Fun stuff, care to join?

[MaximusR3]

So long story short, i resorted to reformatting and reinstalling windows this morning. popped in the recovery disc with the drivers and just my luck, i've been lied to and this disc was for a different computer all together so no drivers for me

no problem, just find them online. no Max, we can't let you do that. No ethernet driver. so i need to get online to find the driver and i need the driver to get online. how fun. any suggestions?

i've searched the whole house for the proper cd (it's not my computer, nor was i here when they got it otherwise it would have been in a safe and sensible place) I get the feeling they tossed it out with the box :x

oh and i live in the middle of nowhere, have no other computer outside of using the PS3 browser, and the device manager tells me absolutely nothing about the card, just says unknown manufacturer and the rest is blank.

[Timmy_2_Tones]

What is the computer make, model, Cpu, etc.... And widows version?

[MaximusR3]

p.o.s. Dell optiplex gx260 with a Pen 4 1.8GHz processor

was running XP w/SP3 but after the reinstall it's back to SP1


and everything is stock (it's a stupid slim case so upgrading is annoying and not worth the trouble)
all i've ever added was some extra ram

[Ironhide400]

Uh....just curious, how did you make this post with no computer, your PS3?

It is a 3com 3C905C-TXM. Pretty common driver you can get from dell's website or 3com's. Come to think of it, I thought the 3c905 driver was part of XP?

[ladym123]

Aw Max!

You should have been sure everything was in order before you re-installed! :?

[ladym123]

Uh....just curious, how did you make this post with no computer?

It is a 3com 3C905C-TXM. Pretty common driver you can get from dell's website or 3com's. Come to think of it, I thought the 3c905 driver was part of XP?

He's on his PS3 browser

[Ironhide400]

Does the PS3 let you download? I have never tried, but if you could get it to a jump drive then you would be golden.

[CryptKper]

Sounds like you're having one of those should have stayed in bed days...

[MaximusR3]

latest update: still using my PS3 browser

found an old AOL disc and installed it so i can utilize the free trial time to download the driver on a dialup connection. went to the dell site and got the drivers and installed. nothing. I've had windows search for drivers several times to no avail. it's acting as though it doesn't exist or something. opened the case hoping to maybe pull the card but it's integrated so nothing to pull. tried updating chipset and a couple other drivers with no change. tried reinstalling windows again but nothing changed.

I would very much like to bury this computer in the backyard and get a new one if i could only afford it

[Timmy_2_Tones]

Don't bury it...... BURN IT!!!!!!

[Ironhide400]

http://support.dell.com/support/downloa ... leid=64589 (http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R54402&SystemID=PLX_PNT_P4_GX260&servicetag=&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=2811&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=5&impid=-1&formatcnt=0&libid=5&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=64589)

My bad, I believe this is the one you need. The integrated network is an intel 8254x. Hopefully this one works!
That would also explain why the 3C905 wasn't detected by XP, because its not there. ;)

[MaximusR3]

ok looks like the threat to replace it made the damn thing submit and i got it to finally take the driver. now i have to go and update everything else up to SP3 again but at least now i have a broadband connection again :D

[XxSilentxFartxX]

go Ubuntu/Linux!!

[ladym123]

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R54402&SystemID=PLX_PNT_P4_GX260&servicetag=&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=2811&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=5&impid=-1&formatcnt=0&libid=5&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=64589

My bad, I believe this is the one you need. The integrated network is an intel 8254x. Hopefully this one works!
That would also explain why the 3C905 wasn't detected by XP, because its not there. ;)


That's ok Iron...he only spent hours and hours trying to install the drivers for it :lol:

[Ironhide400]

That's ok Iron...he only spent hours and hours trying to install the drivers for it :lol:

Practice makes perfect....right? :roll:
Network drivers and scsi/sata drivers are my nemesis. I couldn't tell you how many hours at work I have wasted trying to get just the perfect driver to make crap work! :evil:

[Ironhide400]

ok looks like the threat to replace it made the damn thing submit and i got it to finally take the driver. now i have to go and update everything else up to SP3 again but at least now i have a broadband connection again :D

Which card did it end up being, the Intel or 3com?

[MaximusR3]

it was the intel. i had downloaded them both and tried several times to get it to take with no luck. I ended up having to manually select an incorrect driver just so it would acknowledge the damn thing was a network adapter, then i had to locate the inf file manually in the installer folder. For whatever reason the autoinstaller just wasn't wanting to work

[Ironhide400]

I have run into that with alot of network drivers where you have to manually find the inf. I am glad you got it working!

[MaximusR3]

i'm glad too, that was very annoying. I had to shower 6 times to stop feeling dirty after using AOL though :?


I've been installing updates all morning, just about done and back to normal now. Crazy to think how many updates have come out since 2002, the year this computer was reverted to