XP won't load drivers for network adapter

[okalex]

While trying to find a fix for the problem that no network connection was shown in the "Network Connections" section of the control panel I tried to uninstall my LAN adapter from the Device Manager and restart the system.

The device was detected, and I chose the correct drivers from the CD (and again more up-to-date drivers I had on my HD). Then I got the message "the hardware you installed will not work until you restart your computer.

After restarting the system the device appeared again the the Hardware manager, but with an exclamation mark on it, and in its properties the text said "This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device (Code 31)".

I downloaded (using a different computer, of course) an installation utility from Intel's website, and this application gave the message that no device of the kind for which I was trying to install the drivers was present.

I tried to connect a USB wifi device, got the drivers for it, and got the same results: the device is shown in the Device Manager with an exclamation mark on it, and with a message that Windows cannot load the driver for it.

How can this be fixed?

 

[JackMDS]

Get rid of all the Ghost entries in the Device Manager.

Take out, or disable onboard NIC, boot and run the computer one time with No Network cards.

Switch Off install the card and use the latest drivers that you can find on the manufacturer support site.

 

[Pantlegz]

might wanna get driver sweeper too, it's used a lot for video cards that get driver glitches and bug out. it'll removed any drivers that aren't currently being used so run it with all the NIC's removed and see if that helps any.