Having serious problems installing a NIC

[Judgement]

I built a new PC yesterday, Core2Duo 6400, XFX7900GT, Gigabyte 965P-DS3 etc etc and everything has been running smoothly except when it comes to installing a network card.

I've tried 2 different NICs, one is Linksys and the other is Belkin, and I cannot get either one to install properly. I have tried moving each of them around in the 3 different PCI slots but have had no luck. I don't have any other PCI cards on the motherboard.

When installing from the Belkin CD, it gets to 100% and locks up when it finishes the .sys driver file. Complete lockup... can't end task or move my house etc. Requires a complete powersupply cut off. I downloaded the drivers from Belkin's site and it does the same thing with that set as well.

I don't have the CD with the drivers for the Linksys card, but it shouldn't matter because I've installed this same card in at least 2-3 computers and Windows has always been able to automatically find acceptable drivers and install them, but this time it cannot. I downloaded drivers from the Linksys site and when installing them the computer does not lock up, but nothing is associated with the unknown network controller.

Windows does recognize both as "network controllers" and attempts to find the drivers when the computer starts up... so there must be some kind of activity going on. The video card in the PCI-E slot had its drivers install perfectly fine off its included CD.

I've already formatted the entire computer once since this problem began after a clean WindowsXP install last night but it didn't fix or change the issue.

I don't have any other PCI cards that I could try to install. The Linksys card is model WMP54G and the Belkin is model F6D3000.

I'm completely out of ideas... with only one card in the PCI slots I don't see how it could be some kind of IRQ conflict, and everything else on the motherboard seems to be working perfectly fine. This computer is going to be really useless if it can't get any access to the internet...

 

[TG2]

Doesnt that model have an onboard NIC ?

 

[Judgement]

Originally posted by: TG2
Doesnt that model have an onboard NIC ?

Need to use wireless NIC where I'm located.

 

[jondl]

From my experience, the linksys drivers are crap and you just have to do a little digging around to find the chipset drivers themselves.

1. Look at your Linksys NIC and find out what revision they are.
2. Search on the net to find out which chipset they use.
3. Hope to god someone on the net has them uploaded somewhere.

I believe some use broadcom chipsets while others use Archos chipsets or something along those lines. hope this helps!

 

[win32asmguy]

You might try doing the "Reset ES Configuration Data" type of option in your bios. Incase there is any PCI resource conflict that should fix it. This issue has actually got me a little worried. I was thinking about getting one of these boards and using a PCI Audigy, Video Capture, and GigE card with it. Hopefully something will fix it!

 

[AznSensation]

Here's something you can do:

1. update your mobo bios to the latest non-beta driver
2. make sure your PCI card is firmly in (sometimes card might not be evenly in)
3. there are differences among windows xp, windows xp media center edition, x64 so get the right kind (kinda dumb but it might be the case)
4. how long does it freeze? (just leave it frozen for 5 mins and see what happens)
5. Start> right click My computer> Properties> Hardware> Device manager> uninstall ur card> right click and click scan for hardware changes and see if you can get windows to install with the built-in drivers (not the one from cd/download)

6. if these fail, call belkin/linksys.

hope that helps.

 

[Judgement]

Originally posted by: win32asmguy
You might try doing the "Reset ES Configuration Data" type of option in your bios. Incase there is any PCI resource conflict that should fix it. This issue has actually got me a little worried. I was thinking about getting one of these boards and using a PCI Audigy, Video Capture, and GigE card with it. Hopefully something will fix it!

I wasn't able to see an ES configuration data option or anything similar in the BIOS. The BIOS I'm using is up to date.

When the computer locks up while trying to install the Belkin card its a complete lockup... there is no more activity until I power off the power supply switch on the back of the computer. I have tried letting it go for an extended period of time after it freezes up and nothing happens.

I have now also tried at least 3 different Linksys drivers for the Linksys card but it hasn't made any difference.

I tried manually setting the NIC cards to a few different IRQ #s instead of having it set to auto but the same exact problems occured.

5. Start> right click My computer> Properties> Hardware> Device manager> uninstall ur card> right click and click scan for hardware changes and see if you can get windows to install with the built-in drivers (not the one from cd/download)

I have tried that several times with both cards and it has led to the same results I mentioned in my original post.

I am tempted to go out and buy a USB Wireless NIC card from Circuit City for $40-$50 dollars because I'm fairly sure that will work fine because the problem seems to be the PCI slots, but I shouldn't have to. I've never seen anything like this before with any computer I've ever built... I really think I should just send it back to Newegg due to some kind of fault with the motherboard's PCI slots but its such an inconvenience, especially at this time of the year.

The closest I've gotten to any of 3 different network cards now is under the device manager -> properties of the Linksys card it seemed that the driver was actually installed properly but the error message was "This device cannot start"

I'm completely out of ideas at this point

 

[vailr]

Is the onboard NIC disabled in bios?
Also, disable in bios any other un-needed items, such as parallel port, serial port, etc.
Failing that, maybe try using the onboard NIC , connected via ethernet cable to a wireless router.

 

[Judgement]

Originally posted by: vailr
Is the onboard NIC disabled in bios?
Also, disable in bios any other un-needed items, such as parallel port, serial port, etc.
Failing that, maybe try using the onboard NIC , connected via ethernet cable to a wireless router.

Onboard NIC, serial, parallel ports have been disabled since the first time I booted the computer... I went straight into the BIOS once I had everything in the case.

I went back and enabled the onboard NIC and was able to install the drivers without any problems... it isn't possible for me to run a ethernet cable to it at the moment though, but I'm sure it would work... the device is working properly under the device manager, unlike any of the PCI network cards I've tried to install.

I've also installed SP1 and SP2 just incase it might make a different, but it hasn't.

I also just downloaded the latest 965 chipset drivers from Intel's website and copied them over from my thumb drive and installed them but the same problems occur while trying to install the PCI cards.

 

[vailr]

Originally posted by: Judgement

I've also installed SP1 and SP2 just incase it might make a different, but it hasn't.

I'd recommend making a slipstreamed SP2 installer disc. It's not too difficult to do.
There's several step-by-step tutorials on the web.
And using it for a fresh OS install might result in a more optimized system, compared with: installing the original WinXP version, then later updating to SP2.