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Cannot install Ethernet Adapter!

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9 replies

by braddles

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I have tried to install four different brands of PCI ethernet adapter in a Windows 2000 PC and each time Hardware wizard ends with the error...

Completing the Upgrade Device Driver Wizard
Ethernet Controller
An error occurred during the installation of thie device.
The data is invalid.

Even Windows Update drivers produce the same error. There's nothing on the MS KB. One newsgroup article for someone with the same error suggested using another brand of card. I now have an Intel PRO/100. I know that a Netcomm NP1100 worked on this board, but I don't know what OS. It did have the original BIOS though.

Gigabyte GA-6VXDC7 with dual PIII 700, 384Mb. I installed NT 4, then SP6 then upgraded to Windows 2000. I installed SP3. I have flashed the BIOS to the lastest version. Then I attempted to install the adapter.

There were no conflicts.
I have uninstalled SP3.
I have reinstalled SP3.
I have uninstalled every other PCI device.
I have uninstalled my anti-virus software.
No joy.

BIOS detects the cards and even recognises the Intel card with its little startup menu.

Every time I restart Windows, it detects the card and tries to install, but always has the same error.

I have an old box running Windows 2000 which is perfectly happy with the cards and is patiently waiting for some packets from its mate.

I could flash the BIOS back, but I don't think that's the problem.

Should I reinstall Windows 2000 and get the adapter recognised during the setup?
TIA
#$^)

9 replies

by cg it

I will try to give you a work around for this problem. Start, settings,control panel, system, hardware, then open up device manager. Expand Network adapters. You intel network adapter should be listed with a yellow exclamation mark. Highlight the adapter, then right click. Open up properties. Down at the bottom is Device usage box. Make sure "Use this device (enable) is showing.If not use the pull down menu to enable this device. Next, click on the driver tab. Click on update drive. This will start the upgrade device driver wizard. (make sure the mfg's driver disk is in the appropriate drive). Follow the on screen prompts to install your driver. This should install your driver where the new device driver wizard did not.

by braddles

I've tried every combination of driver installation such as the w/a you suggest. They all produce the same error message, even Windows Update!

The wizard, from whichever way it is called up, goes thru until the very end, when it fails with the message above. i.e. it finds the driver, etc. it just falls at the last.

by ann777

Shutdown, open the computer and remove the NIC.

Boot the computer and make sure that device manager no longer has ANY network adapter.

Restart the computer normally.

Shutdown and then physically add the NIC back to the computer and see ifthe system will detect new hardware and find the device.

-----

Another thing to try is the NIC in the second computer. seeif you can get it working in the first. If you cannot, then you might have a bad slot on the systemboard.

by braddles

I've tried several restarts of that type. I even deleted keys from registry to ensure that there were no vestiges of previous installs.
I've tried several slots as well. The fact that the cards are detected by BIOS leads me to think that the hardware is OK.

by cg it

Perplexing problem. Unless the disk or CD that the drivers are on is bad, I don't think there is an answer as you have seemed to have covered all the possible solutions. Try downloading a set of drivers from the MFG's website using your old box. Burn em to a CD or copy them to a new formated floppy disk and try reinstalling the drivers. If that doesn't work....get rid of the new box....

by braddles

Drivers were fine, Windows wasn't. In fact, when I did a Clean Install or Windows 2000 I had every damn card plugged in and all were detected, even though BIOS reported 3 of them at IRQ10.
Perplexing, indeed but nothing that couldn't be solved using a drastic version of the Hardware Wizard.

by braddles

I just installed Mandrake 7.2 on the same PC and it recognises the Intel Pro/100+ Management Adapter.
Windows 2000 still does not.

by braddles

I did a Clean Install of Windows 2000, which solved the problem (and probably a few others). Fortunately, a magazine I had bought had a copy of SP3 on CD, so I'd didn't have to downlaod everything again.
thx
#$^)

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