PCI Issue

[ironbaden]

First Off let me say ...." well done yerself Paul " and secondly... HELP!!!!!!! ;D

OK.... Here's the issue..... A Friend called and said please help me I can't connect to the internet. I was on this morning and when I came home I can't connect. She said .. " I called my service provider and all is well on there end ".... so I get her into Device manager and sure enuff there is a Question mark by.... PCI simple Communications controller ( i had asked her what OS she was running and she told me first Vista and now XP... I'll explain ) so I said to her.... I'll pop down and have a look. When I get there I see the XP splash screen and yet the Vista background and Orb is there. she proceeds to tell me... I had windows 2000 on and I'd really like to have it back. so I F-Disk the machine and Put Windows 2000 Pro on. Format goes wonderfull and all drivers load including the Realtek Nic Card...all drivers except..... PCI simple Communications controller ... so I grab the mother board disk.... ( ASUS A7V-E ) ... this loads but....... not the PCI simple Communications controller. I take the computer home and try about 30 drivers I found on the Tinternet and also tried several working NIC cards.... ( note.... her NIC worked in another machine )..... everything on the puter works.... just can't connect to the internet. also there are no lights on the NIC in the back of her puter. Is this a motherboard issue?

[Emerald Midi]

Wow! What a question to start young Paul started with. I am looking forward to his response on this. But if in the mean time others wish to jump in with a possible solution for Baden's problem then please do

Best of luck with that Baden.

[ironbaden]

LOL...Put him to the test early eh?... I've been messing around with puters for about 4 years..... I just don't have the space to set up shop.... I just can't figure this out... gotta be hard ware... gotta be ( Grabs large glass, Ice and Rum!!! ) ;D

[levi2]

have you tried going into the bios maybe summit is off there

[kemo]

Hi Baden, Firstly well done you have covered alot of the Troubleshooting already. What I see as your potential issue is the version of Windows being used. Id Suggest you run a parallel install of XP along with win2K (that you have already installed) to see if using XP it picks up the Driver required. When I say a parallel install I mean Having Both Operating Systems running side by side. This is a link on how to run a parallel install.

www.windowsreinstall.com/winxppro/installxpcdparallell/indexfullpage.htm

Good Luck M8

[paulhcctt]

PCI Simple Communications controller describes a generic, possible OEM (Original Equipment manufacturer) component, have you tried referring to the manufacturers website with the PC model number.??

also, on the modem (I'm assuming here it is a modem considering the NIC card installed) should have a model number printed on the PCB, have you tried www.windrivers.com they have an extensive library of drivers. you could also look at the IRQ adressing as there may be a conflict.

a hybrid install of xp is a good idea, but only works properly with 2 HD's. so if only 1 hard disk installed, it's not a good idea.

to detect the actual name of the modem, there's a great piece of kit called Belarc Advisor: www.belarc.com/free_download.html it will give you the details and as anadded bonus, extract all the drivers you need for your next install/rebuild

if it is a NIC and it has installed but not connecting, check the cabling and the seating of the card in the PCI slot. after this you will have to repair the IP address, also look at the Broadband modem and run a diagnostic

(Covering all bases here)

PS: Thanks for throwing me rightly in the deep end

[ironbaden]

Thanks for the responses guy's.... first off for Kemo..Great Idea about the dual install.. I'm hesitant to upgrade or even dual to XP for one reason.... I think its a hardware issue.... here's why I feel this way.... the original Operating system was windows 98 and then was upgraded to windows 2000 which ( as far As I know ) found the proper drivers and installed them. I've had been running this version of 2000 for about 2 years on an old computer before the hard drive crashed. This Her computer has no new hardware there is no reason in my mind that 2000 shouldn't work. But its not a bad idea.

For Paul..... Thanks M8 ..good luck with this there are so many people that need help..... About the manufacturers website... good idea but the machine is at least 5 years old and looks to be a put together.... Besides its a ASUS Motherboard and I have the mother board disk and I went to te ASUS Website and got an update for the mother board ( ASUS A7V-E ) I've been to windrivers.com and Drivers .com and a bunch of other places. as far as the Modem is concerned... good idea... that may be my next step... since the modem is a Motorolla and belongs to the internet company we may just get them to look at it. altho they claim everything is ok on there end.... I'll keep ya posted

UPDATE------------------------------------------------------

Issue Resolved....... as it turns out the Nic card was faulty... would work sometimes and not others...... it tricked me cuz when i tried it on my puter it worked. and....... her Network cable was bad... I never even thought to check it..... so..... there ya have it... another happy clam......... this section could turn out to be a trully great feature.... ;D

Glad you resolved the issue, pci cards can be so tricky, when installing a card, i always try to leave securing it with a screw til last in case it seats wrong in the slot. glad your friend is back online