I'm trying to resurrect an AMD Duron 900mhz on an MSI K7T turbo version 3. Mostly want to use it for wideFS, development, vb.net programming. Using factory clock speed right now. Installed windows xp home sp2. BIOS updated to 2.35.Here's the problem that I'm having: I've got it connected to a 10mbit LAN via an intel 10/100 nic, also have a 3com that I've tried. Every so often, (maybe 10 minutes, maybe two days) the network connection dies. Really dies. I need to pull the nic, restart, reinstall the nic. Sometimes more than once, and it sometimes takes several tries to get connectivity back.I've tried some manual diagnostics as described on the microsoft website - the nic says it's functioning properly, no conflicts. I can loopback ping, and ping the same subnet, but nothing else - not even the DNS server. I've decided that it's an OS or BIOS issue, not hardware, since the problem has occured with two different brand nic's. As an aside, I never had this problem before sp2, but I didn't really have the machine running very long before upgrading to sp2...I'd love to know if anyone has ever heard of such a thing. I'd love it even more if one of the AVSIM geniuses could cure this anomaly for me!Thanks in advance...sg

Ooh! I hate those intermittents.WinXP seems to have cover most NICs drivers by default. Are you using the default drivers? If you are using default drivers, see if they have SP2 listed in their properties. I would try deleting the NIC from device manager, shutdown the computer, pull the NIC, restart the computer without the NIC, let it stabilize, then powerdown again.Install the NIC again, let it find the default drivers and see how stable the NIC might be. Otherwise, see if new drivers are available for the NIC.You could also try uninstalling WinXP SP2, then reinstall it to see if it somehow didn't install properly. I use the total downloaded SP2 to update the five computers on my LAN vice separate downloads from the Windows Update site.Are you using a Router or manually setting the IP addresses? What protocol do you use for the internal LAN, TCP/IP or IPX/SPX? I use IPX/SPX for internal LAN for WideFS and other intercompter transfers and sharing.W. Sieffert

Thanks for the reply - I'll give that a try right now...though I have essentially done that in the past with partial success. Partial in that the network failed since...;)I used windows update for installing sp2, but I've got the full version downloaded and burned to a CD. I'll try that next.I've tried both the router and manually setting addresses for WINS and DNS, no success either way. Internally, the LAN is TCP/IP as the network is shared by PCs, MACs, and printers.Thanks again, will report back.Best,sg

Hi Scott,To add to Bill's suggestion see my post #12 here on how to remove all the NIC entries from the Registry.http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...g_id=2504&page=It was written for removing the multiple monitor entries we all get when changing video drivers but could be useful for removing all NIC info as well.Hope this helps,Greg

Great stuff guys - I'm up and running, for the time being at least, though I can't point to a specific reason why.First, I reinstalled SP2 using the full download found in the AVSIM link...no help there. Then, using greg's monitor method, I tried removing the NINE redundant references to my intel-based nic, but that alone didn't solve the problem. Physically removing, rebooting, uninstalling using Greg's monitor method, then reinstalling also didn't help. But removing, inserting a different brand NIC (this one is a CNet PRO200WL PCI Fast Ethernet) has got me up and running...hopefully it'll last this time.Thanks again!sg