Computer PCI slot not working

[The Pastor]

as sad as this maybe, the fact remains that im more likley to get help with a computer problem than a bike one, so here goes!


Moved my PC to a new room, and need wireless connections to the internets.

bought myself a PCI wireless adaptor, followed instructions, installed drivers etc but windoze is not picking up the pci card in the slot. (no found new hardware popup when card is first installed)

So tried to install the card manually through control panel/add new hardwhere.

It installs it, but it says cannot start device error 10.

I think my pci slots are not working?

any advice?

Thanks muchly,


Rm


Edit - running windoze xp PRO!

[Cajun]

tryed putting it another of the pci slots?

[The Pastor]

tryed putting it another of the pci slots?
yeah i have 2 pci slots and have tired both of them

[Insanity_rules]

This error may appear if a device has insufficient power to operate correctly.Check that the connector is seating on the board properly. Did you use the install disk before putting the card in?

[Cajun]

do you have an old network card/modem you can try in the pci slots? to see if the pci slots are fired or if its the wifi card.

i also had issues with some wifi cards few years ago, and use the usb dongle things instead now days

[Usarka]

Is it plugged in?

[PirateJafa]

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

[The Pastor]

nope dont have anything else that could plug in, and yes it is plugged in

[Cajun]

do you see see in the bios post message, you know the screen after it shows you cpu & counts ram, but before os boots.

since often it shows devices in there

[riffer]

It doesn't have a slot on the card for a molex connector does it? If it does, give it some power and turn on again.

[SMOKEU]

Definately check the BIOS and the device manager. Update the motherboard drivers as well. If all else fails you could reflash your BIOS.

[Usarka]

At the post initiate a flash reboot. Ignore any errors about FSB initialisation and continue through to the QDIF section. If you haven't downloaded the right BIOS version for your PCI, CPU and FUV then you might be stuffed. Up the voltage for the PCI sub bus, reboot through safe mode and verify the hardware device.

Simple.

[The Pastor]

This error may appear if a device has insufficient power to operate correctly.Check that the connector is seating on the board properly. Did you use the install disk before putting the card in?

card is fully in, i used the install disk before inserting card


do you see see in the bios post message, you know the screen after it shows you cpu & counts ram, but before os boots.

since often it shows devices in there

nope dosent show up


It doesn't have a slot on the card for a molex connector does it? If it does, give it some power and turn on again.
no molex slots on the card



Definately check the BIOS and the device manager. Update the motherboard drivers as well. If all else fails you could reflash your BIOS.

check what in the bios?

[Hard Nut]

Beats me man, I was going to say turn off and turn on again, but you did that already.

Nuts

[p.dath]

Some gueses:

* it's a 3.3V PCI card, and your motherboard only supports 5V, or vice versa
* it's a PCI-X card, and your putting it into a PCI card
* the card is a dud, and has a fault. See if you can verify that the card works in another computer.

[CookMySock]

Download any small Linux system,boot it, and do lspci && dmesg and have a good read.

Steve

[The Pastor]

Download any small Linux system,boot it, and do lspci && dmesg and have a good read.

Steve
im not downloading linux.....

[steve_t]

Probably what you'll need to look at:
eg:

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Networking-modems/Wireless-networking/Adaptors/auction-241659713.htm

[The Pastor]

yes, but im already low on usb ports lol

[The Pastor]

and danae, i have 4 usb slots total.


I could get a pci usb hub card thing tho..... somehow i dont think it'll work! hahaha

[steve_t]

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Peripherals/USB-Hubs/auction-241112243.htm

:niceone:

[SMOKEU]

check what in the bios?

Check that none of the PCI slots have been disabled

[The Pastor]

Check that none of the PCI slots have been disabled
Ive looked everywhere in my bios and the only thing i can find relating to the pci's is the IRQ assignment, both of which are on auto

[Cajun]

Ive looked everywhere in my bios and the only thing i can find relating to the pci's is the IRQ assignment, both of which are on auto

whats your mobo make model blah blah

[The Pastor]

whats your mobo make model blah blah
its the Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4L

btw can u fix (or get someone to fix) my 10 unaproved messages thing? its getting lame0

[SMOKEU]

Have you checked the device manager in Windows?

