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shawn857

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Installed new hard drive in computer, no "Local Area Connection" icon in Network Connections

Hi experts, my old hard drive on my XP Home system (an old eMachines desktop) died and I bought a used one from someone and he pre-loaded it with a fresh copy of XP Home for me. Put the hard drive in my computer, put all the connections together and it booted up into XP fine. I have the ethernet cable plugged in but it's not picking up my cable internet connection (I have 2 other computers running fine off the same router... hard-wired, no wireless). I go into CONTROL PANEL|NETWORK CONNECTIONS and there's nothing there. Shouldn't there be a "default" icon saying "Local Area Connection"? I tried going through the "Create a new connection" selection in the left-hand margin there but that didn't do any good. Can anyone help please?

Thanks
   Shawn

P.S:  The ethernet connection cable is fine, I tried the cable on one of my working computers and it works.

The specs on this old desktop system are:
- XP Home Version 2002, Service Pack 1
- eMachines H2602 with Celeron 2.80ghz CPU, 2 gigs RAM
- 80 gig HD split into 3 partitions, total 52 gigs free
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No, there is no default icon without a real connection.  It is likely that you don't have a driver for the Network card in that machine.  You may have to download it on another machine so you can install on the 'new' machine.
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Even XP should pick up a wired connection automatically. It always did for me - no issues. So two things:

1. The OS on the hard drive is a dud - defective.
2. There is a hardware problem on the machine.

You can still purchase XP on eBay. Maybe get a new disk and reinstall XP with a known good install CD. You can still download service packs to update to SP3 and you might even get a few updates.
The fact that the install was on another machine means that it would not have picked up the Network card in your machine.
If you go to Device Manager - do you see there any device with exclamation mark?
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shawn857

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Thanks for the responses guys. OK, the guy I bought the used HD from *did* also give me an XP installation CD, but when I put the CD in the drive of this computer (F:),  it's not reading it/picking it up. When I put the CD in my other computer, it reads it fine - it's indeed an XP installation CD.

Thanks
   Shawn
Open up the box and check your DVD/CD drive data connections.
Go into "device manager" (either from control panel or system properties) and check the Network adapters section to see if the ethernet card was detected...   If it shows up with an exclamation point (!) then you need to download and install the driver as previously suggested...

If it is not there at all, you need to try to install it, or there is yet another issue that needs further investigation!
You'll need the chipset drivers first.

Go here http://www.emachines.com/ec/en/US/content/drivers.html and download the chipset drivers for the H2862 machine.

See if that installs successfully.  If it does then try the LAN driver for the H2862 machine.

No guarantee that this will work but that's what I'd try.
Thanks everybody. What an ordeal, I've been wrestling with this all night. After my original successful bootup into XP, when I shut down and tried to re-boot again, it would not boot up - it would go as far as briefly showing the Windows XP logo window then automatically restart and just keep doing this. I do have an XP system CD that I got from the guy I bought the used drive from, so I decided I'd just do a full re-install of XP from that CD. So I put the CD in and figured I could just boot to CD and it would invoke the XP installation. But it wouldn't even recognize my CD drive... so then I thought the CD drive had gone bad. I dug out an old PE boot CD I had and put that in and I was successfully able to boot via that CD, so that meant at least the CD was working anyway. While in the PE environment, I decided to do a CHKDSK, so I ran that and it found and fixed a few bad sectors. Then I took out the PE CD and just tried a normal bootup and it worked this time! So I'm back where I started - booted up, but can't do anything... no Local Area Connection icon. I tried popping in that guy's XP installation CD into my other Vista computer here, just to see if it was okay, and it loaded up fine. I tried putting it back into the XP system and it wouldn't read it at all. I put in some other CD's I have in and it read those fine. Put the XP install CD back in.. wouldn't read it. Very strange. So then I had the bright idea of copying the XP installation CD to a USB stick on my other computer and use THAT to re-install XP on the problematic system. First I wanted to see in fact, if the problematic system would recognize a USB stick ... it wouldn't. So that idea scuttled. Then I started digging in my piles of old CD's and I found a very old XP Home installation CD that came with an old Compaq laptop I had years ago. It says right on the CD "ONLY FOR COMPAQ LAPTOP", so maybe I can't use that to re-install XP on my problematic system?? Anyway, I popped it in the CD drive just to see if it would recognize it and it does. I'm tempted to just go ahead and do the re-install of XP using that Compaq CD but I first wanted to run it by you all to see if it should be okay. An XP install CD is an XP install CD, isn't  it? It should be fine to use, no?

