Installed updated driver from Windows Update, and now Realtek's LAN Utility crashes

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I have a usb wifi adapter by "Glam Hobby", which I can link to if required but basically it's just a rebranded Realtek USB wifi adapter. For over a month I had been using it with the drivers included on the CD it came with, along with a tool called "REALTEK USB Wireless LAN Utility" to manage it - enabling and disabling it, and most importantly easily configuring my adapter's access point mode.

However, a few days ago I installed an updated version of the driver through Windows Update. The second it finished installing, the REALTEK software crashed and it continues to do so as long as the adapter is enabled. If the adapter is disabled, the application doesn't crash right away - but the second it's enabled, it crashes with no error log in the program's folder.

There is, however, the following event logged in Windows:

Faulting application name: RtWLan.exe, version: 700.1689.319.2015, time stamp: 0x550a71ab

Faulting module name: RtWLan.exe, version: 700.1689.319.2015, time stamp: 0x550a71ab

Exception code: 0xc0000005

Fault offset: 0x000b3c68

Faulting process id: 0x136c

Faulting application start time: 0x01d25112ce325c66

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Realtek\USB Wireless LAN Utility\RtWLan.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Realtek\USB Wireless LAN Utility\RtWLan.exe

Report Id: 10001d19-bd06-11e6-8298-d8cb8adf9e40

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

The Windows Update patch I applied:

Realtek Semiconductor Corp. - Other hardware, WLAN - Realtek RTL8811AU Wireless LAN 802.11ac USB 2.0 Network Adapter

Installation date: ‎12/‎4/‎2016 1:54 PM

Installation status: Succeeded

Update type: Optional

Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Other hardware, WLAN software update released in August, 2015

More information: http://sysdev.microsoft.com/support/default.aspx

Help and Support: http://support.microsoft.com/select/?target=hub

I've tried the following things to fix it:

  1. Removing both drivers using this method.
  2. Uninstalling the Realtek software
  3. Reinstalling the software and drivers from the disc
  4. Reinstalling the software and drivers from a zip file posted in the amazon page's description, which is an updated version.

I've done the above with and without restarting, with and without the device plugged in - no matter what I do, I get the event above and the application crashes right away. Windows recognizes and seems to use the device just fine, but the software has refused to work since I installed that patch and continues to fail even after I removed the driver Windows installed.

Is there anything else I can do to try to get this to work again? I realize there are other tools, such as 'Virtual Router', that do the same thing - but Virtual Router just isn't as full featured as Realtek's software and I kind of liked it.

I'm on Windows 8.1 64-bit with all of the latest updates.

windows
networking
wireless-networking
drivers
asked on Super User Dec 8, 2016 by Jon • edited May 23, 2017 by Community

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