Gather 'round, Geeks....

[Rolex]

I've been without internet for 2 days. I spent OVER 2 hours on the phone with 3 techies. AT&T Sucks.
AT&T came over today and spent another hour and a half before diagnosing it as a modem problem. All the lights were doing what the should, but "Server can not be found" is all that came up.
I had already disconnected the wireless router and hooked the laptop up directly and got the same thing.

Well, now my laptop is working but the PC is still not able to connect. He suggested that perhaps the modem problem damaged my ethernet card but it's part of the motherboard.
Question...
If I add a new card, will I have a conflict with the motherboard or will it just find the one with the ethernet connection?

 

[alien13]

You should be able to disable the onboard card in the BIOs. Do you have the book for the motherboard?

 

[hamz9561]

Before going that far, Ralph, try an old school tech trick and remove the ethernet drivers in the OS and rebooting the PC and let it reinstall the drivers.

I would be very surprised if the LOM (LAN On Motherboard) damaged the modem.

 

[Rolex]

Do you have the book for the motherboard?

No, sure don't, but maybe I can find it on the net.
I've been ordering parts to build a new computer anyway, so what motherboard would you recommend?


---------- Post added at 7:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 7:50 PM ----------

Before going that far, Ralph, try an old school tech trick and remove the ethernet drivers in the OS and rebooting the PC and let it reinstall the drivers.

I would be very surprised if the LOM (LAN On Motherboard) damaged the modem.

I'm wondering if the modem damaged the LOM.

 

[WoodiE]

Rolex,

I can't think of any "modem problem" that would randomly cause the your onboard NIC to stop working. Further, if you hooked your laptop up directly to the modem and got the same error messages that to me tells me it's not an issue with your PC. Since it's working now for your laptop (I'm assuming using your router again?) try hooking up your PC to the router and if that doesn't work try directly to the modem.

Or if you REALLY want to have fun, and if it's possible. Take your PC to one of your lady friends place that has internet and try it then. My guess is it will work.

In case it doesn't the next option I would do is remove the network card from your Device Manager and restart your computer so the computer can then re-detect the network card and re-install all the drivers for it.

If none of these steps works then I'd purchase a new network card. Intel are by far the best network cards available and they aren't all that badly priced at all $32 for PCI version and $28 for PCI-Express version.

To answer your question, no adding another network card will not interfere with your existing network card. In fact a lot of motherboards actually come with two network cards built on them. With that said, if it was me I'd still disable the onboard network card through your BIOS if possible.


-Michael

 

[Rolex]

Okay, I'll try that. Thanks for all the info, gents.

---------- Post added at 8:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 8:02 PM ----------

I was hard wired to the modem because the router wouldn't connect. I did a reset and a reboot, and now I'm wireless on the laptop.
Booting the PC now.

 

[Rolex]

It's working! I'm on the PC again.
I just replaced the hard drive and installed a full version of Windows 7, but some of my slow boot and re boot and no boot problems are still there. After this, I really think the mother board is failing.

 

[WoodiE]

How old is your hard drive?

 

[hamz9561]

+1 Woodie. Had a data hdd start to go and the system acted real weird. Replaced it and everything was back to normal.

 

[Rolex]

How old is your hard drive?

I completely removed the original one and installed a Seagate 1Tb about a month ago. I also bought a Windows 7 disk and installed a brand new OS on it.
There's no trace of Vista or the old hard drive. At first this thing ran great, and lightning fast. Now I'm having the same problems with it booting to the desktop and then freezing there.

 

[FrostByte25]

Maybe a rogue virus floating around on your home network ?might want to try booting in "safe mode with networking" to see what happens. You can get there by pressing the f8 key while booting before the windows logo shows up. Then you should see advanced boot up options..

FrostY

 

[Rolex]

I'll try that too, Frosty. Thanks

 

[hamz9561]

Taking the hdd replacement into consideration, I'd have to say that it's possibly a mobo problem. If you're running a good A/V and anti-malware program like you do, that is the only thing left.

 

[Greywolf74]

I would remove all the non-essential expansion cards and try running like that....a failed or failing expansion card can cause booting issues. If thats not it then Id say it most likely either one of the essential expansion cards or the MoBo. If you have any cards you can't remove, for instance a graphics card if your MoBo doesn't have graphics adapter built in, then try and borrow one temporarily from a friend or something to test with before repalcing the MoBo. I would consider the MoBo replacment as my last ditch effort.

 

[Rolex]

I've been running an upgraded graphics card for about a year since the stock card failed. It took 6 attempts to get it to start this morning. It gets to the desktop without the gadgets and freezes there.
I used to hear a ticking during boot up and thought it came from the old HDD, but today it was so loud I could hear it in the kitchen. It's completely rhythmic, like a clock but about twice as fast. I opened both DVD writers, so nothing was spinning. A brand new Hard drive would not be making the same noise as the old one did, so I'm pretty sure I have a component on the mobo that's arcing till it warms up or there's some relay that's wearing out. I've had this comp for almost 5 years but that's not a great deal for a $1200 tower.
This is the EXACT same problem I had running Vista and before replacing the HDD and doing a complete new install of 7, so it's got to be a mo bo problem.

 

[flm_savage]

Don't rule out the psu either.
if you are building a new system you can't to wrong with either an evga or Asus motherboard. Get a socket 1155 board so you can run the current sandybridge processors and still be able to upgrade to ivy bridge later on.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[Rolex]

I have the build thread HERE so I'm willing to take any advise or guidance I need. I've gotten a little lost on what's new other than IDE to SATA, since I haven't built my own since '02 with Windows 98. The single most solid computer I've ever owned. I've upped it to XP and I still loan it out when I'm working on someone's antique comp.

 

[WoodiE]

Without knowing what you use your PC for other than porn and RCNT. Here's something I've just put together.

Total I believe was about $550 +/-. Just need to add a case and power supply and you've got a fully functional PC.

Reason for the parts I've chosen...

WD 500GB Hard Drive - Western Digital is one of if not the best hard drive manufactures around. The model here is 7,200rpm, 16MB cache, and even supports the newer SATA 6.0gb interface.

G.Skill Memory - highly rated memory among other pc review site and within Newegg as well (see reviews). I run 8gb of G.Skill in my laptop and love it.

G.Skill flash card - wasn't me, it's free from newegg. Part of a promotion.

Biostar motherboard - Biostar has been around for ages. They are not known for high end, overclocking, crazy type boards. They are however rock solid dependable boards. If you want all the bells and whistles with overclocking and other neat features I'd then go with an Asus. Otherwise you'll get USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0 and rock solid with this Biostar.

Intel i5-2405S - This is Intel's latest Sandybridge CPU. Uses little power (65w), quad core, more feature support (such as AES hardware!) and the latest Intel 3000 GPU built in! The Intel 3000 is perfect for light gaming and watching HD videos. If you are a a heavy gamer then the 3000 probably isn't the best bet, if not then this is the route I'd go.

LG Blu-Ray burner - Um... It plays blu-ray, burns blu-ray, burns DVD-R and RW and it's an LG!


Hope this helps.

 

[Rolex]

LMAO. It's RCNT and writing letters and reports as part of my Condo Commando status. (Resident association VP) That plus RealFlight Simulator which is a hungry full 3D program.

Wow, that's quite a good list you posted Michael. It's going to bring me in at several hundred bucks less than I was expecting. Thanks so VERY much for that.

 

[WoodiE]

If it was me, I'd be half tempted to see how RealFlight Simulator runs on the Intel 3000 integrated video. Worst case, you just add a video card if it doesn't perform well, the Biostar board has the upgrade slots to support it.