TP-Link Archer T4U V3 driver issue fixed

[jim]

Weird one that I've just spent the last hour or so figuring out. Thought it might affect someone else out there, so thought I'd write down the key points here.

I was having BSODs and crashes, main info I came across was in event log re: Driver\RtlWlanu failed to load

It seems that the issue is related to Windows auto-updating the driver version to a bad one. So no matter how many times you uninstall and reinstall the drivers or device, it will always have the wrong version.

If the driver provider in Device Manager shows as Microsoft, this is indicative of the driver not properly installing.

Solution is to prevent Windows from automatically upgrading drivers (System -> Advanced System Settings -> Hardware -> Device Installation Settings -> No)

Then uninstall the TP-Link drivers through add / remove programs.

Then uninstall the driver in Device Manager.

You may want to remove the physical USB device and reboot (I didn't out of laziness)

Then you can plug in the device, download the official drivers and you should see the Driver Provider as TP-Link Technologies

Obviously if you allow Windows to update drivers, the issue may return. For now, for me, everything seems to be working properly.