[Cajun]

its the Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4L in your bios is an opintion for 'PnP/PCI Configurations' are those set to auto




btw can u fix (or get someone to fix) my 10 unaproved messages thing? its getting lame0 thats a spank or MT issue, you tried loging in and out again, clear cookies etc while at it

[The Pastor]

in your bios is an opintion for 'PnP/PCI Configurations' are those set to auto


thats a spank or MT issue, you tried loging in and out again, clear cookies etc while at it
yeah they are on auto

[scracha]

Plug in a different brand of PCI card. I've had 3 identical wifi cards going onto 3 identical PC's. No matter what I did on one of them, it just wouldn't recognise a TP-Link wifi card but was quite happy with a Dlink. No point in spending hours tearing your hair out for a $20 card.

Ether that or get a USB hub and USB dongle (not as good but who gives a toss).

Either that, or download damn small linux.

Either that, or call in a geek but it sounds like your mobo is dodgy or aint gettin enough juice from the PSU.

[The Pastor]

Plug in a different brand of PCI card. I've had 3 identical wifi cards going onto 3 identical PC's. No matter what I did on one of them, it just wouldn't recognise a TP-Link wifi card but was quite happy with a Dlink. No point in spending hours tearing your hair out for a $20 card.

Ether that or get a USB hub and USB dongle (not as good but who gives a toss).

Either that, or download damn small linux.

Either that, or call in a geek but it sounds like your mobo is dodgy or aint gettin enough juice from the PSU.
i have tried dse and tp link, but i think they are actually the same products

I doubt my mobos not getting enough power, its got a 450w powersupply

[scracha]

Did you get this resolved? Try any other brand except Linksys as they are a steaming pile of $hite.

[Leyton]

any advice?


1, Clear the CMO's
2, Clear the NVRam Data
3, Try different slot
4, Try different card in slot
5, Try card in different computer

If 4 and 5 test ok, Reinstall Chipset drivers, If that fails, Nuke the bitch!


Warning!, If you have any raid adapters, you do not want to clear the NVData :) it will wipe the raid if the info is not held on the disks.

[Leyton]

Download any small Linux system,boot it, and do lspci && dmesg and have a good read.

Steve

That is a good idea!, And you can do the same with the same card on another computer to ensure its not your MB Playing up.

Do all the easy things first :) Like clearing cmo's

[Leyton]

Check that none of the PCI slots have been disabled

That is a good one, usually resetting the CMO's will help, the slots are usually enabled by default, so a reset will ensure to enable them if you can not find how in the cmo's setup. But yes you can on some boards turn slots on and off, and also force other settings upon those slots.

Have not done this in years!!! this is old school hehe

[The Pastor]

That is a good one, usually resetting the CMO's will help, the slots are usually enabled by default, so a reset will ensure to enable them if you can not find how in the cmo's setup. But yes you can on some boards turn slots on and off, and also force other settings upon those slots.

Have not done this in years!!! this is old school hehe
I dont know how to do that stuff, will give a go when i get home tho :D

[Leyton]

http://www.wikihow.com/Reset-Your-BIOS
http://www.hardwarezone.com/img/data/articles/2008/2680/ResetCMOS.jpg

:)

Ignore the part about configuring your bio's afterwards... pft.. rubbish, who does that these days :P 9/10 times. Unless your a hard core gamer

[The Pastor]

http://www.wikihow.com/reset-your-bios
http://www.hardwarezone.com/img/data/articles/2008/2680/resetcmos.jpg

:)

ignore the part about configuring your bio's afterwards... Pft.. Rubbish, who does that these days :p 9/10 times. Unless your a hard core gamer
oic, i ran out of time last night so will give it a try tonight

what will resetting the bios do? I cant see how it might affect the pci slot?

[Leyton]

oic, i ran out of time last night so will give it a try tonight

what will resetting the bios do? I cant see how it might affect the pci slot?

