I'm not positive about this, but I think that there are two versions of this driver. The one that comes in the kernel is rt61pci. The one from the downloaded driver is just rt61.
You could try to unload the old one first. (as root)
Code:
/sbin/modpobe -r rt61pci
Then load the other one. (also as root)
Code:
/sbin/modprobe rt61
If there is no output after this command, then it loaded the module without problem. If you are unable to connect with NetworkManager, try using the /sbin/iwconfig commands.
For more info on iwconfig try these.
Code:
/sbin/iwconfig --help
man iwconfig