Win98SE looking for missing NIC

[Bassyhead]

On my friend's Pent2 machine, Windows 98SE fails to boot. He recently uninstalled an old NIC (some Intel EtherExpress, not sure which one) and did remove it under device manager. It seems that Windows is trying to access the card or network upon startup. How can I remove network support from the computer in order to get it to boot? Right now, it will only boot in Safe Mode.

 

[Theslowone]

can you not disable or remove the device from safe mode?

 

[masterc]

You may want to go into the Autoexac.bat and config.sys files...
REM any commands pertaining to the network card, then reboot...
Oh, you will have to boot up from a bootable disk

 

[altonb1]

When you say that the machine fails to boot, what tells you that it is failing? This probably sounds like a stupid question, but really, it's not. Are you assuming that it won't boot because it goes through POST and starts loading Windows but never gets to the GUI? How long are you waiting before assuming that it is hung and rebooting? Are you having problems even getting to POST, or do you see the Starting Windows... screen?

If you can boot into safe mode, go to device manager (system from Control panel, OR right click on My Computer, select properties, then Device manager tab, or just Windows key (flag) & pause key) and look in every category (skip system devices unless you want issues) and remove any devices that aren't currently installed. Many times, you will see multiple items under Displays, video adapters, etc if you have upgraded your hardware since installing the OS. (On business PCs, I have seen so many multiple monitor entries, and every entry is taking up space in your registry making it much larger and fragmented than it needs to be)

Make sure you look under ther network adapters and see if the dvice is still listed in there somehow. It may still be there in some form.

After removing the miscellaneous devices (if unsure, leave it), go to the network tab in Control panel and make sure the card is no longer listed there. If it is, remove it. Reboot into normal mode and see if your problem still exists.