Windows can't recognize the PCI card?

I recently installed a USB 2.0 PCI Host Card from CompUSA. I installed it properly, made sure it was secure, etc. When I restarted Windows it didn't locate the new hardware at startup nor when I ran a search for it.

I installed the drivers from the cd-rom that came with the card, but the card is still not working.
After several restarts and a couple of reinstalls, still windows cannot find this hardware.

I am running Windows XP SP2. My computer is a Sony VAIO PCV-RX760.

If anyone has any ideas on getting this thing to work, I would love the feedback. Thank you.

Make sure you have all your updates from sony..motherboard, chipset etc

shut down...physically remove the PCI board...reboot and then shutdown and pop it back in.

Sometimes you have to install the driver before you install the board?

Go to the PCI boards vendor site and see if there is updated drivers??

Just thoughts

MLF

Well, since it's a usb card you would think windows would automatically recognize it, since those are pretty popular peices of hardware, which makes me think that the problem is a hardware problem, not a software problem. I would guess it's a bad PCI slot on your mobo, try another slot.

BTW, maybe you should use a can of compressed air to blow the dust out of the slots, dust creates alot of problems.

***EDIT

Just saw MF's response. He brings up some good points, but I would try using my method before doing all that work, if my method doesn't work, then MF's method might bring some results.

oh...forgot

what does device manager say??

does it find it...but not recognize it?? That would mean a driver issue.

If it cant see it...may be bios is not seeing it...try another slot??

Is the bios set to PNP OS?

Some PCI resources can be shared on some boards...and conflict ...specially with sound and video cards

I have seen some funky driver issues with SP2...may need a newer version from the vendor

MLF

Hey, thanks for the good replies.

morganlefay-
The device manager cannot find the device at all. And I have actually tried two different slots (the last two available). I also downloaded latest driver for the card manufacturer to no avail. And I'm not sure what PNP is.

I haven't been able to follow all your advice from your original post, but I will.

The Duck - The compressed air thing may be a good idea. My case has quite a bit of dust.

Well

Could just be a bad piece of hardware??

static frys alot of components???

I would return it....did you google it to see if other people have the same issue?

I recently just purchased a USB PCI card...installed in a 2K machine and it worked fine.

PNP is Plug and Play Operating System setting in the BIOS...some components need that enabled to be recognized by the PNP OS...eg windows ..or it manual configuration (PITA)

MLF

edit> As the duck suggested...dust bunnys are BAD..BAD ..BAD for your hardware!!!!

Yep, cleaned out the dust and followed your advice, morganlefay, in the first post. Haven't had any luck, but I do have somewhat of a "dumb" question:

The instruction manual for the card says I must have windows xp with SP1 or higher for the hardware to be recognized by the windows os. When I first installed the card and booted up I was running windows xp with no service packs. I've since installed SP2, but nothing changed. I'm wondering should I have gotten SP1 than gone to SP2? Does it matter at all?

SP2 has all patches and fixes included in SP1 ...so no..you do not have to install sp1 first......but sp2 does have alot of differences then sp1...which maybe your issue.

After applying sp2 ..I have had to update many a driver..on various oem machines..as the hardware just stopped working.

Not sure of sony bios..

Could be just a bad card...maybe try in another machine??

Or just return..contact sony??

Maybe your board shares pci slots....??

What other PCI devices do you have installed?



MLF

Out on a limb here...could be a resource conflict. Pick a device that IS functioning, uninstall it, shut down and physically remove it from the system. Put your USB card in its place and see if it detects and installs. If it does, then somewhere you have a devices that are already using the resources assigned to the pci slots in question or the slots are just fuxored. If it doesn't install, then you probably have a bad card.

Does the device manager show anything with a yellow exclamation mark (!)?
If so select it and remove it. Then reboot..

My mobo shows all my PCI cards right after counting memory.. And just before booting windows. It shows a table with memory, disks etc.. After that come the PCI cards. Does it show up there? If it doesn't then either the PCI slot is broken and/or the card..

There are no exclamation marks in the device manager. In fact, when I install the drivers from the cd-rom (or manufacturer website), I can't even see the driver name in the device manager.
Just before the driver installs it says, "Windows SP1 has a USB 2.0 inbox driver. Do you want to install [card manufacturer] USB 2.0 driver?" I click yes of course, and nothing.

