cannot connect to internet

[lostdad]

OK first post. Here goes.
My son's Gateway FX6860 used to connect to the internet either thru the ethernet cable or wireless just fine. Per his story, he comes back from class and can no longer connect at all. He gets the error message 'Windows cannot detect proxy settings'. He has windows 7. A system restore did not do the trick.

I boot it safe-mode with networking, same error. Download and install driver for the NIC, same error.

Our company hires another company to maintain our PCs. One of those guys took it home for a side job. He brings it back and tells me, "the onboard nic is junk, and so is the wireless card. Buy a new wireless card, call me and I will install it."

So I ordered a PCIe network card. (not wireless. I wanted to get that working before buying a wireless card). It came in the other day.
I removed the 'bad' wireless card, installed the new NIC. Hook up cables for monitor etc. Turn on pc. I get the message 'no video signal check video cable'. check cables, they are tight, several reboots, same thing.

Remove new NIC, reboot JUST FINE!

Can the installation of a NIC in a PCIe slot (yes PCIe NIC) mess up 'things' so video does not work?

HELP.

Please hit me with questions. I not even know what to provide to help you.

Thanks

 

[Saffron]

The whole "Windows cannot detect proxy settings" leads me to believe that proxy was enabled but none was present, giving you that error. I could be wrong on this because I never messed around with proxy.

Is the PCIe NIC you bought one of the mini-PCIe types? Or is it a ful size PCIe? Do you have a dedicated PCIe graphics card? What brand is the network card you purchased? Have you tried seating the network card in a different PCI slot, if applicable?

 

[lostdad]

It is a full size PCIe NIC. The graphics card used PCI. The motherboard has one PCI slot, and 3 PCIe (x1) slots. The graphics card is like a double-wide. It fits into the PCI, but covers the top PCIe slot.

The brand of network card I purchased? eBay description is Gigabit Ethernet LAN PCI Express Network Desktop Controller Card 10 100 1000m
Does FPE mean anything? It is printed on a component on the card.

I have two PCIe slots that I can get to. I will try the other slot tonight.
I remember seeing an amber light on the back of the card. Now I can see there is an amber and a green light. Could the card be SO bad as to mess up video? I should try a different cable tonight too.

Thanks

 

[tkivisto]

Since this is a Gateway PC, it can be hard to get information about the motherboard but I can tell you that your description of the slots is a little confusing...I mean it's possibly to have 1 PCI slot and 3 PCI-E slots but probably not 3 PCI-E (x1) slots. Maybe take a picture and post it? Take a picture of the NIC card and the video card while you're at it!

I think we would all agree that installing a network card into a computer but not touching anything else shouldn't kill the video card....it's possible there is some conflict for resources once the network card was installed, but those kinds of problems are more of a thing of the past.

The other thing I wanted to point out is that it seems really odd that the onboard NIC and the wireless card both quit simultaneously coincidentally and don't work at all anymore.

Has this machine only been plugged into the one source of internet or have you tried other places too? Have you tried the wireless card in another machine to check that it is defective?

 

[lostdad]

tkivisto, thanks for the ideas.

I will take some pics when I get home tonight.
Yes, I thought it odd that both wired & wireless fail at the same time. He only used wired at school. It is possible they failed at different times but we did not discover until now.

We have tried two places for internet, the first was his dorm room, the next was our home. Putting the wireless card in another machine is a great idea.
It kills me that I don't think of that stuff.

What does it tell you when we boot in safe mode with networking, and get the same failure with wired and wireless?

Thanks again,

Dale