Drivers for Internet Card?

[karl]

Hello folks, I'm helping out my girlfriend's parents with their computer, they had a virus and a very full hard drive so I decided to do a fresh install of XP on a new 320 GB drive for some breathing room and the installation progressed with no hiccups. Here's my problem: I'm having trouble connecting to the internet. They have service through Charter and have a modem sitting next to their PC. Called tech support and said everything on their end was looking good but the modem was telling him that it's not plugged into the PC. This led me to the conclusion that the new OS doesn't have the proper drivers to run the internet card, it doesn't even recognize there is a LAN cable connected.

Everything works fine when I switch back to the old HD, which strengthens my suspicions of the lack of drivers. Short of digitally tearing apart the old hard drive in search of those drivers, can anyone tell me what I may need to fix the problem? Upgrading to Windows 7 is not a viable option, they're strapped for cash and would need to purchase both the OS and some extra RAM to run it smoothly.

Thank you for reading.

[KC5AV]

Make sure that the network card driver is the problem.
Right click on My Computer. Select Manage. Click on Device Manager when the screen comes up. If the driver for the network card is not installed, you should see an exclamation point next to the network adapter.
You can do the same thing on the old system to find out what type of card driver you need.

[lrb111]

Hello folks, I'm helping out my girlfriend's parents with their computer, they had a virus and a very full hard drive so I decided to do a fresh install of XP on a new 320 GB drive for some breathing room and the installation progressed with no hiccups. Here's my problem: I'm having trouble connecting to the internet. They have service through Charter and have a modem sitting next to their PC. Called tech support and said everything on their end was looking good but the modem was telling him that it's not plugged into the PC. This led me to the conclusion that the new OS doesn't have the proper drivers to run the internet card, it doesn't even recognize there is a LAN cable connected.

Everything works fine when I switch back to the old HD, which strengthens my suspicions of the lack of drivers. Short of digitally tearing apart the old hard drive in search of those drivers, can anyone tell me what I may need to fix the problem? Upgrading to Windows 7 is not a viable option, they're strapped for cash and would need to purchase both the OS and some extra RAM to run it smoothly.

Thank you for reading.

Cable modems generally recognize MAC addresses of computers. Your modem may have the MAC address of the old harddrive as the device to connect to.
You can change a HD's Mac. IIRC there is a program out there that will do that. You may have to Google that.

[Pawpaw]

Hard drives don't have MAC addresses. Only ethernet devices do.

[pbwalker]

When you look at the Device Manager, are you seeing any yellow question marks? Does the machine recognize the NIC itself?

If you know the model # and manufacturer, I can track down the drivers if needed...

[RPB]

Ok in review, you state:
External cable modem sitting next to their PC from Charter.

First, have you installed the motherboard drivers?
Motherboard drivers aren't included with Windows, but come on a separate CD with the computer, or generally you can download them to a CD on another computer to install on that one.

1) Is this modem connected by USB? (if so, you might need the modem driver)

[quick question, does the sound work ok? I ask because often, if you haven't installed motherboard driver CD after installing Windows, the drivers for the sound chip and network chip aren't installed yet, until you install the motherboard driver CD, although some sound chip drivers are built into Windows, not all are]


2) or, more commonly is the modem connected by a network cat-5 type cable (looks sorta like a telephone plug) no drivers needed for modem itself, but for the network card/chip, except for the NIC, Network Interface Card (which may be included in the MOTHERBOARD DRIVERS, if the "NIC" is onboard.

2 weeks ago a neighbor reinstalled windows and couldn't connect to their wireless network though other computers did ,,,, they hadn't installed the motherboard drivers after reinstalling Windows.

3) If and only if all drivers (Motherboard/NIC/Modem if needed) are present, and it all works, but won't connect to the modem or network,

you might need to tell Windows the correct IP address to connect to the modem/network ONLY if the "auto obtain IP address" doesn't work
http://www.myaccount.charter.com/custom ... cleid=1419" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You might first check the subnetting by calling charter for what IP address/subnet is used (specifically the last two "octets") in IPv4 addressing
Then, you could try assigning an IP address such as 192.168.0.243 and you can try ip address 192.168.0.1, as an alternate configuration GATEWAY to obtain ip address automatically on the other tab, unless they use a different one at charter like 192.168.100.1 or 192.168.1.1 (they can probably tell you if you call support)




After you get it connected, if they used a charter e-mail address, you'll need this info for the e-mail servers:
http://www.myaccount.charter.com/custom ... cleid=1658" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RPB]

One other thought, though probably not the case:
I suppose is a remote possibility:

If a modem connected to USB is not backward compatible, say if it is USB 2.0 ONLY, then Windows XP SP2 must be installed to get USB2.0 compatibility.

