Network Card failed!!

I think you've answered your own question--the card is faulty.

After a month, the card is still under warranty.  Return it and get one that you can use.

Did you have a recent power outage?  Also need to know more about your net.  This happened to me recently, and the router needed to be reset.  By installing a second NIC card you may have reset your router (switch, or whatever your using) inadvertantly.  To be certain it is a faulty NIC, try installing it again before you return it.  Linksys usually is pretty quality stuff.

Check the CABLE first.  They are much less reliable than the card.  They often get broken wires from movement or vibration or just plain old oxidation of the connections.

Swap the cable with a new one and perhaps things will be OK again.

Did all of that! :-) I first switched the cable with another one and that didn't work. Then I resetted the switch and that didn't work neither. I even uninstalled it and reinstalled it...nothing! Heck! I even unistalled TCP/IP and reinstalled it and that didnt' work! Thats when I swapped for another card and it worked. Now Slink said back at the top that my card is still under warranty and that I should return it. Return it to who? Linksys or CompUSA? And how? I threw away everything! I have no box, no papers...nothing! Just the reciept! Should I call Linksys or CompUSA? Or am I screwed for throwing everything away??

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that I did have a power surge go by the other day. I saw a big huge bolt of ligtning outside my window and everything in the house went off. Except for my computers that all were connected to a power surge protector and a UPS. But this happend a couple of days prior to the card dieing. Funny thing is that everything stayed up...but a lamp that I had connected to the surge protector died out right there and then!!!  Why the hell this happen when its connected to a surge protector? Beats me! Do you think thats why the card died out? I doubt it...this happened like 3-4 days before it did die.

There could very well be a connection.  Perhaps the card was damaged by the lighting surge but not totally.  It failed the rest of the way after a couple more days.  Not all that unusual.

I used to have a problem with lightning, but no longer.  Not after installing NoEMP.sys
(got it from those fine folks who wrote nosmoke.sys)

Maybe you should have purchased it from Staples.  I have never had a problem returning something to them.  It's really easy if you have the receipt.  I would suggest taking it back to CompUSA first and then taking the long route of going back to the manuf only if you have to.

Hmmm. Good idea everybody. Let me try that. I'll get the receipt tonight and call compUSA and see if they'll accept it. If not....then help me god!!! That means I have to call Linksys! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! As anyone here ever dealt with them? Their friggin morons!! They don't know nothing! And did I mention tech support sucks? I'm not the only one that says this. I have friends that work at TechTV and there are times they have to call them too. And they too say they are very lousy.

Most UPS's have protected and unprotected outlets on them.  Why you would plug a lamp into one and waste backup battery time is beyond me.  If you have a UPS, then why the surge protecter.  UPS is a surge proector if you use the protected outlets.  Surge protectors can also go bad and still work, but they no longer protect (keep this in mind).  Did you network at all the 3 or 4 days after the power outage? I would put the card back in.  Pull the power on your network device to reset for a few minutes.  Go into winipcfg release and renew all, and try it again.

This is how I fixed mine after a power outage just this past Sunday.  Or take it back to Comp USA.  (They can even test it for you)  At least the one I go to can.

Good Luck

Most UPS's have protected and unprotected outlets on them.  Why you would plug a lamp into one and waste backup battery time is beyond me.  If you have a UPS, then why the surge protecter.  UPS is a surge proector if you use the protected outlets.  Surge protectors can also go bad and still work, but they no longer protect (keep this in mind).  Did you network at all the 3 or 4 days after the power outage? I would put the card back in.  Pull the power on your network device to reset for a few minutes.  Go into winipcfg release and renew all, and try it again.

This is how I fixed mine after a power outage just this past Sunday.  Or take it back to Comp USA.  (They can even test it for you)  At least the one I go to can.

Good Luck

Why do my posts always duplicate?

Do you hit Submit twice or use your Refresh button?  If you post a comment and then hit Refresh it will post twice.  You have a Reload Question link at the top of the question for that.

I don't think I do...The exchange server has been locking up a bit lately, and I may get impatient however. (The pitfalls of being on a fast connection, you get impatient quickly)

Despite their ability to build one of the most popular cable modem routers, I have never trusted their Network cards.  I have a very bad taste for their network cards as a cable modem installer installing a wide variety of NICs on a daily basis, the Linksys ones were the most often replaced after a very short time or not used at all because the cards were proven faulty far too often.
     I was not sure what the problem was, so I took on the chore of testing a box of 50 network cards to see which were working and which were not. As a trainer in a lab, I had several technicians who had already installed other cards successfully try to install these cards.  The installation went fine.  Windows said there was nothing wrong, the diagnostics showed nothing wrong.  However when connected to a network they could not obtain an IP, NOT ONE OF THEM! You may think it was a bad run, but these NICs were collected from several locations who were reporting consistent failures.  We gathered some samples from the five states we service and tested them here in our training labs. LESS THAN ONE TENTH OF THESE CARDS WORKED.  Therefor, it was our decision to dicontinue their use.

pbessman,

Thank you,  that is excellent insight.  What do you think of the asound NIC cards?

So what your saying is that Linksys is good? But not their NIC cards? Damn! LINKSYS MUST DIE!!!

I'm real happy with my Linksys router, but I use ASOUND and 3Com NIC's.  

I must come to the defense of Linksys.  In my huge network of 20 or so people, I never had a problem with any of the 20 or so Linksys cards that I had purchased.  I can't believe anyone would have a problem with Linksys cards since I gave them such a thorough workout!!

slink9, you and pbessman should talk.  Are there different Linksys models of NIC's?

I was being a bit ironic there.  I have never had a problem with Linksys, but I have never put them to much of a test with only a few users.

I to have had really excellent results with LinkSys.  I find their products to be reasonably priced and of excellent quality.  On the VERY FEW occasions I've needed to contact support they were reasonably responsive and knowledgeable.  On the ONE occasion where I had a hardware failure, they issued an RMA, sent me a replacement immediately, and I returned the bad one in a box they provided.

I'm quite pleased with them and continue to use and recommend their products.

That's two against one.  Who else is for or against?

I worked for a company who trained installers and installed for @home and other cable ineternet providers.  We wenth through a lot of network cards.  Usually more than 20 a day in the average market and some as many as 75 a day.  Out of that 50 network cards to fail out of several hundreds may seem like a drop in the bucket.  However, we have used less expensive cards with a much lower failure rate.  What I am saying is that side by side with others, Linksys network cards failed more than any others while in use.
     Personally, I like the Netgear cards as I can buy them in a five pack box for about 50.00.  If you need just one expect to pay between 15-25.00 as the individual units include a nice blue cable.  They are easy to install, and have had the best results in our tests.  I am using one now in my new p4 2gig system running Mandrake 8.2.  These cards are very compatible and capable.

"huge network of 20 or so people".  ;-)

Try a network that gets 30-100+ new people added to it every day depending on the size of your city.  That's what I'm talking about. :-}

Pbessman!!!!  Mandrake is my FAVORITE Linux OS. Please man!!! send me a copy. I will pay you for S&H and the blanck CD. Please....pretty please with sugar on top. :-(

I AM THE BIGGEST MANDRAKE LINUX FAN!!! PLEASE DON'T LET ME DOWN?!!

pbessman,

If you use that many network cards, I'm assuming you're buying them in bulk (or someone is anyway).  You could have hit a bad batch of cards.  I've hit a bad batch of D-Link cards before, they were the 530TX model.  That was the same model that @home was dishing out in this area, when I checked the cards closer, the ones that @home was giving out were a newer revision than the batch I got.  Haven't had problems since...