XP Home, dual nics, DHCP fails, network fails

[Dale]

I have a Northgate PC with a builtin NIC and a second NIC
that I added. The NICS are connected to separate DHCP
routers. Things worked great for several weeks.

After a day of updates from MSOFT and some recent
software installs, both NICS are failing with either DHCP
or using assigned IP addresses... I tried:
- uninstalling all recently installed software
- removing the NICS in safe mode
- disabling one or both NICS
- both NICS will sense 'cable changes' - they correctly
report when the cable is removed/inserted into the router
or if the router is powered down/up
- if I manually configure the NICS then local (I can ping
the loopback and the NIC IP) network access works, but
traffic will not move beyond the PC...
- using MS XP 'help and support' tools I get the message
below:

DHCPServer = 255.255.255.255(Invalid IP Address)

I installed a USB NIC, used DHCP and that is how I am
currently surfing... (So now I have three NICS with two
of them not working.)

I am speculating that this is buried deep in the registry
and based on google results this is an old problem (with
re-install of XP as the only solution!)

I appear to be at SP2.

Thanks for any help!

Dale

 

[Dale]

Update:
- I physically removed the 2nd NIC, rebooted, shutdown
and re-installed the card (in a different slot) and this
card is now working again
- the builtin NIC continues with the same problems
- in safe mode I attempted to remove the internal NIC
after disabling at the BIOS level; the OS would not allow
me to remove it using the hardware manager
- also, in safe mode, 'extra' NICs are showing up (which
cannot be removed.)

While this is certainly a learning experience I am not
having fun yet...

 

[Dale]

Good news - MSW 'system restore' resolved the problem
(both NICs now working fine...)

I will now attempt to re-install any software (including
MSW updates) to see if I can get past having this
problem...

Wish me luck!