[ifly85]

Compaq Presario SR1830NX computer with onboard video, sound and LAN.

Onboard video and sound work, LAN doesn't.

I have been trying to get the onboard LAN or a PCI NIC to work on this computer forever. The onboard LAN worked fine, until a nearby lightning strike toasted the motherboard. Sent to Compaq and they replaced the mobo. The Onboard NIC has not worked since.

I tried installing a PCI NIC and it never works, (Device manager says "This device cannot start"). Device manager does not show onboard NIC, I think it did before.

I have messed with the BIOS settings and while trying to get the onboard LAN working, I have it enabled in BIOS.

I have finally performed a full recovery, theoretically, bringing it back to out-of-the-box status. Nothing changed.

Oh, also the current mobo is another we bought to try to help this problem. All details are the same with both mobos.

I couldn't find anything relating when searching these forums, so any ideas are greatly appreciated.

[Mak213]

Software & Driver downloads*Compaq Presario Media Center SR1830NX Desktop PC

Go there select either XP or Vista and download the drivers for the missing hardware. Install them. See if they work.

[ifly85]

Thanks for your help Mak213. I failed to mention that I had already done that several times.

I found the problem though! Apparently the pci modem card was bad and was stopping all PCI slots and the onboard LAN from working. I thought I had removed the modem before, but I did now just to try the NIC in a different slot. The onboard LAN started immediately upon booting the system.

The solution was one of the basic rules for troubleshooting computer problems: remove all peripherals and cards and add them back one-by-one to find the problem.