SOLVED - Unable to install programs / or run setup to install prog

M

mitchd123

My system kept crashing when ever I tried to install any new program, or run
setup of any kind, including the Windows Update.

I went through the knowledge base article which describes about 10 methods
to resolve the issue, and none of them worked. I eventually did a reinstall
which worked for about 2 days.

Turns out the problem was a network card. Believe it or not, the network
card was corrupting the downloads, and setup was failing. This was not just
a failed download. When I switched network cards it started working, but
after I redownload the programs again.

This was not an isolated incident of a bad dowload, it was a systemic
problem. The good and bad file sizes were identical. The ONLY difference
between the files that I could find, was the good one had a perfect digital
signature, and the bad one had a bad digital signature. I tried multiple
downloads with the bad nic, and they all failed. This was the strangest
problem I run across in a while. I was to the point with the bad nic that I
was attempting to input the certificate, and trying different browsers, and
nothing would work. What clued me in was occasionally I would get an
encoding error when opening a web page in the browser. But a quick reload
and the error would go away.

The nic auto detects as a Dynex Gigabit PCI Adapter. I used the Microsoft
signed driver, and also the official OEM driver. The NIC is a Zonet
ZEN3310E Gigabit PCI. It's a basic low cost OEM so you may see it by a
different name.

I hope this saves other people problems, I chased this error for weeks.
 
R

Ron Badour

Thanks for the feedback and since it will go into the Google archives, it is
sure to help someone down the line.

--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP
Windows Desktop Experience
 
B

Big_Al

mitchd123 said this on 12/19/2008 11:33 PM:
My system kept crashing when ever I tried to install any new program, or run
setup of any kind, including the Windows Update.

I went through the knowledge base article which describes about 10 methods
to resolve the issue, and none of them worked. I eventually did a reinstall
which worked for about 2 days.

Turns out the problem was a network card. Believe it or not, the network
card was corrupting the downloads, and setup was failing. This was not just
a failed download. When I switched network cards it started working, but
after I redownload the programs again.

This was not an isolated incident of a bad dowload, it was a systemic
problem. The good and bad file sizes were identical. The ONLY difference
between the files that I could find, was the good one had a perfect digital
signature, and the bad one had a bad digital signature. I tried multiple
downloads with the bad nic, and they all failed. This was the strangest
problem I run across in a while. I was to the point with the bad nic that I
was attempting to input the certificate, and trying different browsers, and
nothing would work. What clued me in was occasionally I would get an
encoding error when opening a web page in the browser. But a quick reload
and the error would go away.

The nic auto detects as a Dynex Gigabit PCI Adapter. I used the Microsoft
signed driver, and also the official OEM driver. The NIC is a Zonet
ZEN3310E Gigabit PCI. It's a basic low cost OEM so you may see it by a
different name.

I hope this saves other people problems, I chased this error for weeks.

I fought with my ISP for like weeks with an intermittent loss of data
over my nic. Tests were so intermittent, I could get good tests one
minute and not the other. I swore even other PC's had the issue. I
finally installed a 10/100 nic for 9$ (cheapest card I could find) and
the problem disappeared. Turned out the gigabit nic on my motherboard
did not work with my cable modem. How I got other PC's in the house to
have the same issue was beyond me but they too cleared up. 2 years
later I moved to FIOS and the new modem/router they gave me works with
the gigabit now and I was able to remove the 10/100 card.

I reloaded too, but had a spare drive and just put the minimal on it to
test things.

Don't computers make our life so much more fun!
 

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