Replacing Network Card

[naicidrac]

Hey Guys,
This past weekend we had some lighting on Friday and when I got home my internet was not working. I tried to renew my IP address, but that did not work. I called my ISP and he said that if there was lighting it could have zapped my cable modem or my network card. He told me that my modem was working just fine, but he could not see my computer so he thought it would be my network card. I went to my favorite local computer store and I bought a Zonet 10/1000 fast ethernet card. I replaced the old one and put the 3.5'' floppy in to run the setup.exe. I was shown a page that readLAN Adapter setup. If any network driver installed, pres ESC to exit and press space bar to continue. Then when I press the space bar it tells me that there fatal error, and there is no LAN board found on my system. I have tried many different ways to install the new hardware and soft ware. I have re-seated the network card and I tried a different PCI slot. When I ping the IP for the card it tells me that it is timed out. I would appreciate any help that you guys can offer.

Thanks,

[DIY Guy]

If you had an on-board LAN before, you should disable it in BIOS before trying to install this one. You can also go into your system properties and delete any references to any LAN card. Reboot the system and then try yo install the new card.

[naicidrac]

Thanks DIY guy,
I will try that later on. I went to my device manager and unistalled the reltek ethernet card, but I will try it again. Thanks

[naicidrac]

I have one more question about the BIOS. I know how to get in there, but I have actually never messed with the BIOS. What should I do when I get in there? I guess I will find out when I get in there and see. I will also uninstall it in the device manager. Thanks for the help.

[naicidrac]

Hello DIY Guy,
Last night I got into my BIOS and I saw the ethernet card and beside it it said IRQ 11 or something like that. I pressed enter to take a look at it and it closed that window and. So then I just pressed escape to get out and I tried to reboot. I swear I didn't get in the BIOS and mess it all up. Now it tells me that windows cannot open because a file is missing or corrupted. I checked my hard drive and it passed so it must be a software problem. The file missing is \Windows\System32\Config\System.

Thanks for any help.

[DIY Guy]

No I don't think you could do anything in BIOS to cause a missing system file.

If you have a back up, you can boot into DOS and copy the file over.

You can also try installing the file from a Windows disk. If you have a similar system you could even copy the system file from that PC over.

[naicidrac]

Yes I have found out that it was just a coincidence that the missing system file went missing after I looked in the BIOS. I barrowed a Windows XP install disc from a friend. I put the disc in and restarted the computer, when I saw the Dell logo I hit "r" to get into the repair console and now it tells me error 8206 keyboard failure hit F1 to continue which does nothing and hit F2 to go into Setup Utility which takes me into the BIOS. I checked the BIOS and in my boot sequence the CD-ROM is first. Thanks for all of the help. I will keep working on it.

[alabama13]

Did you try a system restore. If you can't get through to windows try to restart computer and keep hitting F8. You will get a screen with different options. One of the will be Last know good configuration. This should get you into windows. Then you can go to a date before you had the problem and perform a system restore.