help.. ECS L4S8A2 onboard LAN detected incorrectly...

Flakk

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Dec 12, 2002
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This is almost more of a Windows XP question than a motherboard one, but maybe some one out there that has this board (or a L4S8A) has had a similar experience and can help me out.

My motherboard is a ECS L4S8A2

Basically, Windows detects my on-board LAN chip as a Sis900 Lan when in fact it is a RealTek one. I can't do anything to make it use the right driver. I've tried uninstalling the sis driver and re-detecting the hardware, and it only goes for the sis driver. I've tried swapping the driver files to try and trick windows into using the RealTek driver renamed as the sis driver file lol... and that didn't work either. Windows just replaces it somehow with magical driver backups it has.

So someone help! I need to make it use the right driver and it wont let me...........
 

mechBgon

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Oct 31, 1999
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The Realtek coder/decoder chip on the motherboard's surface is probably just serving to connect the board's integrated SiS900 LAN controller to the physical jack you plug the cable into. Very commonly done. If it works, let it be.
 

Flakk

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Dec 12, 2002
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No that's the thing, it doesn't work. I wouldnt complain if it was working :)

On the actual motherboard the chip says Realtek, and the manual does too... so i figure since it must be a wrong driver since its not working with the Sis one

Any ideas?
 

mechBgon

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Oct 31, 1999
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Grrr, ECS' site doesn't seem to have your board listed! :( Ok, uh, plan B. Do you have any other standalone NICs you could use temporarily to get the system to Windows Update, and see if it goes "aha!" and gets the correct driver? Or do you have the mobo's driver CD to see if you can force it from there (except I'm sure you'd have tried that first anyway... :confused: ).

 

Flakk

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Dec 12, 2002
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here's the page. you just have to click on the USA site when u get to the main ECS site.. maybe it's only a board sold in the USA
http://www.ecsusa.com/products/l4s8a2.html

on there they just say "LAN: 10/100Mbps faster Ethernet (optional)" but in the manual and everywhere i've looked it says RealTek (specifically a RTL8201BL), not Sis anywhere.

plan B. Do you have any other standalone NICs you could use temporarily to get the system to Windows Update, and see if it goes "aha!" and gets the correct driver?
yeah I'm using another NIC right now in it and I have updated to the latest service pack. No luck there :\


do you have the mobo's driver CD to see if you can force it from there (except I'm sure you'd have tried that first anyway...
yeah............... tried :(

tis looking grim. but there must be a way
 

mechBgon

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Oct 31, 1999
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My usual method of research is to download the manual for the board in question and skim for the item in question, and I can't find it on their site's download area.

To repeat what I said earlier, many boards do have Realtek chips on them, but just use the Realtek chip as a middleman between the RJ45 jack and the REAL LAN circuitry, which is integrated into the southbridge. If I recall correctly, my ECS K7S5A is set up that way, with SiS900 LAN in the southbridge and a Realtek CODEC on the surface that gets the SiS900's signals to the jack and back. Maybe yours is that way, and it doesn't work because Windows' networking is goofed?

If you do let Windows install the driver it wants to install, does Windows Device Manager show the NIC as being properly installed, or does it show it with an exclaimation point by it as if it needs help?
 

Flakk

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Dec 12, 2002
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If you do let Windows install the driver it wants to install, does Windows Device Manager show the NIC as being properly installed, or does it show it with an exclaimation point by it as if it needs help?
it shows it as being fully operational and correct

If I recall correctly, my ECS K7S5A is set up that way, with SiS900 LAN in the southbridge and a Realtek CODEC on the surface that gets the SiS900's signals to the jack and back. Maybe yours is that way, and it doesn't work because Windows' networking is goofed?
That is a very good possibliity, and was actually where I turned to first but after days of not figuring out what was be wrong with windows settings, I was led to the possibility (and hope) that maybe it was just a bad driver... What you said about the Realtek just being an interface for the Sis LAN underneath is possible, and if so I just wish I knew how to make it work in windows. I've never had problems setting up networks before or getting my internet to work. I'm fairly knowledgeable at that stuff, but i could have missed something.
 

Peter

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Oct 15, 1999
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Exactly. What you got there is an SiS 900 MAC functional unit (this is the datapump engine) integrated with the chipset along with a Realtek PHYsical interface chip. You can tell by looking at the Realtek: 81xx are PCI bus MAC/PHY single chip solutions, 82xx are PHY chips.
 

Flakk

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Dec 12, 2002
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ohh ok. Thanks for confirming that Peter. So now how do i make it work in windows to browse the web?
Usually i dont have a problem, i just plug the cat5 cable in (coming from my dsl) and i'm set
 

Peter

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Oct 15, 1999
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Umm well, install the driver that came on the CD you got with the board? Alternatively download the latest SiS 900 drivers from www.sis.com.
 

Flakk

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Dec 12, 2002
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ive installed many sis drivers.. from both the cd and windows' own, since that's all windows lets me pick anyway. i'll try from the sis site
 

Flakk

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Dec 12, 2002
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no luck.. :\
i guess i'll post up all my settings (in the form of images) for this LAN so u guys can see what i have set wrong
 

Peter

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Oct 15, 1999
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What's wrong anyway? Do the drivers install without complaint and you're just not getting a connection, or what?
 

Flakk

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Dec 12, 2002
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yeah peter.. that's basically it. Here is a big image I took of as many settings as I could fit on the screen.... maybe you will notice something that is wrong.

my windows settings for this lan

also note that I don't ordinarily have "Client for Microsoft Networks", "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" and "QoS Packet Scheduler" on.. but I turned them on out of hope that they would somehow make it work. Anyway... take a look at tell me what u think
 

Peter

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So what do you think is wrong with that? Looks good so far ... if you actually do have a DHCP server on that network segment, that is. Now connect the cable ...
 

Peter

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Originally posted by: Flakk
Ok i plug in the cable and....

this is what happens

and no I dont have a DHCP server.. but I wont worry about that yet :\

Then where do you think the connection parameters should come from? Thin air?

The LAN hardware is up and running, cable detected, that's all the hardware and its driver can do for you. The rest is proper setup of IP addresses, gateways, name servers, that stuff - the higher level of networking, nothing to do with the driver.

I suggest you read up on that.