It will reset any bio's settings relating to the PCI slot.

It is the single most easyest thing to do first besides testing the adapter card in other slots and other computers, and other cards in the suspect slot etc...

[Scouse]

card is fully in, i used the install disk before inserting cardthis is were you fucked up you should always install your hardware before you install the drivers

[The Pastor]

this is were you fucked up you should always install your hardware before you install the drivers
thats not what the install guide said. Also the first card i did i read installed the hardware before the drivers.

[steve_t]

Yup. A LOT of hardware incl USB gear has a sticker on it saying to load the drivers first. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work and you do end up reloading the drivers again afterwards.
I have never heard of reactivating a dud PCI slot or resolving an IRQ with a CMOS reset so will follow this thread closely.
Good luck

[The Pastor]

Im prob just going to return the card and get a usb one :p if the reset of bios dosent do anything (i dont see how it would)

[mister.koz]

this is were you fucked up you should always install your hardware before you install the drivers

Yeah wont make much difference, the outcomes of installing the drivers before the card is that the card wont be identified with the drivers, it will still do the "adding hardware wizard" but simply get confused.

Also if you do install the software first it puts the driver information (card identifier etc etc) into the DID and windows will normal auto-install the driver based on the DID info.

I've done it 100s of times either way.

I would suggest that your MB might have an older bios that can't identify with the card.

Always have your IRQ's etc set to auto - tweaking pci settings is for people with LOTS of time and hair to pull out.

Leyton's got some good points.

Failing what others have said here:

add remove programs>remove the installed drivers, this wont actually remove them but it will simplify things.
power it down and take the card out
go to the gigabyte site and find a tutorial to install new bios firmware
restart the computer at least once after installing the new bios
shut down and put the card in
power it up and see if its there
failing that do the linux thing someone mentioned - it WILL tell you if your motherboard recognises the card and do a better job than windows - you don't need to install it or change anything, it will boot into a full operating system from the CD - http://www.knoppix.org


If you really get stuck and want to try the linux thing but don't know how, give me a PM and we can arrange a time where i can talk you through it on the phone - after downloading and burning its a 10 minute phone call.

Linux doesn't need a driver to see and identify with the card, only to use it. Unlike windows.

Its possible that the card was a dud out of the box - only way to test it is to put it into a different program.

Its also possible the your motherboard PCI controllers are burned - only way to test is to chuck another PCI card in the computer.

(ps, sorry about all the acronyms - its the nature of the beast really)

[scracha]

Ok geeks, enough about $20 wifi cards.

$hitey @cer laptop (what else could it be). Vista packs sad. UBCD4win runs OK. KSpeeddisk Ok on drive. Memtest86 packs sad after about 10 minutes (test 4). Removed faulty sodimm. Ran memtest86. Test 4 packs sad after about 10 minutes. Removed other faulty sodimm. Replaced with new one. Ran memtest86. Test 4 packs sad after about 10 minutes.........you get the picture. Knoppix runs OK.

Suspect faulty video card. Any easy way I can test the card?

Ever heard of Memtest86 giving false positives?

[Leyton]

I is a g33k, and I dress funny It can be memory voltage issues. It can also mean and more likely doomed MB, it could also be incorrect bus speed set for the ram if your board is that tweakable.

But if the video apears ok, and memtest fails.. its like WTF... . It is likely to be the mainboard. Good luck!

P.S, I always wanted to try that with the qouting system

[thecharmed01]

Can you give us your motherboard model number and brand, and the PCI card model number and brand?

[mister.koz]

Ok geeks, enough about $20 wifi cards.

$hitey @cer laptop (what else could it be). Vista packs sad. UBCD4win runs OK. KSpeeddisk Ok on drive. Memtest86 packs sad after about 10 minutes (test 4). Removed faulty sodimm. Ran memtest86. Test 4 packs sad after about 10 minutes. Removed other faulty sodimm. Replaced with new one. Ran memtest86. Test 4 packs sad after about 10 minutes.........you get the picture. Knoppix runs OK.

