network card suddenly comes up "unkown"

[Gary Roach]

I've got a customer whose running XP Pro SP2 with a startech ST100S Realtek
8139-based network card. The system had been running fine for several months
and then suddenly the NIC failed and came up as "unknown device" in the
device manager. I uninstalled the device and did a "scan for hardware
changes" but it came back "unknown". I did an "update driver" but Windows
didn't find the driver. I concluded there must be something wrong with the
card so I replaced it with an identical one in the same PCI slot and it
worked fine. After a couple of weeks, it did the same thing as the first. I
replaced it with another one but this time kept the one that failed and
tried it in another machine. It worked fine. I don't know why good cards are
suddenly coming up "unknown" and why replacing them with identical ones in
the same slot fixes the problem (at least temporarily). Can anyone shine
some light on the problem. Spyware is not an issue since neither this
machine nor any machine on the LAN has Internet access.

 

[smlunatick]

I've got a customer whose running XP Pro SP2 with a startech ST100S Realtek
8139-based network card. The system had been running fine for several months
and then suddenly the NIC failed and came up as "unknown device" in the
device manager. I uninstalled the device and did a "scan for hardware
changes" but it came back "unknown". I did an "update driver" but Windows
didn't find the driver. I concluded there must be something wrong with the
card so I replaced it with an identical one in the same PCI slot and it
worked fine. After a couple of weeks, it did the same thing as the first. I
replaced it with another one but this time kept the one that failed and
tried it in another machine. It worked fine. I don't know why good cards are
suddenly coming up "unknown" and why replacing them with identical ones in
the same slot fixes the problem (at least temporarily). Can anyone shine
some light on the problem. Spyware is not an issue since neither this
machine nor any machine on the LAN has Internet access.

Sypwares / viruses can be "delivered" by "infested" media from outside
sources.

 

[Gary Roach]

No chance.

I've got a customer whose running XP Pro SP2 with a startech ST100S
Realtek
8139-based network card. The system had been running fine for several
months
and then suddenly the NIC failed and came up as "unknown device" in the
device manager. I uninstalled the device and did a "scan for hardware
changes" but it came back "unknown". I did an "update driver" but Windows
didn't find the driver. I concluded there must be something wrong with the
card so I replaced it with an identical one in the same PCI slot and it
worked fine. After a couple of weeks, it did the same thing as the first.
I
replaced it with another one but this time kept the one that failed and
tried it in another machine. It worked fine. I don't know why good cards
are
suddenly coming up "unknown" and why replacing them with identical ones in
the same slot fixes the problem (at least temporarily). Can anyone shine
some light on the problem. Spyware is not an issue since neither this
machine nor any machine on the LAN has Internet access.

Sypwares / viruses can be "delivered" by "infested" media from outside
sources.

 

[Paul]

I've got a customer whose running XP Pro SP2 with a startech ST100S Realtek
8139-based network card. The system had been running fine for several months
and then suddenly the NIC failed and came up as "unknown device" in the
device manager. I uninstalled the device and did a "scan for hardware
changes" but it came back "unknown". I did an "update driver" but Windows
didn't find the driver. I concluded there must be something wrong with the
card so I replaced it with an identical one in the same PCI slot and it
worked fine. After a couple of weeks, it did the same thing as the first. I
replaced it with another one but this time kept the one that failed and
tried it in another machine. It worked fine. I don't know why good cards are
suddenly coming up "unknown" and why replacing them with identical ones in
the same slot fixes the problem (at least temporarily). Can anyone shine
some light on the problem. Spyware is not an issue since neither this
machine nor any machine on the LAN has Internet access.

Use a program like Everest, and check the enumeration of the card.

I have a cheap PCI sound card, and occasionally one data bus bit makes
bad contact with the socket. The mechanical details of the card are wrong,
and the faceplate doesn't fit properly.

I can see in Everest, when the thing is not making contact, and reseating
the card fixes it.

I have plenty of other PCI cards, that fit smoothly in the same slot, so
it isn't an alignment problem between motherboard and case, or the use of
the wrong standoffs. In fact, I have two of the same kind of sound card
(not the msame brand, but using the same chip), and they appear to have
come from the same factory. They have the same "inspected by" stamp, and yet
are competing brands You get what you pay for, I guess.

Paul