Problem with PCI ethernet card
Discussion
I built a couple of computers a few months ago for a business, they are connected via a network cable that plugs into the onboard ethernet port and both run Windows XP Sp2. The master computer required another ethernet port for a wireless broadband modem, so I simply added a PCI network card and up until a few days ago everything was fine...........suddenly the PCI network card stopped working. I've tried two other cards in both PCI slots, yet nothing will make the port work. XP shows all the details in the device manager, and as soon as I plug either cable into the onboard port they work strait away. But no PCI card works. The dial-up modem that goes into the other PCI slot works fine wherever it is. The light on the card comes on, but XP can't configure it and can't send any info through it. I tried turning the firewall off, no difference - the only other things running are Spyware Blaster and AVG. I presume the problem is software related, can anybody please point me in the right direction as I'm a bit frustrated.
Firstly I would try unplugging the nic and re-plugging it into a different PCI slot. If you don't have a spare slot because something else is in (i.e. the adsl modem) then swap them around in each others' slots, but unistall the device first by using add/remove programs, and not just by doing so by clicking 'uninstal device' on the device manager. Then, go into the bios and look for an option in the 'Onboard Devices' or 'Plug & Play' menu (or similar) that states 'Refresh ESCD' and select this. This flushes the current hardware tables info out of the bios and forces the bios to resend the hardware info to the registry and effectively gives you a fresh install of the driver when Windows goes to install it.
As much as as XP is plug and play (pray) it still does odd things from time to time with the PCI bus and this fix has worked for me several times in the past when Windows says there are no conflicts when adding nic's. If this fails, I would look for an upgraded bios as most new mobo's are 'fired' out the door with virtually beta bios's installed. After this, always use the latest and greatest driver for both the integrated and pci nic's. You can see where a mobo manufacturer has had a problem board but the regularity of the driver updates
As a side note; we built two CCTV servers which were joined as a cluster (before the days of gigabit ethernet), and to get the bandwidth up between the servers we fitted four 3COM905 nic's on each machine all running direct connect crossover cables. That was an absolute nightmare to configure!
As much as as XP is plug and play (pray) it still does odd things from time to time with the PCI bus and this fix has worked for me several times in the past when Windows says there are no conflicts when adding nic's. If this fails, I would look for an upgraded bios as most new mobo's are 'fired' out the door with virtually beta bios's installed. After this, always use the latest and greatest driver for both the integrated and pci nic's. You can see where a mobo manufacturer has had a problem board but the regularity of the driver updates
As a side note; we built two CCTV servers which were joined as a cluster (before the days of gigabit ethernet), and to get the bandwidth up between the servers we fitted four 3COM905 nic's on each machine all running direct connect crossover cables. That was an absolute nightmare to configure!
Thanks for the advice about add/remove programs, with all the messing about XP is now calling the connection number 6 and number 7, as it is XP home which only allows 5 connection.....now neither of them work! I suspect it is going to be easiest to reinstall with XP pro corporate which the computer owner has a copy, but I'll try getting rid of all the connections and hardware first. Switching the onboard LAN off in the bios made no difference...apart from using up another connection number when XP home said enough. This 5 connections business is one of the few differences between Home and Pro, it really baffled a friend of mine when he first came up against it soon after XP came out.
Can't really add much more to the advice bit, other than to say when it comes to networks don't trust XP Home.
Had a client once who brought a cheap dell came with Home, threw it in to his office as a reception machine and wired it up to the ADSL and 3 other PC's.
Got a phone call that 'nothing was working' and toddled along to take a look. XP had decided of it's own recount overnight to create 30 lan connections, thus going over it's 5 limit and deactivated the network card.
Oddly enough just selecting all bar the 1st one and pressing delete worked, then a right click and slecting 'Activate' had everything going again.
Moral of the story, XP Home looks like Pro, feels like Pro. It's really Windows ME in nicer clothes... don't trust it as far as you can spit.
Had a client once who brought a cheap dell came with Home, threw it in to his office as a reception machine and wired it up to the ADSL and 3 other PC's.
Got a phone call that 'nothing was working' and toddled along to take a look. XP had decided of it's own recount overnight to create 30 lan connections, thus going over it's 5 limit and deactivated the network card.
Oddly enough just selecting all bar the 1st one and pressing delete worked, then a right click and slecting 'Activate' had everything going again.
Moral of the story, XP Home looks like Pro, feels like Pro. It's really Windows ME in nicer clothes... don't trust it as far as you can spit.
jaybkay said:Maybe so, but if you're only trying to set up two connections, then I'd say the fact that XP Home is limited to five is not your problem. AFAIK, there is nothing in XP Pro that makes it more suited to having two network connections than XP Home. I'd suggest following ultimasimon's advice again, making sure you remove all the connections before changing the slot of the PCI card.
I suspect it is going to be easiest to reinstall with XP pro
thepassenger said:
XP Home looks like Pro, feels like Pro. It's really Windows ME in nicer clothes.
It's true(ish) to say that XP Home behaves like ME, but it's completely untrue to say it is like ME. XP Home is the same code family as XP Pro, Windows 2000, and Windows NT, whereas ME is the same code family as Windows 98 and Windows 95.jamieboy said:
XP Home looks like Pro, feels like Pro. It's really Windows ME in nicer clothes.
XP Home is a limited version of XP Pro. Wouldn't use anything other than pro.
jamieboy said:
XP Home is a limited version of XP Pro. Wouldn't use anything other than pro.
Possibly though as you have much more configuration control over the network settings in pro than in home.
annodomini2 said:I freely admit that I don't have much experience of Home, so can you describe which specific aspects of Pro would help in this situation?
you have much more configuration control over the network settings in pro than in home.
Don't misunderstand me, I would personally choose Pro over Home every time because it better suits my needs, but each version of the OS is equally capable of supporting two network connections, as evidenced by the fact that it used to work.
thepassenger said:
Moral of the story, XP Home looks like Pro, feels like Pro. It's really Windows ME in nicer clothes... don't trust it as far as you can spit.
Well i think, Windows CE, looks like Windows ME, which looks like Windows NT.
However over all they all look like Windows CEMENT
>> Edited by k77-widow maker on Friday 17th March 17:59
More information........I installed XP pro into the same machine, but a different hard drive (with the original disconected).....and still a network PCI doesn't work........I suspect the mother board unless anyone has any other ideas. In every different arrangement of operating systems, PCI network cards and PCI slots, with/without the onboard LAN enabled it alwsys says the connection has limited or no connectivity. Which leads me to the next question, will XP tolerate changing a motherboard without throwing a wobbly? or will I have to reinstall everything?
Sometimes the simplest of solutions have the required result, I removed the battery from the motherboard for a few minutes, refitted, rebooted....and everything is back as it should be, with both ethernet ports working. Presumably there was an IRQ conflict and as soon as the motherboard had forgotten about it..hey presto.
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