Suspect faulty video card. Any easy way I can test the card?

Ever heard of Memtest86 giving false positives?

If you can remove the video card and mount it inside another computer yeah but be careful while cutting the motherboard, they are normally 10+ layers thick.

Memtest86 can't give false positives, all it does is ask the computer to load certain memory locations with values and then checks if they are what they should be... More likely your motherboard is playing up or the hard-wired ram is shite.

Asus are excellent at frying themselves in the power area, there's something about their batteries...

I would take the battery out and plug the power in, run memtest until it faults 10 times or 24 hours have passed (whichever is the quickest).

A couple of mates threw their batteries away and their laptop worked ok.

Check the voltage levels in your bios. Incorrect voltages will cause all sorts of problems (usually not permanent).

So glad i don't suffer windows anymore...

[mister.koz]

Oh and bin vista.... get xp or linux, just get rid of vista!

[The Pastor]

Can you give us your motherboard model number and brand, and the PCI card model number and brand?
Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4L - motherbord
TP-Link TL-WN550G - wifi card

[Chrisnewtobikes]

Try reseting the mother board,some times works wonders.

[thecharmed01]

Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4L - motherbord
TP-Link TL-WN550G - wifi card

Well looking at those specs, that motherboard has (http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=2679);
2 PCI Express x16 slots (Note 2)
2 PCI Express x1 slots
2 PCI slots

The card you stated is a PCI Card. (http://www.i-tech.com.au/products/12537_TP_Link_TL_WN550G_54M_Wireless_PCI.aspx)

So you have 2 available PCI slots, I would be checking first and foremost that you have it in the right slots, that it's not in a PCIe slot by mistake.
Then try it in both of the PCI slots and make sure that it's not being recognised by either slot.

One thing I've seen a lot too is when people install the cards they dont always push them down far enough into the slot, they look and feel solid, but need to be mated right down properly.

Checking in an alternate machine might be worth a try, as is making sure you have the latest drivers and not installing from the supplied disc as drivers get outdated so fast....

Once you have checked those, I'd be tempted to hit up the store you bought it from and ask them to check it as faulty cards arent uncommon.....
I am also assuming you werent wearing/standing on nylon and grounded yourself before you touched/installed the card?

[The Pastor]

well looking at those specs, that motherboard has (http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/products/motherboard/products_spec.aspx?productid=2679);
2 pci express x16 slots (note 2)
2 pci express x1 slots
2 pci slots

the card you stated is a pci card. (http://www.i-tech.com.au/products/12537_tp_link_tl_wn550g_54m_wireless_pci.aspx)

so you have 2 available pci slots, i would be checking first and foremost that you have it in the right slots, that it's not in a pcie slot by mistake.
Then try it in both of the pci slots and make sure that it's not being recognised by either slot.

One thing i've seen a lot too is when people install the cards they dont always push them down far enough into the slot, they look and feel solid, but need to be mated right down properly.

Checking in an alternate machine might be worth a try, as is making sure you have the latest drivers and not installing from the supplied disc as drivers get outdated so fast....

Once you have checked those, i'd be tempted to hit up the store you bought it from and ask them to check it as faulty cards arent uncommon.....
I am also assuming you werent wearing/standing on nylon and grounded yourself before you touched/installed the card?
yes i have it in the right slot (hehe)

i'll take the card back to the store on sat

[thecharmed01]

It's possible its been a dud card, good luck would be interested to see how you get on!

[Leyton]

If all else fails, Hit it!

[scracha]

If you can remove the video card and mount it inside another computer yeah but be careful while cutting the motherboard, they are normally 10+ layers thick.


Cutting the motherboard? Bugger that dude.



should be... More likely your motherboard is playing up or the hard-wired ram is shite.

It or the video card RAM I reckon.



Asus are excellent at frying themselves in the power area, there's something about their batteries...

You mean @cer?



I would take the battery out and plug the power in, run memtest until it faults
10 times or 24 hours have passed (whichever is the quickest).

