problems using any interface, even if DHCP’d or staic IP.
Martin 15 November 04
GREAT! im glad im not the only one who has this problem with linksys, im using linksys wmp11, the funny thing is, theres 2 other PCs and 1 laptop on the network im on yet no one else has had this problem. The two pcs are even winxp the laptop is 2000.
I have recieved this error multiple times and changed my driver to one that was in a dell package, worked for a good 3 hours and then i turned around to a BSOD (god it reminded me of win95).
liberatedmind 14 July 05
Hey thanks!! I’ve been looking all day for an answer to why my pc kept turning off and i got down to this. I hope it works cuz im fed up with this bs!!
CVZ 24 July 05
Thank you for this file bcmwl5.sys. I have been needing a decent version and after using your download all my wireless problems on my DELL Inspiron 9100 were fixed.
Much appreciated!
bytebull 23 September 05
thank!
KENSHIN JIMURA 28 October 05
Hi,
I am one of many that have been lead here by Google while looking for an answer to the infamous bcmwl5.sys problem. What visitors should realize is that this advice is for the WPC54G and WPC54GS and generally should not be applied to other Linksys products. I am using the Linksys WMP11 wireless cards in two of my home computers and began having BSOD on both machines within a day of each other. After turning off the ‘automatic reboot’ option in Windows XP I was able to see that the reboots were due to two (seemingly) corrupted files [bcmwl5.sys] and [wmp11v27.sys] on the two systems. I tried to apply the bcmwl5.sys files provided here but it did not solve the reboot problem on either machine. But then I downloaded the driver file for the WMP11 (version 2.7) from the Linksys, uninstalled the current drivers and then reinstalled the drivers from the downloaded version. Both computers have worked flawlessly since then. I don’t know why this problem struck both machines within a day of each…seems like a strange coincidence…especially since these are the exact same drivers as before. The other commonality these computer share is a Linksys KVM (Keyboard/Video/ Mouse) controller. Good luck to all who have this problem.
Cris Garcia 7 February 06
I started having BSODs starting last week with my compaq evo N800c laptop/Windows XP SP2 + WPC54g linksys wireless card. It would crash every 1-2 hours sometimes even every few minutes.
I tried many of the fixes listed on this page. Finally what worked for me is to just replace the card with a spare one (same type i.e Linksys WPC54G) and after that no more BSODs so far (1 week). Both cards are almost 2 years old. The spare has been used very infrequently.
Vamsee Lakamsani 26 March 06
After a couple of weeks with the spare I ran into the same problem. So I switched to using a USB wireless card, this time from Netgear. This appears to have fixed the problem. No crash for a month so far.
vamsee lakamsani 6 May 06
i am trying to install Belkin wireless network but i could’t. i think that the problem because of BCMWL5.sys. it is not installed in the windows. i downloaded fromyour website. i am trying to install it from updtaing belkin wireless network card but no way. my hp laptop give me message: your computer do not have information to install this file.
could you please help me.
nabih 31 May 06
i have just formatted and reinstalled winxp on my computer only to go through 3 days of fighting the installation of my belkin f5d7000 wireless card..using the bcmwl5.sys driver…just found your site, downloaded, copied over in c\windows\system32\drivers and it worked right away, thank you so much
tony 8 June 06
I have the same BSOD error for my brand new WMP300N Linksys Wireless-N PCI adapter. I have tried using the Broadcom one, but still happens randomly. Linksys has not released a single update yet, so no luck from them. Would reinstalling with the original disk help?
Viper 21 October 06
please let this work…. hehe my computer has been randomly restarting for the past…. 2 months because of my Linksys WMP300N network card i need for my apartment complex, if this works i’ll love this site forever :) and this was a $120 card, so i didn’t want to have to buy a new one.
Ryan 24 October 06
Bob’s fix worked for me when I was trying to install a BT Voyager wireless card on my old Dell Latitude laptop which runs Windows ME. I got an error message saying that BCMWL5.SYS could not be found, Googled it and found your very helpful site.
Downloaded the HP driver from the link provided on my other PC, copied it over to the laptop, installed it in c:/windows/system32/drivers, rebooted and everything worked!
Many thanks from Aberdeen, Scotland!
johnzed 25 January 07
The ‘latest version’ of bcmwl5.sys that you are offering, is older than the version which came with the Asus WL-138G-v2 cards that I have here.
The driver you are providing is version 3.70.22.0, whilst the version from the Asus website is version 3.100.64.0.
However, this card is still failing to pick up any wireless networks, having been working for the first day, and failed on the second. The AP is about two meters away, tried various channels, blah blah. I wish my supplier still had the Atheros based cards in stock :(
Carl Farrington 16 March 07
Still the number 1 search result for bcmwl5.sys!
If anyone is still having trouble with the BSOD using a Linksys card, and like me found that messing with versions of the bcmwl5.sys hasnt helped, you might like to know Ive just run the adapter for 2 days straight without a single crash (WPC54GS V2 in the EU.) Before, it would crash 20 times an hour.
The answer was one of, or a combination of, the following;
a) using broadcom driver 3.100.65.1, dated 21.4.05
b) going to control panel/system/advanced/startup and recovery, and unchecking ‘automatically restart’. (WinXP SP2)
Im stuck at 11 mbps, but it doesnt hinder my 4MB connection, and id take it even if it did!
Hope this helps someone.
fish 10 June 07