[Technical_1]

Got an old-ish model home built pc running Win98SE that belongs to my neighbor. Trying to install a network card for DSL and am having a bit of trouble.

I bought a Real-tek card on eBay. I believe it to be a model RTL8139D. Didn't receive any drivers with it so I went out and found them and tried to direct the installation wizard to them when asked. However, I get an error saying that the .inf file cannot be located for this card and setup cannot install the driver. I have looked in the folder that I directed it to and there are three files in it. They are: MTD80X.inf , MTD80X.sys , Readme.txt. Not sure why it can't find the .inf file unless it is the wrong one.

After a while of this, I gave up on this card and decided I'd try a D-Link DFE-530 TX+ that I use in another computer here at the house. Found this driver package for it (the one at the bottom labeled WinXP, WinME, Win2K, Win98, WinNT, Win95, Novell, Unix, DOS. Downloaded that and transferred it to the affected machine and it installed to the point of asking for the Windows 98 disc (which I was told it would). The driver that it tries to use says it is for an Intel 21040 based Ethernet Controller. Unfortunately the person that owns this machine says that they can't remember where they put the Windows Disc all those years back. I have a couple of 98SE discs here but when I try to use one of them it tells me that it cannot find 9 files that it needs. They are: dc21x4.dos , protman.dos , secur32.dll , svrapi.dll , ndis.vxn , ndis2sup.vxd , ndishelp.sys , ndiswmi.sys , vnetbios.vxd.

Well, I'm stumped as to how I'm going to get it installed at this point.

Anybody know of something I'm missing? Hardware's definitely not my strong suit. I should just stick to Viri.

Thanks in advance,

Scott

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From the picture it is definitely an RealTek 8139D.
Check the wording on the chipset to be sure what it is.
If it is an 8139D, then go to http://www.network-d.../131/131600.htm for a driver for it. Install it through Device Manager.

You may find the files that Windows wants on the hard drive - usually C:\Windows\Options\Cabs.

[Neil Jones]

From the picture it is definitely an RealTek 8139D.
Check the wording on the chipset to be sure what it is.
If it is an 8139D, then go to http://www.network-d.../131/131600.htm for a driver for it. Install it through Device Manager.

You may find the files that Windows wants on the hard drive - usually C:\Windows\Options\Cabs.

[Technical_1]

Thanks Neil.

I didn't use the link you gave for the driver I have for the RealTek card, however, their page says that they link to DriverGuide.com and that is where I got it. I was using Add/Remove Hardware to install it but did also try the "update driver" tab under device manager as well. It just says that the .inf file is missing. However, I verified that there was a file with that extension in the folder I directed it to.

I even went so far as to follow the "ReadMe" instructions all the way through (which was basically what I've already done) but that didn't work either.

I'll see if I can manually find the files it is looking for either in the location you specified or maybe on the 98SE Discs I have.

[Technical_1]

Well, still no joy on either card. Here's what has happened so far.

Real-Tek RTL8139D:
For some reason no matter what I do with this one it won't install anywhere. I get an error message that says no driver can be found for this one even though I have downloaded and saved the driver to a specific location and direct the installer to it. This also happens with another 98SE machine that I have here (the one I took the D-Link DFE-530TX+ out of).


DFE-530TX+
This card finally installed but apparently it did so incorrectly. I copied the files mentioned above onto a disc and transferred them to the affected computer. I directed the install to them manually when I was told to insert the 98SE disc. It installed it and said it did so correctly but then all of a sudden popped up an error. Now when I restart the computer it says "Your network adapter is not working properly. You may need to set it up again. For more info, see the Network Troubleshooter in Windows Help." When I go to Device Manager and click on the network card (which has an ! beside it), the device status says "This device is either not present, not working properly, or does not have all the drivers installed (Code 10). Try upgrading the device drivers for this device".

I'm kind of stumped. I've gone so far as to boot the 98SE machine that originally had the D-Link card in it and tried to find the driver for it in C:\Windows\System32\Drivers but none of them seem to be what I am looking for.

Anyone have any other ideas?

[Technical_1]

Well, I finally got them both going.

When I installed the network card (the D_link) into the machine that had never had one, the driver it picked by default was not the correct one. After that, everytime I would try to install a driver it would use the default instead and tell me that it couldn't find a better one even when I pointed it to the better one. This is apparently caused by not deleting the driver from the list under the Network tab in the control panel. When I looked there, there were several drivers listed for network cards. As a matter of fact even the one I was trying to use was listed, it just wasn't being used. I also noticed that the one I was trying to use was also not listed as a TCP/IP listing. The rest were. After removing ALL of the network card drivers including the correct one and restarting the machine, the wizard found the correct driver when pointed to it. It is now in the list under the network tab and also now has a TCP/IP listing. It also WORKS.

As far as the machine that I took the D-Link out of, I followed the same procedure for installing the Real-Tek card and it is also working now.

Hope this helps someone in the future.