Tried already with battery out. Tried latest BIOS.



A couple of mates threw their batteries away and their laptop worked ok.

Common on @cer Aspire due to their $hite BIOS. Often the laptop runs but suffers stupendous delays....drives users bonkers.



Check the voltage levels in your bios. Incorrect voltages will cause all sorts of problems (usually not permanent).

I thought mibby voltage levels meeself but there's fark all in the BIOS settings to play with.




So glad i don't suffer windows anymore...
End of the day it's wot the customers play on.



And $hhhh about upgrading Vista to XP. I LIKE VISTA. There....I said it. My cheap as chips Toshy runs Vista and honestly, hasn't missed a beat. Boots up and shuts down quick as hell. I reckon most of the gripes with Vista were
a) pre SP1 it was a POS
b) legacy software crapping out
c) cheapskates trying to run it on 1GB on a Celeron with built in video card
d) folks using devices with poorly written win 2000/XP drivers
e) all the poorly thought out $hite buggy add-on software that pretty much all the manufacturers throw on laptops.......

hmm...
WTF don't Microsoft just make windows 7 64 bit only?
I reckon the "XP mode" will make everyone with starter / home premium editions very pissed off.

[mister.koz]

Cutting the motherboard? Bugger that dude.

It or the video card RAM I reckon.

You mean @cer?

Tried already with battery out. Tried latest BIOS.

Common on @cer Aspire due to their $hite BIOS. Often the laptop runs but suffers stupendous delays....drives users bonkers.

I thought mibby voltage levels meeself but there's fark all in the BIOS settings to play with.

End of the day it's wot the customers play on.

And $hhhh about upgrading Vista to XP. I LIKE VISTA. There....I said it. My cheap as chips Toshy runs Vista and honestly, hasn't missed a beat. Boots up and shuts down quick as hell. I reckon most of the gripes with Vista were
a) pre SP1 it was a POS
b) legacy software crapping out
c) cheapskates trying to run it on 1GB on a Celeron with built in video card
d) folks using devices with poorly written win 2000/XP drivers
e) all the poorly thought out $hite buggy add-on software that pretty much all the manufacturers throw on laptops.......

hmm...
WTF don't Microsoft just make windows 7 64 bit only?
I reckon the "XP mode" will make everyone with starter / home premium editions very pissed off.

Hehe, yeah i was kidding about cutting the motherboard :whistle:

Memtest wont test the video ram even if it is shared because its reserved by the bios and is inaccessible.

Acer and asus are in the same boat in my head so i always get them mixed up :D

Vista is way to unstable, good or bad software, so is windows 7, windows xp or ce is the only one i will use. I am a fairly different user though. AND i am well aware that 90% of computers are windows but then the masses have a different level of use of computers to me.

Hence why i said i am so glad that i don't suffer windoze anymore Its slow, its buggy it has pathetic use of ram and cpu's and it messes the hell out of itself even if you aren't pushing it... i only have to format my linux desktop 4 times a year, windoze was 8 - 10.

If you like it and it works, thats great! My apps work on all platforms.

And ps the only way microsoft are going to keep up with osx and linux (for the geeks) is by doing what they said they were going to do with vista in the first place:

Build the kernel properly
Release ntfs2(64)
Introduce a compatibility layer instead of making the whole system legacy capable
using a REAL sql engine for registry
Making DRI properly instead of using it as an overlay to windows(98) forms


Oh and creating a better driver structure and bullying the manufacturers to use it properly.

[jonbuoy]

Hehe, yeah i was kidding about cutting the motherboard :whistle:

Memtest wont test the video ram even if it is shared because its reserved by the bios and is inaccessible.

Acer and asus are in the same boat in my head so i always get them mixed up :D

Vista is way to unstable, good or bad software, so is windows 7, windows xp or ce is the only one i will use. I am a fairly different user though. AND i am well aware that 90% of computers are windows but then the masses have a different level of use of computers to me.