Thanks!
    Shawn
I've used a Dell OEM successfully in the past with a different product key, despite advice that it was impossible. Worth a try.

Might be possible to switch discs if there's a glitch.
OK Alan thanks... I think I'll go ahead and try it.

Not sure what you meant by this: "Might be possible to switch discs if there's a glitch. " Switch CD-ROM drives with my other computer, you mean?

Thanks
   Shawn
post a screenshot of device manager, then we can see what's happening
but probabbly -as suggested, you need to install all the drivers for the motherboard
He is ignoring this request to check the device manager somehow. Don't know why.
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Nobus/noxcho/DanCh - sorry, no I'm not ignoring your advice about the device manager. There are/were no exclamation marks on any of the items... but there are several "Question marks" next to the items in the "Other devices" category :

- Ethernet controller
- Multimedia Audio Controller
- PCI Simple Communications Controller
- SM Bus Controller
- Video Controller

For all of these, when I reboot it comes up with the "Found hardware" installation wizard but it doesn't find or install any drivers for them, hence the Question Marks.
   I can't even copy over from a good computer to this computer, any new drivers, etc. The internet is not functioning on this problematic computer, nor will it recognize a USB memory stick. I *did* however discover why this computer wasn't recognizing the XP installation CD that the guy gave me with the new HD - it's because the CD is actually a DVD and this problematic computer doesn't have a DVD drive... only a CD-ROM drive. That's why I could read that DVD fine on my other computers and not this one. Anyway, I'm going to do the proper thing and do a full re-install of XP on this machine and hopefully that will do it. Firstly, on my good computer, I'm going to copy the XP installation DVD that buddy gave me onto a CD, and then use that for the installation on the problematic computer. Will keep you posted!

Thanks
   Shawn
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If you know the motherboard model name and number then download for it drivers (xp compatible) and copy them to CD drive. Then install the drivers from CD. No need in network or usb transfer then.
OK guys, I re-installed a fresh copy of XP using my old installation CD from an old Compaq laptop I had... it installed fine. But once again in NETWORK CONNECTIONS, there is no Local Area Connection icon. No icons there at all. In the Device Manager, it's just like it was before... under the "Other Devices" category, all question marks next to:

Ethernet Controller
Multimedia Audio Controller
PCI Simple Communications Controller
SM Bus Controller
Universal Serial Bus Controller
Video Controller

I haven't tried yet to plug in my internet connection - I'm afraid to! So I don't really know where to go from here. Do I need to get those "chipset drivers" and install those?

Thanks
    Shawn
I used XP for 5 years (a decade ago) and anytime I installed XP on a good machine, it would pick up the Ethernet. So since you installed XP fresh on your machine, that says the network card is bad (or very strange). Try a USB NIC and see if that works.
SUCCESS gentlemen! Phew! OK, I got all the necessary drivers for my eMachines computer type (sorry, I had mentioned at the start it was a model H2602, when it's actually a T3990). Burnt all those files onto a CD-RW and copied them into the XP system. Installed them one by one rebooting after each one and finally the Local Area Connection icon appeared in Network Connections and I was able to get on the internet. However, it's a very old default version of IE on there and it couldn't bring up many sites properly. Couldn't install latest firefox without SP2, so that's what I'm working on now - burning the SP2 install file onto a CD-RW and installing that on the XP system. Hopefully that goes well, and then I'll work on putting SP3 on there.
   But one other question please - in this used hard drive that I've put on my XP system, there is still the original non-working copy of XP in the WINDOWS folder of the C: partitions. I installed the fresh copy of XP of partition E:. So when I boot up now it asks which copy of XP I want to boot to, and it lists two XP systems (the first one is the good one). Is it as simple as just deleting the files from the  old XP operating system in the C: partition?

