Hardware drivers fail to load on Packard Bell I MEDIA 4606

[Lordcharles]

I'm working on a I MEDIA 4606 at present (trying to connect it to Broadband - so I have added a Network Card) the found new hardware wizard runs but despite having the drivers on disk they fail to load. I'm running the PC away from it's home at present on a CRT monitor and another mouse and keyboard. After boot up wizards tells me the installation of those failed as well but unlike the network card they work!

I'm pretty sure my problem is in the BIOS - the onboard battery was dead so I replaced that and reeset date / time and that reset other things as well.

I'm thinking the problem is in Plug and Play?

PCI Plug and Play Setup is currently:

Plug and Play O/S Yes
PCI IRQ Line 1 through to 3 all set at Auto
DMA Channels 0 /1/3/5/6/7 all PnP
IRQ 3/4/5/7/9/10/11/14/15 all set at PCI / PnP

There is a diagnostic which comes with the PCI card and running that tells me:

There are more than one PCI Lan board on your system (there is only the one which I'm trying to install). Please select the one you want to set up.

If I select any one of the 15 in the diagnostic I get a Fatal Error message telling me that IO or IRQ assigned by system is illegal. Check your CMOS settings or contact with your PCI mother board vendor for solving the problem.

The list the diag finds are 1 through to 15 all bearing a 00 00 00 00 00 00 ID IOBASE: 8138H and IRQ: 57.

So, I'm pretty sure I need to reset something in the BIOS but can't figure out what?

The BIOS is a CHALLENGER and I have compared the settings it should have - mine seems OK.

I have also renamed INFCACHE.1 files so they load again. Still no go.

 

[wolluf]

what actually happens when it tries to install the drivers. Does it actually find them and fail during the install? Or does it not find them? (are they on a floppy or CD? Have you tried copying them to hard drive, then pointing the new hardware wizard at them?)

 

[Lordcharles]

Yes the drivers are found, look like they are loading then It searches for and finds the driver then the wizard looks like it's completing but then a message pops up telling me it can't install "The data is invalid".

I'm using a different key board, mouse and monitor. On boot up or restart 4 wizards come up, all telling me that the hardware can't be installed "The data is invalid". The first listed as "unknown" with a drawing of a a squashed looking mouse?, clicking the only option on that "finish" the second, again listed as unknown but clearly showing a mouse, again "data invalid" clicking finish on that brings up Found New Hardware for a Plug & Play monitor seeking CD or floppy with next or cancel options. Next carries out a search and again "The data is invalid". Finish thern brings up the Realtek RTL8139 Ethernet detected seeking CD or floppy which running through again brings the Data invalid screen.

In Device Manager there are three ? icons, the first being other devices then 17N (which seems to be my monitor) then the Ethernet Controller. Clicking 17N tells me the location is On Intel (R) 82810E Graphiocs Controller and that no drivers area installed and the Ethernet controller is at PCI Slot 2 (PCI Bus 1, device 5, function 0). Telling me on status that this device is not configured correctly (Code 1).

Mouse, keyboard and monitor all work. there is power to the ethernet card but it won't internet. Yes I have also tried loading the drivers locally. No go again.

 

[bracadar]

Is your firmware on the MOBO the latest release. I would start with that.

 

[wolluf]

When you reset the bios, did you load failsafe values or did you just leave it as is or set values yourself? If you didn't I'd try loading failsafe (or default - different bioses uses different terms) values.

If no improvement, I'd suggest a repair reinstall might sort this out:-

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313222