NIC Troubles: NT->XP (WNT)

[WayneStrauss]

Background: I had 2 networked NT machines: 1 crashed so I decided to "bite the bullet" and rebuild it with XP. After much hair pulling I finally got the XP machine to see and access the NT box. Then I went to work trying to get the NT box to see the XP machine.

What happened: Since the NT box came with hardware/software fully installed, I looked at the original documentation to find NIC specifics (i.e., 3COM 3C900 PCI) so that's the driver I downloaded from 3COM. Following 3COM's instructions, I removed the NIC from Network>Adapters, protocalls from Network>Protocalls, and rebooted. I then tried to add the NIC (Network>Adapters>Add>HaveDisk) but got "Network card is not present in the system."

However, ControlPanel>Devices showed that the NIC was actually a 3COM 3C59X Bus Master. Oops. So, I repeated the procedure, this time selecting a 3COM 3C59X from the list of adapters and getting the driver from the original NT CD, but I got the same failure message.

Now, both adapters show up in ControlPanel>Devices.

1. I assume the 3COM 3C59X is responsible for the NT box not being able to see the XP box? But, if that's true, how could the XP box see the NT box? BTW 3COM does not have new drivers for the 3C59X.

2. I suppose I'll have to install a new NIC?

3. What did I do wrong?

4. How do I get rid of the 2 devices?

[Brf]

4. How do I get rid of the 2 devices?


Select the bad one in Device Manager or Network and delete it.

[WayneStrauss]

I'm really sorry! I neglected to specify that I'm running NT 4.0. There is no Device Manager in NT 4.0. When I wrote "in Drivers in NT" I meant Start>Control Panel>Devices shows two NIC's. There's also no place in Start>Control Panel>Network to delete them.

[Brf]

With NT-4:
Start/Controlpanel/Network "adapters" tab should let you delete one.

[WayneStrauss]

Normally that's true but I followed the 3COM instructions for installing the new drivers (remember: I thought the drivers might need updating and probably got drivers for the wrong NIC) which said to remove the adapter, protocalls and bindings, which all now have no entries.

So, Control Panel>Devices shows two adapters as does the registry. And, each time I try to add an adapter (I've used both the NT installation CD and files downloaded from 3COM) the system responds with "Network card is not present in the system".

[Brf]

Have you tried a different PCI slot? A busmaster card will not work in the "last" PCI slot.