A well known annoyance as far as Windows Vista is concerned, is the strange issues it has with network cards drivers. The common error (which i encountered twice and friends of mine countless times) is that after installing Vista on your PC you get prompted that the driver for the Ethernet Controller is not recognized. In plain words, it means you don’t have network nor internet connectivity (so you can’t load any suitable drivers) and the drivers that ship with Vista won’t really help you.
This error is specially prevalent with 3COM networks cards.
There is one tweak i used when installing my Windows Vista PC, that solves this annoyance. The gist of it is simply installing the XP compatible network card drivers on Vista!!
- From a “non-Vista” PC in your network (or using a friend’s PC) navigate to the 3COM Drivers Download page, and download the Windows XP compatible driver zip file for your Network card.
- Save the driver files on a USB or external drive.
- Restart and login to your Vista PC, plug the USB/external drive and copy the driver to a folder there (you might need to unzip the contents of the driver *.zip file first).
- You will be prompted to provide a driver for your network card. Point it to the folder containing the *.inf file.
- Your 3COM network card should now be fully functional in Vista!
- In order to test connectivity just open your browser and navigate to your favorite web site.
[tags] Vista, Network Card, Windows Vista, 3COM Network Card, Drivers [/tags]
Feel free to look into these related tips:
Posted by Gili
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My friend was just complaining about this exact problem. I guess I can help him out now. After I get him to spring for lunch heh.
LOL – hope it will help, let me know the results
Luckily i havent such problem .
Your tip worked! My friend was so happy he ordered pizza too. I am sooo full. Thanks buddy hehe.
[...] long ago, I introduced you to a nifty tip that will help you to solve network card issues in Windows Vista. The gist of it was to use the Windows XP driver that functions well also in [...]
will this work with a 3com officeconect
pc card
I hope it works, I’m at my school right now, I just went from vista, to xp, and back to vista. XP, my network card worked fine, and in Vista, it says there is no drivers for it. I tried all night.
Also, will this work on motherboard based network cards?
It said it was attached to the motherboard,
I’m not good with the insides of the machines
Any way, can’t wait to try it.
Can you send me the 3com drivers. The link you provided doesnt work… Also if you have screen shots and more detailed instructions, that would help. Thanks!