One could download SP2 to a CD on another computer to install to that one
-----------
Another thought is of OLD driver incompatibility AFTER SP2 is installed, though probably not the case:.
(This also works for other incompatible programs and devices, but can "theoretically" reduce security)


This can be remedied by turning OFF Data Execution Prevention in the following way:

1) Open My Computer, Tools, Folder Options, View, check Show hidden files; uncheck Hide protected operating system files, (while there for better security uncheck hide extensions)
click Ok until it closes

2) Go to your C:\ drive
a) look for a file named boot.ini (to be safe, right click copy, then right click paste, so you have a copy)
b) right click boot.ini and select Properties
c) uncheck read only
d) right click boot.ini and open with ... Notepad
e) you will see a lineWINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
change OptIn to say
WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=AlwaysOff

f) Click File Save
g) restart computer

Then old incompatible drivers (for modems/printers/mice whatever) will generally work without causing the "blue screen of death" caused by SP2 adding the noexecute switch for DEP (Data Execution Prevention)


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875352#3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I was the first to first publish this "fix" many years ago, right after SP2 was being released, I had to teach Symantc/Norton (Goback program) and several other companies whose software or hardware no longer worked after SP2, many others read my post and know this now, it can apply to subsequent versions of Windows too, along with the NoPAE switch regarding 64 bit computers
I posted and announced it elsewhere earlier in 2005, but here was my post when I announced it at Aumha.net (If you Google NoExecute=AlwaysOff, you'll see how fast info can spread on the Internet lol) http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?f=46&p=91276" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[karl]

I knew there was a reason I asked this question here, thanks for all the tips and advice. No disk for any drivers at all, I figure I'll need that first and diagnose it after those have been installed. While I'm at it I'll download the service packs as well, does SP2 supersede previous packs (do I need to install SP1 to install Sp2, etc.)? Plugged in via cat-5 cable. I don't have the computer in front of me, I'll be heading there again next week, I just wanted to get my homework done before I try this again.

[KC5AV]

You do not have to install SP1 to install SP2.
Hook up the old drive, and get to the device manager. Find out what kind of network card is in it. You should be able to then go to the manufacturer's website and download a new driver. Copy that driver to a flash drive or a cd, and swap out drives... of course, make note of any other drivers that aren't installed, such as chipset drivers, audio drivers, etc. while yo
If the PC is from a name brand manufacturer (Dell, Gateway, etc), your best bet would be to look at their website, as all of the drivers should be in pretty much the same place.

[RPB]

You do not have to install SP1 to install SP2.
Hook up the old drive, and get to the device manager. Find out what kind of network card is in it. You should be able to then go to the manufacturer's website and download a new driver. Copy that driver to a flash drive or a cd, and swap out drives... of course, make note of any other drivers that aren't installed, such as chipset drivers, audio drivers, etc. while yo

If the PC is from a name brand manufacturer (Dell, Gateway, etc), your best bet would be to look at their website, as all of the drivers should be in pretty much the same place.

True, manufacturer's website usually have under "Support" "Downloads" all the LATEST drivers by each computer's model number. That's actually a better way than them finding the original motherboard CD, due to driver updates.

You could call the friends, get the model number, download the motherboard and all drivers for that model computer to a CD, (unzip them if needed) then they'll all be ready when you go there again.

Most NIC chips are on the motherboard nowadays, and are included in the motherboard driver CD/download page (Although if lightning hit near an unprotected computer and only burned out a NIC chip or card, you could install a cheapie PCI network card and plugged it in and use that instead, and disable the original onboard Network "card" in the BIOS setup)

Still, you should always install motherboard drivers, because you will almost always get better compatibility/speed with specific drivers for you AGP,ATA/IDE/SATA/Sound and other specific chips on the motherboard than with generic Windows drivers. (Same goes with video cards)

[LeeShane]

Check whether motherboard has an onboard/built in LAN/Ethernet connection on the motherboard.
All of the drivers have been checked for viruses using the latest Anti-Virus Software, however, as with all downloads it is recommended that you virus check them first before installing them on your pc. We usually recommend trying the original Manufacturers site for drivers

[karl]

You'll never guess how easy this fix was in reality. On the old hard drive there was a folder called "Drivers". I dragged and dropped.

[xducnx]

You'll never guess how easy this fix was in reality. On the old hard drive there was a folder called "Drivers". I dragged and dropped.

im surprised that worked, as most drivers need to be installed.

[pbwalker]

You'll never guess how easy this fix was in reality. On the old hard drive there was a folder called "Drivers". I dragged and dropped.

im surprised that worked, as most drivers need to be installed.

Actually, drivers don't need to be "installed" per se. It's just that manufacturers bundle their drivers in to an executable most times, so any user can double click it. Technically, sys, dll's, ini's, etc. are not "installable" in the technical term. You can download the actual driver, point the device to that driver, and presto.

I suspect, in this instance, the system found all the drivers...