Thanks!
   Shawn
You're making progress.!  You can delete the entry for the second version of XP from the 'boot.ini' file.  However... unless you make the E: drive bootable by it self (as the C: drive), you will have to keep both disks in that machine.
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in Run type msconfig, select the boot tab and delete the non working install
then you can delete all the files on the other partition

in case you need it here's how to run a repair :  http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
Thanks guys. Noxcho: I went into Disk Management as you suggested and it does show as C: is System and E: is boot (please see attached screenshot management.png), but I find this very strange because I had renamed the WINDOWS folder on C: drive to "WINDOWS_old" (please see screenshot windows.png). What is the difference between "boot" and "system" anyway? Aren't they the same thing?
   Also attached is screenshot bootini.png showing the contents of the BOOT.INI file. Indeed, there are two entries in there and when I click "Check all boot paths", it identifies the XP installation on Partition 1 (ie. C:) as the invalid one.

  I haven't touched or changed anything yet, but it seems to me that the XP installation on C: in WINDOWS_old is not being accessed in  any way - even more impossibly so since I renamed it to WINDOWS_old. My thought is that it would be okay to just delete that WINDOWS_old folder entirely, no? Still, it's a funny thing that C:\WINDOWS_old shows up in Disk Management as "System". I'd really really hate to have to go through all this ordeal of re-installing XP and the service packs again from scratch... considering that everything is actually working fine now - it's just this final cleanup of unnecessary redundant stuff left to be done.

Thanks
     Shawn
windows.PNG
management.PNG
bootini.PNG
it looks like the partitions are 1= C: --2=D: and 3=E:
so decide what you want  to wipe
i am not sure why and when you made 3 partitions..
>> it looks like the partitions are 1= C: --2=D: and 3=E:

Yes, that's correct Nobus.

>> so decide what you want  to wipe

Well, I just want to get rid of the old XP installation on C: Can I simply delete the files?

>> i am not sure why and when you made 3 partitions..

I did not do that. It was that way when I bought the used drive. I don't know why that fellow made those stupid partitions.

Thanks
   Shawn
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yes you can delete all the files, but best remove it from the startup tab first
you can then free the empty partition and add it to the other partitions
Thanks guys. I don't really need to delete that whole partition C... just if I can delete the WINDOWS_old folder in there.
   On this computer, I won't really be installing too many things... it works okay now and that's what matters for the time being. Maybe in the future when I have free time I can re-install XP, make it all only one partition (C:) and do it right.

So would it be safe enough to manually delete the C:\WINDOWS_old folder now, and in BOOT.INI to take out the 2nd boot path to partition 1 (C:) ? If it's not safe, then that's alright... I can just leave it all as is and do a proper XP install and cleanup at a later time.

Thanks
    Shawn
Yes, it is safe. Delete Old folder and edit the boot.ini file.
Thanks noxcho, I just fixed the BOOT.INI first only and rebooted.. that worked fine. Now I just tried to delete the C:\WINDOWS_old folder and it won't delete. It shows the normal "Deleting..." window for a few seconds, then the window closes and the folder does not get deleted to the recycle bin - maybe it's too big. I guess I'll just leave it... it's not hurting anything for now.

Thanks
   Shawn
try deleting it from an elevated prompt
or try deleting the contents of the folder first
what is an "elevated prompt" nobus?

Thanks
   Shawn
for win7 http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html

in xp all command prompts are elevated
If you cannot delete it then it is locked by some file or service opened from it.
Or you don't have rights to delete it. Take ownership of it.
Lots of people to thank for helping me out on this issue... I tried to spread the points around as best I could. Thanks all.

Cheers
   Shawn