Whole lotta' troubles. (Vista->XP/HP s7700y)

[smolder]

Hey all. New here, hope I don't screw things up too badly.

Recently, my friend's computer died. Wouldn't load Vista, or the recovery console, or anything, so we had to DBAN it, switch the BIOS to read the HDD as an IDE, and throw XP Pro on it. At long last, it's an acceptable computer.

Almost.

It's only recognizing the 1394 connection, and it's not wanting to agree with the drivers I installed that I got straight from Hewlett Packard. If any of you could help me out, it'd be wonderful.

Specs:

Motherboard description

* Motherboard manufacturer's name: Asus MOCA-AR
* HP/Compaq name: Calcite-GL8E

Onboard LAN

* Realtek RTL8100 10/100 Mbps

Chipset

* Intel 945GT

Expansion slots

* One PCI Express x16 ((Probably not too important, but I'm wondering if I could even toss a new network card in if this is all he has.))

Am I missing anything? Just ask and I'll get the info. Thanks in advance. :)

[mjc]

The PCIe slot that is open is mainly for a new video card...so it isn't going to help much with your network problem. Yes, there are other cards being made for the PCIe bus, but they aren't very common and tend to be a bit on the $$$$ side.

The first question...what drivers have you installed? Chipset/mobo drivers? Where did you get them from (HP, Intel, Asus)? Stick with HP or Intel...

Sound?

Realtek should have a reference driver for that series of onboard network adapter that may work...

[smolder]

I did get the chipset drivers direct from HP, also got sound drivers, but for whatever reason, they wouldn't install.

I checked for the Realtek drivers listed, and I got 'em, but after installation, I still can't find the network card. In the device manager, it says "Ethernet controller" in the list of "we're-not-going-to-cooperate-devices."

Some days, I wish I paid more attention to hardware and less to software.

[Rick]

Until you get the motherboard chipset drivers installed.
The PCI is going to give you problems