Hence why i said i am so glad that i don't suffer windoze anymore Its slow, its buggy it has pathetic use of ram and cpu's and it messes the hell out of itself even if you aren't pushing it... i only have to format my linux desktop 4 times a year, windoze was 8 - 10.


Formatting 8-10 times a year?? What do you do on them??

[Leyton]

Formatting 8-10 times a year?? What do you do on them??

Pr0n!!!!!!!

[avgas]

Vista is way to unstable, good or bad software, so is windows 7, windows xp or ce is the only one i will use.
Your kidding right.....
no?
ok try this
del sysconfig....
can do it very easily in xp (or an automatic script in xp....aka virus)
still not conviced - ok take your photos folder, try move (aka cut/paste) into a flash drive that is too small.....
when you fill that disk hit cancel - now find a bigger flash drive and move the same folder of C: onto it. Where are all your photos - oh there are some on that little drive, its ok I will just move them onto the big one.......oh shit.

Vista beta was fantastic - it wasn't until HP,FOXCONN and ASUS got it dirty little hands on it (and twist microsoft's arm) that it turned into the behemoth we have today.

Likewise i fear the same will happen to Linux. I have an older version on mint on my pc right now. Works great......just installed the new one on a friends pc......is this the beginning of the end. Don't even get me started on Ubuntu which is now as usable as 3.11.

Also why format when you can image?

[The Pastor]

an update,

I returned the card to the store, they tested it and it works,

they asked to see my PC so i brought it in, they also could not get it working.

They said maybe sp3 (im on sp2) might work, if not sp3 then a windows reinstal might help.

I kept the pci card, but have a usb one now, seems to be working great. (i bought a usb hub so i can free up some slots.)

[Leyton]

If your in Hamiltontown I could fix it for you

[steve_t]

an update,

I returned the card to the store, they tested it and it works,

they asked to see my PC so i brought it in, they also could not get it working.

They said maybe sp3 (im on sp2) might work, if not sp3 then a windows reinstal might help.

I kept the pci card, but have a usb one now, seems to be working great. (i bought a usb hub so i can free up some slots.)

Sweet. Chuck that PCI card on sella.co.nz or trademe??

[The Pastor]

Sweet. Chuck that PCI card on sella.co.nz or trademe??
nah i wanna get it working

[Leyton]

Are you in Hamilton dude ?, It might take me all of 5 minutes to fix it thats all... hehe

[mister.koz]

Formatting 8-10 times a year?? What do you do on them??

Allot of software development, i have 3 (quite large) IDE's that make them messy, i also make dvd's and other media stuff.

And no, its not porn, i have a girlfriend (unlike most nerds i know).


Your kidding right.....
no?
ok try this
del sysconfig....
can do it very easily in xp (or an automatic script in xp....aka virus)
still not conviced - ok take your photos folder, try move (aka cut/paste) into a flash drive that is too small.....
when you fill that disk hit cancel - now find a bigger flash drive and move the same folder of C: onto it. Where are all your photos - oh there are some on that little drive, its ok I will just move them onto the big one.......oh shit.

Vista beta was fantastic - it wasn't until HP,FOXCONN and ASUS got it dirty little hands on it (and twist microsoft's arm) that it turned into the behemoth we have today.

Likewise i fear the same will happen to Linux. I have an older version on mint on my pc right now. Works great......just installed the new one on a friends pc......is this the beginning of the end. Don't even get me started on Ubuntu which is now as usable as 3.11.

Also why format when you can image?

Why would i go out of my way to damage windows? it does a good enough job itself. Vista is on all accounts 40% slower than xp. i had two identical machines with all the good stuff; one at home (windows xp/gentoo) and one at work (vista business).. vista sucked. xp was ok, gentoo was awesome but it didn't like photoshop cs4 :/

For linux i use gentoo (except for my servers) and i custom compile everything - then you'll know fast. Ubuntu and one's like it are not much better than windows in my view.

If i had said i restore my system from an image then everyone would have asked me wtf that is... i'd sooner just say format & install.

You are missing my point though, windoze is crappy for me because it doesn't fit, if it works for you then go for it.