Yeah. I'm trying to install a NIC on an oldass P2 box through the PCI slots on the board. So I slide it in, easy as pie, right? Boot up, nothing. No auto-detection, no lights on the NIC light up, and I'm pretty sure it's securely in place. I've updated the drivers on the soft side just to make sure. Any bright ideas left out there?
Could be many reasons :p For a start, most NICs don't light up unless a live network cable is plugged into them as well. If you're certain it's not detected though, and you've tried the manual Add New Hardware wizard and looked through Device Manager for devices, then try the NIC in another PC to make sure the NICs not faulty, the NIC in a different PCI slot to make sure it's not the slot that's faulty, and check the connectors for dust/dirt in the PCI slots themselves and the contacts on the card to make sure they're connecting properly.
You should hate Windows 98. :)
As for the lighting up issue, I plugged a CAT5 cable from the old box to my good laptop, so that should be considered live enough. Of course, it still doesn't light up, indicating the connection between the NIC and the PCI is no good. I've tried multiple PCI slots to no avail, so I suppose the NIC is bad, even though I've never used it before, and have just had it lying around for two years.
The other thing could be that I'm not pushing the NIC in all the way, although I don't think that's an option because I've been pushing pretty damn hard on it and there's still a little bit of copper that peeks out of the connection.
In conclusion, I hate Windows 98, since it's obviously not a hardware issue. :rolleyes:
You can't use a normal CAT5 cable to directly connect two PCs/laptops, you need something known as a crossover cable for it to work. A normal CAT5 cable is for plugging the PC/laptop into a hub/switch.