Wifi driver causing hard system reset

[Accessless]

Hi, I've recently started encountering a problem with my old HP G6000 laptop. At random intervals the system will hard reset.

The cause according to the crash reports is the WiFi drivers:

"Atheros Extensible Wireless LAN device driver
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode driver attempted to access pageable memory at a process IRQL that was too high."

The reason that i'm posting this though is that this is the same driver that I have been using for years and has never been an issue before. I have tried deleting the driver and re-downloading but I get the same results.

Does anyone know what could be causing the problem or have any suggestions for other avenues of investigation?

HP G6000 running Windows 7 SP1


Many thanks.

[Geek-9pm]

You have been using it for years?
Than assume  your hardware is failing. Why do you think it is the driver?
If you must have a Wireless connection, then try this as a workaround
Buy or borrow an external USB WiFi thing. Disable the built-in device in the BIOS.

The cost of a plain Wireless dongle is a fraction of the cost of having the factory repair your laptop. 

[Accessless]

I'm also inclined to think that the Wi-Fi card is failing [yes card, I don't know if that's odd]. The "IRQL was too high" with reference to the Wi-Fi driver from the crash dumps is why I started the investigation on the driver. I knew though that it did not make sense if the driver was intact.

I'm currently leaving the driver as disabled and so far no new crashes.

I'm using my phone as a dongle but I'm sure I've got some old 802.11 N dongles kicking about somewhere.

[BC_Programmer]

Most laptops use some form of Smaller-form PCIe for their wireless adapter. You may be able to replace it. Note that a lot of laptop manufacturers use a hardware "whitelist" meaning you can't  just slap any old Mini PCI Wireless card in there. You may be able to find an identical model available somewhere.