diff --git a/net/tap-win32.c b/net/tap-win32.c
index 5e5d6db880..7fddb20b51 100644
--- a/net/tap-win32.c
+++ b/net/tap-win32.c
@@ -77,7 +77,12 @@
 
 //#define DEBUG_TAP_WIN32
 
-#define TUN_ASYNCHRONOUS_WRITES 1
+/* FIXME: The asynch write path appears to be broken at
+ * present. WriteFile() ignores the lpNumberOfBytesWritten parameter
+ * for overlapped writes, with the result we return zero bytes sent,
+ * and after handling a single packet, receive is disabled for this
+ * interface. */
+/* #define TUN_ASYNCHRONOUS_WRITES 1 */
 
 #define TUN_BUFFER_SIZE 1560
 #define TUN_MAX_BUFFER_COUNT 32
@@ -461,27 +466,48 @@ static int tap_win32_write(tap_win32_overlapped_t *overlapped,
     BOOL result;
     DWORD error;
 
+#ifdef TUN_ASYNCHRONOUS_WRITES
     result = GetOverlappedResult( overlapped->handle, &overlapped->write_overlapped,
                                   &write_size, FALSE);
 
     if (!result && GetLastError() == ERROR_IO_INCOMPLETE)
         WaitForSingleObject(overlapped->write_event, INFINITE);
+#endif
 
     result = WriteFile(overlapped->handle, buffer, size,
                        &write_size, &overlapped->write_overlapped);
 
+#ifdef TUN_ASYNCHRONOUS_WRITES
+    /* FIXME: we can't sensibly set write_size here, without waiting
+     * for the IO to complete! Moreover, we can't return zero,
+     * because that will disable receive on this interface, and we
+     * also can't assume it will succeed and return the full size,
+     * because that will result in the buffer being reclaimed while
+     * the IO is in progress. */
+#error Async writes are broken. Please disable TUN_ASYNCHRONOUS_WRITES.
+#else /* !TUN_ASYNCHRONOUS_WRITES */
     if (!result) {
-        switch (error = GetLastError())
-        {
-        case ERROR_IO_PENDING:
-#ifndef TUN_ASYNCHRONOUS_WRITES
-            WaitForSingleObject(overlapped->write_event, INFINITE);
-#endif
-            break;
-        default:
-            return -1;
+        error = GetLastError();
+        if (error == ERROR_IO_PENDING) {
+            result = GetOverlappedResult(overlapped->handle,
+                                         &overlapped->write_overlapped,
+                                         &write_size, TRUE);
         }
     }
+#endif
+
+    if (!result) {
+#ifdef DEBUG_TAP_WIN32
+        LPTSTR msgbuf;
+        error = GetLastError();
+        FormatMessage(FORMAT_MESSAGE_ALLOCATE_BUFFER|FORMAT_MESSAGE_FROM_SYSTEM,
+                      NULL, error, MAKELANGID(LANG_NEUTRAL, SUBLANG_DEFAULT),
+                      &msgbuf, 0, NULL);
+        fprintf(stderr, "Tap-Win32: Error WriteFile %d - %s\n", error, msgbuf);
+        LocalFree(msgbuf);
+#endif
+        return 0;
+    }
 
     return write_size;
 }