Phantom Ethernet Card

Friend asked me to set him up on a modem connection PAYG but could not connect no matter what I tried so I took it home with me and installed an Ethernet Card so as to connect to my server. It wouldn't and on using Everest Home edition it shows 2 cards listed one does not physically exist, so when I try to install driver to the sis fast Ethernet i have put in it will not assign the driver no matter what. The Phantom one an ACCAS seems to be a master configuration and of course when it takes over it rejects the driver for the SIS as of course it is not the one for the ACCAS. My question is can this reference be in the BIOS as I can see no other reference to it anywhere, Registry or C drive, The only reference in search file/folder brings up an empty folder with a DOS reference. Interestingly when no cards are installed the reference in Everest shows the SIS I had put in and removed. Replace it and the 2 appear again. PS never have any problem with server recognising/connecting to Bb with any com. Mobo is ASROCK K7S41

 

There is an 'interfaces' section of the registry, and it will have a GUID that corresponds to each of your network cards.

ex.

{XXXXX-XXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX}

I can't recall exactly where it is (although, I'm sure I could find with some research), but is this what you are referring to when you say you've found no signs of the card in your registry? I believe there's a system info utility that will tell you this ID for your card.

I think SANDRA is the app I'm thinking of.

 

I typed in the search field of the registry 'ACCTON' which is the phantom card and deleted but I am assuming it was only the driver as it made no diff... The PCI Card ACCTON is NOT physically on the motherboard but Everest shows it as present as Accton EN1297F Series Fast Ethernet Adapter. The one I have installed is a SIS 900 Fast Ethernet adapter/Card
I installed the soft you pointed me to and ran and this is what is showing there...
(Network Adapter)
1. MS TCP Loopback Interface Opertitional YES.
2.SIS 900 Fast Ethernet Adapter .......which is the one I am trying to load driver to.

As i said earlier the non present one the PCI 'ACCTON' is preventing instalation of driver to the present one installed the SIS 900 Fast Ethernet adapter/Card. Well thats MHO. The enigma is where does the information lie where Everest gathers and shows. Thanx for your help...

 

I would expect that this GUID in your registry is where EVEREST is getting the notion that this card is still installed on your system. I knew of an easy way of retrieving this GUID, but its since lost... apparently since SANDRA doesn't seem to have it.

I did however, find that Microsoft's netdiag utility will give you this info. Please see this link for a description of the tool.


Once you have the GUID of this phantom network card, try searching the registry for THAT. I bet you'll find references to the card.

 

Ummmm.. well i ran it (netdiag) and it is saying that an ActiveX is running when other software tells me there are none. Consequence is that it is not saving any report to log.. any ideas Mada_Milly ???

 

Oh man...no I don't have further suggestions; lol - I was scraping the bottom of my barrel of tech knowledge with my suggestions on this GUID.

Does it give any more info on this ActiveX control? Or is it another worthlessly generic Microsoft error?

 

He he Mada the plot thickens as I put in a different formatted HD and loaded OS .. and .. yes it is still there... So it gotta be on the Mobo, really strange. Friend is getting miffed so am to get another mobo for him as there is no BIOS update I can see/find. Thanks for your help and interest Mada

 

Wow, man!
I've never even HEARD of a problem like THAT before!

Sorry if this is a silly question; I've never researched BIOS upgrades much, but is it possible to re-flash with the current version?

 

Hi Mada I'm in the same boat as you .. on what I have read it must be a younger update to be able to flash, There is plenty of wisdom out there on Bios upgrading http://www.bioscentral.com/misc/biosflashingfaq.htm

 

Here I am again Mada .. This is UNBELIEVABLE !!! Lately i upgraded and with the spare mobo/cpu have built another (rig) around it. I try to connect to Internet using a US Robotic Ethernet card and its a no go. So I install the 'Everest Home' and ******* there is this Bleeding reference to the ACCTON again, me thinks its a fault with Everest so rid machine of all reference to it and installed a fresh Download but its still there ... What in the world is going on ???? 2 totally different machines with the same reference.. Now the HD was fully formatted and XP installed so the likelyhood of it being there is pretty remote. Downloaded fresh driver for the US Robotic but com saying best one installed and thats after an uninstall. I am now going to try another Hd and load XP on there and use a different Ethernet card.. this one is really baffling .. it cant be malware surely as this ACCTON does exist out there as an PCI Ethernet card .. I'll keep you posted if I aint gone of me rocka .. lol

 

I have found the solution to both PC's now, I went and bought another PCI Fast Ethernet Card that had its own driver on floppy. By installing using the Floppy driver it stopped XP from configuring the Network Adapter itself. But, it still dont answer where the phantom one came from and where it is now as both PC's are clear of it. Just one of lifes little mysteries.