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Very Bizarre PC problem


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Gday all.

 

I have a very bizarre PC problem . Not sure if anyone can help or not .

I have a home network with 3 PC's. 2 PC's are connected via Netgear wireless PCI cards, the 3rd is connected via ethernet cable. All are connected to a Netgear router, the router is configured for MAC address authentication.

I wanted to swap my daughters PC with a faster machine .

The machine I want to give her is an AMD Athalon that I have been using as my PC for several years with a NIC card in it.

So .. should be simple .. do the usual to move her stuff to the 'new' PC and instal the wireless card in it.

 

So .. I installed the wireless card no problem but after 5 - 10 mins I no longer have an internet connection.. but the Netgear software thinks the card is still connected to the network, though the router says its not.

The PC has no complaints at all (eg.. no address conflicts etc)

I've tried different PCI slots .. same problem.

I reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows, removed all other cards (except the graphics card) and still have the same problem.

Was beginning to think it was the wireless card gone faulty .. but I put it back in the old machine and it works fine :o

 

I also tried changing the IRQ addresses in BIOS from Auto to dedicated values per slot, but still have the problem.

 

Even tried just getting Windows XP to configure the wireless connection (rather than using the Netgear software) .. still the same problem

 

I have run out of ideas and simply can't fathom this one.

 

Anyone got any suggestions .. it is totally bizare.

 

Rgds

Dave

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Real tough call.

 

Some basic level things off the top of my head:

 

Make sure the motherboard BIOS is the latest version. Sometimes oddball behaviour like this can be addressed after the boards are released. A long shot, but I prefer to start here as it really is annoying to find out last that this was the cause! At the very least you ensure the motherboard is current!

 

Also make sure you are using the latest driver from netgear for the wireless card.

 

Additionally, does your router have any access controls or firewall setup on it?

 

These are some things I can think of right now...

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Real tough call.

 

Some basic level things off the top of my head:

 

Make sure the motherboard BIOS is the latest version. Sometimes oddball behaviour like this can be addressed after the boards are released. A long shot, but I prefer to start here as it really is annoying to find out last that this was the cause! At the very least you ensure the motherboard is current!

 

Also make sure you are using the latest driver from netgear for the wireless card.

 

Additionally, does your router have any access controls or firewall setup on it?

 

These are some things I can think of right now...

 

Thanks for the input Jacob.

Yes, I thought about BIOS. Will have to check and although they are different MB , I am pretty sure the PC I'm trying to use has a new BIOS than the old PC .

 

Also thought about updating the driver for the Netgear card .

 

No, there is currently no firewall or access controls setup on the router .. but there should be !! another job waiting for me .

 

All I know atm is its definitely down to some sort of comaptibility issue between the PC and the Wireless card .. as you can prbably appreciate this issue has sucked up way too many hours of my time already , but I am determined to somehow solve it .. as I am with the fault with my Spanish Eyes pin.

 

Between them , these 2 issues are driving me nuts right now:rolleyes

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Thanks for the input Jacob.

Yes, I thought about BIOS. Will have to check and although they are different MB , I am pretty sure the PC I'm trying to use has a new BIOS than the old PC .

 

Also thought about updating the driver for the Netgear card .

 

No, there is currently no firewall or access controls setup on the router .. but there should be !! another job waiting for me .

 

All I know atm is its definitely down to some sort of comaptibility issue between the PC and the Wireless card .. as you can prbably appreciate this issue has sucked up way too many hours of my time already , but I am determined to somehow solve it .. as I am with the fault with my Spanish Eyes pin.

 

Between them , these 2 issues are driving me nuts right now:rolleyes

 

no worries, you'll get them both :D

 

with the bios, they are unique to each motherboard model. I think it is worth checking with your problem...

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My PC seems to be haunted today too.

 

Inserted USB key - PC crashed.

 

PC rebooted but was missing one of its NICs ( Gig NIC is to my NAS, 100MB NIC to my router), my trusty 3COM NIC card was flagged as having "issues".

 

Removed device in hardware mgr, scanned for new hardware, it found the NIC but reinstalled saying "device could not start".

 

Pulled NIC card out, put in another mobo slot to make XP think harder about it, PC booted, found "PCI Device", couldnt tell what it was or find drivers.

 

Cabled my Gigabit NIC to my router, could not ping gateway, nothing I could do would get it to talk to my router, even when hard set to 100/FD.

 

Rummaged around in my crap box, found ancient spare NIC, plugged in, XP didnt recognise it, with no internet I couldnt get much further. Jumped on the wifes laptop, found last driver made for that card was Win2K, tried that, didnt work, did not detect CAT5 was attached.

 

About to get angry, put 3COM NIC back in, same deal, device "could not start.

 

Removed card case screw to pull out card next time I powered down, started to faff with something else, 15 minutes later windows informed me that my new hardware was ready to use. Reconfiged the addressing, and could ping the world at large, and all was well again.

 

This is all with a brand new install of XP SP3, correct drivers etc etc (these 3COM drivers are built into XP and have been since the very 1st release, nothing newer for these old workhorse cards since then).

 

Am beginning to suspect its a grounding issue, card has issues when grounded to the case with its screw. USB key must have pushed something on the back connector as it was inserted causing some ground effects that rebooted the box.

 

To think I used to find this crap fun :x

Edited by Womble
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@goodoldays. Setup your router with no MAC authentication nor any security. See how you run with that then add those in after. I have similar problems to what you have so I do the above and always solved it
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@goodoldays. Setup your router with no MAC authentication nor any security. See how you run with that then add those in after. I have similar problems to what you have so I do the above and always solved it

 

Gday acejas .. I tried that but it didn't help .

 

Looks like I have finally fixed it by resetting BIOS to default values so you guys were on the money suggesting a BIOS problem. I have also not reinstalled the Netgear software, just letting Windows connect to the router.

 

You can probably guess how many hours I've wasted stuffing around with this one:rolleyes

 

Thanks for all your suggestions.

 

Rgds

Dave

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Bugger ! Its not fixed after all.. now drops the connection after about 45 mins , whereas before it was 5 - 10 mins .

I tried updating the Wireless card driver to latest version and have somehow totally screwed the PC .. can't even login to Windows, can't even boot up from my XP CD .

 

Will have to format the HDD in another machine and start all over .:cry

 

Note: I have had hardly any probs with my Netgear stuff since I bought it about 3 years ago .. and have migrated the same wireless card into other PC's before with no prob. Of course, all my Mobo's are pretty old .. I think the newest is about 2003.

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