Problem with a network card....?

Question

Okay techies, try this one out:

Running 4 pcs on a network connected to a router (and then cable modem for internet)

I wiped and did a clean install on one of the computers (worked fine before, just have a new person starting so we wipe) XP Pro installed just fine and is up and running.

Trouble is, there is no network connectivity. Driver is good, just gives me the 169.x.x.x c**p IP. Tested the line with a laptop, and the network line works just fine.

I've uninstalled/reinstalled the network card, reset all modems, routers, pc's etc, even redid the clean install. The status light on the router doesn't even light up when I plug this pc in now...

So:

Is the card dead? How could I test it?

Why won't the stupid thing get a proper ip though dhcp? (router configured for ips 192.168.1.100 through 149)

I'm pulling my hair out here. Any ideas??

Answer 1

Try reinstalling the NIC - and make sure the XP firewall is off (or any other 3rd party firewall software)

Try a diff port on the router, try a different NIC. the key is testing 1 thing at a time.

Good luck

Answer 2

i`ve had this problem b4, your probably have an ip conflict, one good way to fix such a problem is to force the pc to connect to this go to network connection click on the connect being used click properties  @ the bottom of the component list select tcp/ip  select properties, then select  use the following , ...assign a ip, sub fills in automatic gateway is your routers address.

good luck dee

Answer 3

Does the NIC show up when you go to the device manager?  If so, try replacing the NIC.

Make sure the NIC is not disabled once installed.  Also double check the power profile in control panel, you may have inadvertantly got a laptop profile that disables the nic.

Answer 4

169.254.x.x addresses are APIPA addresses. A Windows NT (2000 and up) system will resort to using an APIPA address if it cannot negotiate with the DHCP server for a lease on an IP. If you're plugging the network cable into this NIC and not getting any status lights, then the NIC is either dead, or the drivers you're running it with aren't working correctly.

It sounds like you've already done some of this, but here's what I'd check:

- Is the NIC properly seated in the slot? (if it's an add-on card and not a built-in card).

- Are the drivers you're running the latest versions, and for that specific make, model and REVISION (a lot of NIC manufacturers will have a TON of revisions of the same model card and they sometimes have several different drivers for the different revisions).

- Is there a software firewall that might be interfering? (Windows Firewall usually wont block DHCP requests or responses, but I've seen crazy stuff happen before)

- Does another NIC work in this box? a new NIC is extremely cheap - paying more than $15 for one from a big-box store is unheard of these days and they can be bought online for literally a couple bucks.

From your description of the activity lights not coming on, I'd say it's most likely a dead NIC, but there is also a new nework access control feature in SP3 (don't remember their name for it). This feature might be malfunctioning and disallowing you to accept the DHCP responses from your router. rolling back to SP2 would remove this feature and might be worth checking out as well.