[Aichan]

Hello. Please, help me out. I'm no computer expert.

I've started having problems with my computer yesterday. While online my computer restarted out of the blue, and I had no idea why. Everytime I tried turning it on it will just restart back again, the log in screen wouldn't even appear. I've tried opening windows in safe mode and it did work. Then I tried to start this comp using the "lastest configurations" and it worked. But, after a while it would just restart once again, and it would go back to the way it started. Today, I got this message from windows saying that the problem was caused by Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC. I went to the realtek website but I can't download the Auto installation program for windows xp. Please, help me out. I've had this computer for about 2 years, and I still think it can survive a couple of more. I don't know how to fix this.

[Advertisements]

Since your NIC card worked fine until now, I suspect you have the right drivers. Sometimes the cards just go bad. The good news is that they are not expensive and fairly easy to change. I'm going to move this to the hardware forum and let the experts there disagree or agree, but either way, they'll get you going again.

Johanna

[Johanna]

Since your NIC card worked fine until now, I suspect you have the right drivers. Sometimes the cards just go bad. The good news is that they are not expensive and fairly easy to change. I'm going to move this to the hardware forum and let the experts there disagree or agree, but either way, they'll get you going again.

Johanna

[Samm]

Welcome to G2G Aichan

Johanna probably right, networks do just go bad sometimes & this could be your problem.
Can you just confirm though - when you rebooted in safe mode, did the computer boot ok or not?
I assume you connect to the Internet via the network card, right?
If so, can you try booting in 'safe mode with networking' to see if the system still works & if you can access the internet without any problems.

If you don't use the network card for the Internet, do you use it for anything else or is it redundant?

[Aichan]

Yes, the computer did boot without any problem. Also, I can connect to the internet in safe mode. The problem only occurs when I log in into windows the normal way. In order to get in I have to press F8 and start with the "lastest know configurations" options.

Oh, and yes, I do connect to the internet via a network card.


Thanks for your help so far.

[Aichan]

Question : If I re-format my computer once again, will this problem go away? Or will the problem return back again after a while?

[artificial]

I had a problem with my Realtek Ethernet NIC on my labtop that I use right now. I've talked to several people and mine began to work when I typed the command 'netsh winsock reset' into the run window. But don't do so until a staff member of G2G verifies. Maybe that was just the answer to my problem.

Cheers.

[Samm]

Aichan

It sounds like the network card itself is probably fine. If it were faulty it wouldn't work in safe mode either.

This suggests that the problem is either a driver, application, malware or a different piece of (faulty) hardware. I realise that this doesn't exactly narrow it down much!

Can you download WinAudit from this link please:
http://www.pxserver.com/WinAudit.htm

Run winaudit
Click on the 'Options' icon & make sure every checkbox except the last (find files) is ticked.
Click on Save & save the audit file as a web page (HTML only option).
After that, close winaudit & email the html audit file to me as an attachment. Do not post it in the forum.

[email protected]

The next thing I suggest you do, is backup anything of any importance i.e documents, pictures, emails, email address book, favourites, downloads etc, just to be on the safe side. I advise to copy them to a CD/DVD if possible as these are the most reliable media for backup.

One possible solution may be to attempt a system restore if you have a suitable restore point available (i.e one that was created a short while before the problems started). If you do try this however, please make sure you create the audit file before doing this.
Probably best to put off running system restore until I've had a look at the audit file first though