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Ethernet connection problem - help!

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by estreetjerseygirl

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We have a computer (some off brand, FTC) that when we try to make a network connection, we get an error message that the hardware is not detected. The Device Manager tells us that the hardware is working properly and there are no driver conflicts, but the 3rd screen of the Network Setup Wizard shows the hardware is not detected. The cable we're using definitely works, because we can network the host computer to one of our other computers without any problems. The Ethernet is enabled in the BIOS (we tried both the "non-OS2" and "OS2" settings). We cleaned the slot on the motherboard, and even un-installed and tried a different slot. We tried installing a new Ethernet card, thinking the card itself was the problem. The same exact problem occurred. We can't get the computer to network, whether we try the setup from the host computer or the client computer (this PC is the client). Any ideas how we can get this to work?

11 replies

by chris910

If this ethernet card is around 4 years old it is probably not plug and pray or requires a jumper be set to make it plug and play. What is probably happening is that your driver is using a generic IRQ and PORT because the operating system can not determine the settings on the card. The settings on the card must match the settings in device manager. And yes Device manager reports the card as having no issues.

Depending on the card manufacturer and model:
-- look on the card for For jumpers that have lables like IRQ 3,5,10,11,15 and Port/IO base 270h,300h, 310h etc. and set them up for an available port and IRQ. then go into device manager, find your card and change the properties to match what you have set.
-- Or look for the diagnostic utility that is used to electrically set the IRQ and Port on the card. Allied Tellsyn uses a utility called DIAG.EXE that must be run from DOS. Then you must set the card properties in device manager as above.

If you come back with a card manufacturer and model one of us may be able to determine specifics.

by estreetjerseygirl

The card info is: LINKSYS - EtherFast 10/100 LAN Card.
1 RJ-45 10/100Base-TX Port, Up to 100 Mbps, Full Duplex, 32-bit PCI

by cg it

sounds like one of those anomolies that makes everyone scratch their head and mumble, Are you really really sure you installed drivers? Sometimes, because of digital driver signing, and god knows why this hickups, when you install drivers you have to browse to the W2K/XP driver on the vendors Floppy/CD, choose those drivers to get them installed. Windows XP and sometime W2K will appear to install the drivers but don't.

Another thing is, and you didn't mention this in comments, is that you enabled the on board BIOS AND you have a PCI Ethernet card. Is this true ? That means you have 2 NICs installed. If so, youve got 2 NICs. Try disabling the onboard Ethernet, then remove that device from device manager, juse just the PCI card Ethernet card, making sure you've got the drivers installed, then try. Further, you don't mention what type of networking? Are you doing a simple workgroup file/folder sharing? or trying to join a domain? If your trying to join a domain, hope your using Windows XP Pro. Home isn't designed to join a domain. Also, if you have a firewall on the computer the firewall will interfer with joining a domain. Will also interfer with a workgroup file/folder sharing network setup. One would have to add computers in the workgroup to the trusted zone for the firewall.

by estreetjerseygirl

Yes, I'm sure we installed the drivers. And I didn't mention about the BIOS in my comments because I already mentioned it in my original question. I never said anything about having an on-board Ethernet card, so I'm not really sure where you got that info from. We had an Ethernet card in the PC originally, but then replaced that one with a new card, thinking the card itself was the problem. I never said anything about having 2 cards installed simultaneously. As far as what kind of networking, we're just trying to network the 2 PCs so that both can be on a dial-up internet connection at the same time.

by donmars

Start with the basics. Insert the NIC in another PCI slot. Uninstall the nic in device manager (remove) and reinstall it using the MFG floppy. Is the light on back of the nic flashing? Ping 127.0.0.1. That is a check for your TCP/IP setup if that times out TCP/IP is not installed or corrupt, uninstall and reinstall if it is installed or install if not there. Use non OS2 since you are running XP not OS2 (IBM dinosaur).

by estreetjerseygirl

Already did that, as I said in the original question ... we had "even un-installed and tried a different slot." Thanx, though!

The weird part about all this is ... we tried using our laptop (#2 to make things easy) as the host and this PC (#3) in question as the client, and there was no problem at all with networking. It's when we try to network #3 with our other desktop (#1) as the host that there's a problem. #1 will network, as the host, to #2 being the client, but #3 (client) will not network to #1 (host).

by merchantbanker

Hi
I'm assuming you've had lots of tries here and have re-installed/moved the card over and over, so just have a check for hidden devices in the Device Manager ... it's a selectable setting in the view menu. I've seen where when the hidden devices are revealed there are a bunch of the little buggers, all lurking there, ready to cause trouble, such as old Nic entries, long gone but that used to be in the same slot and had the same IRQ etc etc ... There may be cards from the dim and distant past in there, especailly if you upgraded the OS and didn't do a fresh install. This is particularly true when a device was not properly uninstalled from the OS prior to physical removal from the box, but was just yanked out and replaced or relocated to another slot. Delete them and thus make quite sure that the machine really is 'clean'. You may have fixed the problem aleady but won't know as is entireley possible Windows is tripping itself up with a load of junk ... just a thought anyway. It's worked for me in the past. I know it's not supposed to be bothered and hidden devices should not get in the way but in my humble they do ... good luck !

There may be an on-board Nic by the way, but it may not be obvious, and although the chip is there it needs a header cable so there will be no RJ-45 for the cable as part of the Mobo ... and as a previous person said, that could be it too and it's conflicting with your card ... again just a thought and something to eliminate from the enquiry at least. I only say this because you say there are Nic settings in the BIOS, which is suspicious, as you can't usually set Nic settings unless there is hardware there already.

MB !

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