Can't install 3Com NIC drivers

I have a home-built ASUS P4C800 Deluxe running WinXP Pro sp2. I've been connected to the inet wirelessly but now want to connect wired. I have a 3Com 3c940 Gigabit PCI LAN controller onboard, and I've downloaded the most recent drivers from ASUS. I cannot update the LAN drivers via the Device Manager. I've tried several different things, including burning the new drivers to a CD and loading from there, but Windows cannot find the drivers (and as a matter of fact, the driver files exist in the Windows/system32 directories). I'm stumped, any help appreciated. (The onboard nic has worked in the past. It is enabled in BIOS, and I have updated to the most recent BIOS from ASUS. Also, Driver Signing is set to Warn, so I don't think it's that.) :confused

 

Have you disconnected the wireless conntection compltetly?

If that is the case uninstall the LAN card from device manager (AFTER) you have downloaded the lastest driver pack.

Now run the driver setup.exe and see if that brings you any luck.

 

Thanks for reply, Capn. I disconnected the wlan and physically removed the wireless card from the pc, but still cannot get it to install the drivers for the onboard nic. Also, I enabled the lan onboard boot rom in BIOS, but still nothing. Very odd. Windows realizes that the onboard nic is there because the new hardware wizard comes up, but refuses to recognize the files. When I try to install from a comprehensive list of hardware, there are no 3com devices listed (in spite of having the software in 3 different places). Anyway, have resigned myself to connecting wirelessly, thanks again.

 

Also, why doesn't the nic come up in the new hardware wizard even when I try to get the information from an .inf file? Thought that would have the description and all the details necessary.

 

Hello Halo,
By the chipset drivers, do you mean the mobo BIOS? I have installed the latest version of the BIOS for my mobo. I uninstalled the 3Com software, though even the 3Com utilities can't find an installed nic. There is a yellow exclamation point by ethernet controller in the device manager.

Scott

 

Hi, I'm sure Halo means the chipset drivers, located under Utilities on the horrible Asus Support site

though judging by the age of these, you may be better to go to the Intel site and look there for the latest version.

 

Thank you, Satrow, I will check into it and get back to you.