Invisible wireless network adapter

[lewisp]

I am having problems with a Linksys WMP54G I am trying to install into an older Windows 98se PC. The motherboard of this PC dates to the mid 90's I think, and the Award BIOS is dated May 1999. It has 3 PCI slots.

The Linksys software installs perfectly, but the card is not recognised at all in the device manager - not even by a yellow question mark. I have tried the card in every PCI slot on the board. The card can be seen if I install it into another PC that has a more modern motherboard, so I know the card is working.

What could be the problem with the older PCI motherboard? I suspect that NDIS.vxd might be to blame. Am I in the right area? Other PCI cards work fine in the slots that the adapter doesn't.

The symptoms are that the PC won't boot on the first power up - it hangs on the Windows splash screen. If I press the reset button it boots OK, but the adapter is not visible in device manager.

 

[wolluf]

I've had similar problems with newer PCI cards on older mobos. Gave up trying to resolve it - found another card that did work, and used the 'problem' card in a newer machine.

 

[lewisp]

I suspected as much... Can you remember which card it was?

 

[wolluf]

sorry - I can't.

 

[lewisp]

For info - IMy old mobo is PCI 2.1 but the Linksys needs 2.2 or 2.3. Different operating voltages I believe.

Thanks to wolluf, at least I know I'm not alone.