Nic card hardware setup error

Hi

1- Run the diagnostics that came with the network adapter. If the MAC address is FFFFFFFFFFFF. TCP/IP cannot resolve addresses for adapters with this MAC address and it usually indicates a bad adapter.Try tp replace it with another NIC and check.

2- Start->run-> winipcfg.exe.
Select the network adapter. If the Mac address is FFFFFFFFFFFF and it wasn’t before there may be an IRQ problem.

Good luck

Mohamed

Good Day

I have had the same problem, though with an Allied Telesyn NIC.

The problem was overcome by deleting the NIC driver from device manager, turning the computer off, removing the NIC from the computer, rebboting twice (cold boot), turning the computer off, reinserting the NIC, then installing the drivers when prompted by the OS during startup.

If the drivers were installed manually (without prompting from the OS) either by updating the drivers in device manager or by manually starting Add New Hardware wizard, I found the NIC would not work. Installing them when prompted by the OS during the startup process seemed to work.

Hope this helps

Mark

Nic's are one of the most finniky pieces of hardware around.

A while ago when I had a 486 I was trying to network with a friend, and we tried no less than 20 cards before we found a pair that wanted to communicate.

Continual '!' status in device manager is fairly common, the advice about getting windows to detect it and then supplying the drivers is sound - if windows detects the device, then it knows what resources it's using. If you manually add it, it uses the manufacturers 'default' resources - and if your card isn't exactly the same as the reference board that the driver was meant for, then it's not going to use the right resources, and it wont work.

Even then, sometimes everything appears to be working fine, and the damn things still wont communicate.

The best advice I can give you, (I dont know if your 486 has PCI, mine did) is to go purchase a brand spanking new card. If thats out of the question, try to get an old one that isn't obscure - SMC, 3com, intel, novell ne2000 compatible cards, even realtek would do.

There are many cases where obscure brands perform just as well as common ones - but with network cards, it's just not worth the hassle. A brand new realtek will cost you all of $40... and thats australian dollars ;)

Normally Every NIC has one setup utility, that will allow to change IRQ & I/O address.
Device Manager >> select mycomputer >> Properties & Note which resources are not utilised.
Normally you will find combination of 5/320 or 5/340 will be unused.In this case we will discuss assuming 5/320 are free.

Boot PC in DOS mode.
Run setup utility that is provided by manufacturer. Disable plug & play. Change IRQ to 5 & I/O to 320.
Now reboot the PC, you will get the message that your NIC is not functioning properly. Go to Device manager tab >> Select NIC >> Properties >> Select Resources tab >> Select manual settings & put the same IRQ 5 & I/O 320.
Reboot the PC
Here we set manual settings instead of plug & play so we have better controlon resources.

Theanswers were insightful but nothing helped to resolve the problem. My final conclusion is:
A.

The answers were insightful, and I tried them all. I thank all who responded. My conclusion is as follows: a.)I did not have proper documentation with the board. b.) The board is defective. c.) Buying a new board. This is the first time I've ever submitted a question. I'm not quite sure how I'm supposed to respond or who awards the points or how to award the points.

This question was closed by the author