BELKIN Router/Adapter Problem.....HELP PLEASE!!!!! - Page 5

popper · 08-02-2008, 14:32

if your up for it you can find the BIOS key and go hunting for the 3com and temp disable it.

also the parallel device and serial if you like ,then you should be able to remove the 3com and parallel, its the belkin that really matters but it looks like we are going to be rebooting to normal mode after that.

letting windows find and install all the missing/removed drivers, and your GOING TO TELL US if that 'Cisco Systems 350 Series Wireless LAN Adapter and its matching minport come back.

THEN im off for a bit and Doc can take over for the belkin bit.

DocDutch · 08-02-2008, 15:19

Andy normally on Dell laptops to get into bios its either the "Delete Key" or the "F2" key.

with regards to the Cisco systems wlan adapter I would be curious if thats internal to the laptop or not.

also you cant uninstall any of the other lan adapters in device manager as thats normally the case, just right click them and select uninstall.

I have a funny feeling that its the OS on the laptop thats not playing ball instead of the adapter.

andy21 · 08-02-2008, 15:27

Hi guys!

Just got into the BIOS. Soz for the long wait.

Will have a look for the 3 Com.

---------- Post added at 15:27 ---------- Previous post was at 15:24 ----------

Have been through 7 pages of BIOS and I didn't notice anything that resembled 3com
unless it is labelled something else?

popper · 08-02-2008, 15:31

look for 'ethernet' or 'network' probably.

and dont forget to save the config usually F10 in the Bios to make the setting stick.

was it the delete or F2 key BTW, not that it matters.

andy21 · 08-02-2008, 15:40

F2 key.

Had a look for Ethernet or Network, and the word Ethernet appears once only,
on page 3 of 7 in the Dock Configuration. Its called Docking Ethernet, whatever that means. Nothing with the word Network though.

popper · 08-02-2008, 15:48

no idea, you are not docked and pluged into the station right now are you?.

that would in effect make more devices available and we dont want that right now, but not to worry, if you are, undock it.

turn off that Docking Ethernet option, boot to safe mode again, remove the device and see if it trys to re-install.

we might as well move on now as we are getting nowere really, if as Doc said you cant right click and un-install any remaining device drivers in the ethernet bit, just boot and we shall see were we are after windows has reinstalled etc.

im also wondering if the OS is buggered like Doc said, you do have a working windows cd to clean format and reinstall i assume?.

but lets move along for now....

DocDutch · 08-02-2008, 15:51

Andy it might be an easier option to wipe the OS clean...as your quite limited in what you can do. from clean it will work alright

you just have to probably make a backup of anything you got on the lappy that you want to keep.

andy21 · 08-02-2008, 16:00

I understand. First though let me just say I really do appreciate what you guys are trying to do for me here. It really should not have got to this stage, when you remember
that up until the previous Belkin adapter was working reasonably well (until the adapter got knocked a few times and then broke away), so I never envisaged that when I bought
a replacement online, that it would give me this sort of grief.....anyway I guess that's
history now, so I shall proceed on regardless! I shall crack on now with Disabling the Docking Ethernet.

DocDutch · 08-02-2008, 16:03

Andy if you cant disable the ethernet ports or anything then really the only way to go would be in my opinion a wipe of the OS as you should be able to uninstall anything from device manager.

andy21 · 08-02-2008, 16:06

Forgot to say. I never got any discs with this laptop. It came with leads, external CD drive, in a nice leather case, Ã‚Â£350 about 4 years ago.

DocDutch · 08-02-2008, 16:14

on the bottom does it have an XP home or PRO key or even Windows 2000?

popper · 08-02-2008, 16:24

failing that, your going to need to use an app to find your valid OS key and write it down, 'XP-Key-Reader.exe' works as good as any, then go find someone with the same version OS cd as already installed.

thats assuming theres no hidden partition on the drive thats got a recovery image you can use, but its always good to write your origial OS key down somewere safe so you can avoid these re-install OS problems...

andy21 · 08-02-2008, 16:43

windows XP Home Edition (Pro). Just had a Blue screen IRQ dilema, but laptop has just come back on.

---------- Post added at 16:43 ---------- Previous post was at 16:33 ----------

No recovery image on HD since I got it. Drive is only small 20Gb anyway.
Going to hunt around for this XP Key reader 'exe' . Should I find a free download of it
somewhere.

popper · 08-02-2008, 17:03

http://www.drowaelder.de/winpe/keyfi...yfinder-pe.cab
should work fine, its part of the PE Builder Plug-ins collection for UBCD4win.

UBCD4win being another option if you were more techy, would be to use that to rebuild your hidden i386 dir somewere and re-make your own windows CD(the windows install after its copyed from the OS cd.....) but thats way more time than we have to walk readers through.

http://www.drowaelder.de/winpe/PEIndex.htm
http://www.ubcd4win.com/index.htm

DocDutch · 08-02-2008, 17:16

Andy the key is for XP home or XP Pro? there is a big difference

you have 2 other pcs around 1 with Vista the other XP, if that is XP home as well then you can just use the cd that came with that pc

I've done that quite a few times now and always worked for me