Linux Mint/Ubuntu not agreeing with my computer

[JanettAm]

I dont really know where to post this so I posted it here. I have a Compaq Presario CQ62 computer and for the most part it has been performing well. I was letting my daughter use it when she came to me and told me that the internet keeps authenticating in and out by itself. I looked at it and noticed that only two bars were being lit up on the internet connection and sure enough it asked me for my password every 10 mins or so. After so long it did not authenticate at all and i was permenently disconnected from the internet. I was looking online (with another computer) and found a few posts that were somewhat similar but nothing exact. I read about wicd so I decided to try it out. Unfortunately I deleted the network manager before I downloaded the wicd (rookie mistake, LOL). So then I looked for the network manager downloads, i tried out a few (I didn't have a usb to store the file on so I had to burn several disks with the file) but nothing worked. So I decided to reinstall linux mint, thinking that the most recent linux mint was on the computer already. I tried downloading (from the website) the latest Linux Mint (Im sorry I don't remember which one it was) and burned it (I always burn 4x). Then I tried to install it on said computer. Every time it was a kernel panic. I would act like it was loading and then it was stop all together and the caps lock light would flash. I must have gone through 3 dvd disk trying to get this to load. Then I started to download older versions of Linux Mint (I really like the green theme of Linux MInt and I was tired of Ubuntu.), I finally was able to load Linux Mint 11. So I loaded it up and gave it to my daughter to use. The same freaking thing happened, the wireless connection would drop every ten minutes! The reason I am so desprete to get this computer working is I have Netflix and my daughter wants to watch it. So far she has been using my mac but I am a writer and I needed my computer. I got the computer yesturday and I spent a good deal of time from 4-12am, trying to get that computer to work. First I deleted all the wireless connections but when I went to select a wireless connection all that was showing was my connection. No matter what I did that wireless connection stayed there; I tried deleting all connections, I tried disabling the wireless card, I tried to use the terminal to manually connect (Im really not good with the terminal). Finally I tried a different tactic, I selected a hidden wireless connection and I put in my connection and password and it connected! I tried to do the update but of course the wireless connection dropped everytime. Finally I decided I would try a different linux OS; first I tried Opensuse but there was a kernel panic, then I tried Ubuntu and it was another kernel panic. In every instance I would download the iso on bittorrent and burn it using my Mac. I also noticed (after one burning) that Mac was saying that there were no mountable disk or whatever. So I used the Windows that is also loaded on my Mac (Parallels) and burned it to a disc, this successfully burn the files and not just the iso. But every disk I used had a kernel panic. Not wanted to do it I even tried to load my copy of Windows 7 (using a external dvd with all these installs and burnings, sorry I didn't mention that earlier) and it threw up an error. I am at a lost now as to what to do with my computer. Its my backup computer and I don't really know what to do.
Some information about my computer:
Its a Compaq Presario CQ62
It currently has Linux Mint 11 gnome
the wireless card is activated
I tried wicd; first from a deb and then (when I had somewhat of a connection) I did the apt-get
iwconfig:
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless entensions
wlan0 IEE 802.11bgn ESSID "2WIRE***"
Mode: Managed Freqency:2.44 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=13 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off

Thank you in advance

[AlbertP]

Please post the output of:

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inxi -N

Then we'll know what kind of wifi chip is inside.

[JanettAm]

Network: Car-1 Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) driver a
th9k
Card-2 Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
driver r8169

[AlbertP]

Ok, so you have Atheros wifi. That is usually easy to get working.
Atheros 9xxx wifi signal strength / throughput can be improved a lot by a quick fix. It can also fix other issues such as connection dropping. Please run:

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gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf

In that text editor please put:

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options ath9k nohwcrypt

[JanettAm]

Ok,
So I did what you said to do but you didn't say what to do after that. I logged out and then logged back at first. I tried to connect to the only wireless network that showed up which is my wireless connection but once I keyed in the password it would try it and then ask for the password again. So I erased the connection and set up my wireless connection as a hidden network, nothing worked. So I restarted my computer and tried again with the only wireless network that showed up, nothing. Then I tried to add my network as a hidden network again. I connected. Then I went to open my browser, Firefox, to see if the internet connection would hold up. I went to Youtube.com. The page showed up but when I went to click something else the connection dropped again. I had to click the connect button twice before the connection happened again. After 5 minutes the connection dropped. Then I had to click the connect button and after that it immediately dropped. Using the hidden wireless network actually connects but it doesn't stay connected.

Please help!

PS. I wanted to try Ubuntu since it was pretty stable the last time i had it installed on my pc. I decided to use an old version, 9.10. I selected trying Ubuntu first. It took a minute to load completely when it did I immediately tried to use my wireless network. It held up for a while and then just like Linux Mint it was dropped.

[AlbertP]

Ok, then you can probably install a newer driver version. Please download this driver package: https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel ... 6-1.tar.xz
After extracting the XZ file, go to the folder where you extracted it, right-click > Open in Terminal, then run these commands to install it:

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./scripts/driver-select ath9k
make
sudo make install

[JanettAm]

I have tried everything you have suggested and nothing is keeping the internet connection from dropping. I have even tried to install different version of linux and everytime I try to install (this has happened with ubuntu, opensuse and bodhi) and the computer has a kernel panic. Everytime! No matter what selection i make. The only thing I could get to boot up was an older version of ubuntu. Is that it for my computer? Should I just give up on my computer and "try" to install windows 7? I'm at my wits end!

Thank you in advance