I took allenb's advice and uninstalled a device that was working and installed the card in place of it. At startup, the bios screen did display a little message saying the "EC-something-or-another was updated successfully" Still, windows found nothing.

I needed USB 2.0 ports for this wireless-g usb network adapter. I guess the card is just bad or something is wrong with my motherboard. Thanks everyone for the helpful replies!

I think the card is fried...

Thanks for posting back results...helps me troubleshoot similar issues here..cause there are several good suggestions offered by the members of AO...and I like to know what works...and what doesnt.

Learn something new ...everyday ;)

MLF

I think I would go with allen on this one..my gues also would be recources that clash but maybe is not showing on device manager etc..I take it that you also have onboard usb and i think in that case just remove the usb card again, disable your onboard usb devices in the cmos,switch off ..insert the usb card and then see if it picks it up.You can always enable the onboard ones afterwards..

Another thing,not too sure about this but if it does pick it up and after enabling your other usb,s and they do clash,and all recource settings are used up it is possible to assign extra recources...not tooo sure though.

hope it helps
cheers
vanman

Not too sure vanman...but again all depends on the mb...but he did pop out a working PCI device and put the card into that slot..still doesnt work...only way to really tell is try in another machine I guess???

I popped in a USB2 PCI card into a PC that has onboard USB1 ...no conficlts..issues...
But then again it is a good mb ...lots of resources available.

MLF

Hi vanman, thanks for your reply.

What is the cmos? Your post reminded me what I had to do to get my 3rd party graphics card to work. I had to disable (uninstall? I can't remember) the onboard card in the device manager in order for my new card to be recognized by windows.

This time I unistalled my usb2 card and then I disabled the onboard usb controllers (there were two of them) in the device manager. I shut down, reinstalled the usb2 card, but windows didn't find it this time either. After installing drivers from the cd-rom, it still wasn't listed in the device manager.

Maybe I did something wrong because I don't think I disabled the onboard usb devices in the cmos because I don't know what it is.

Usually not an issue in XP but have you tried the Add Hardware wizard to force the OS to scan for new devices?

Start>Settings>Control Panel>Add Hardware.

Maybe try a manual install.

Hi,

Go into Setup and look at the advanced BIOS settings, make sure that USB support is enabled.

It would be a great help if you could test the card in another machine. It could be defective and that would at least prove or eliminate that possibility.

Cheers

Hello,

I booted into the bios, didn't see anything about onboard usb or usb in general. I did see an option to enable onboard parrallel ports and serials ports.

The good news is, I did try installing the card on another pc (a much older one). And windows 98 was able to detect the card.

btw: what is cmos?

CMOS = Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor, it works with BIOS to hold system values and settings.

Somewhere in the menus that come up when you enter setup, you should have the option to enable USB Controller and USB Legacy Support. You may have to check all the menus.

I am not sure if you have tried this: go into Device Manager and uninstall ALL USB items including the hub controller, then reboot and let Windows find the devices and drivers do not attempt to install the manufacturers' drivers.

Good luck

Nihil, I will try your idea about uninstalling all of the usb devices in the device manager. Are they easy to reinstall if things don't work out?

Also, should I remove the pci card before I do this? Or does it make a difference? I have it installed right now.

Thank you.

Hi,

Windows should find all the attached devices and install drivers for them. As they are all there, it should resolve any possible conflicts as well.

Yes, leave the card attached.

Good luck :)

Ok, I uninstalled all the usb and hub controllers. Didn't have any luck with windows finding my card on startup, even after uninstalling them a second time and installing my pci card in a new slot. I guess my mobo just doesn't want to accept it.

Thanks for all the replies. Very helpful information all around, atleast it has been a learning experience.

sounds like the card is f*&ked............

Unless you can pop it into another machine...I would stop now .....as it "may" be costing you more then your time by now?? ;)

Some times you just have to call it quits
:eek:


MLF
\EDIT>

Could be the MB is limited....and I have seen many an emachine ...with limited\shared resouces....

I think that maybe your problem...mb limitation


I am not that up on sony oems

just thoughts???

MLF

Quote:

---

static frys alot of components

---

haha, which brings me to the classic question, did you discharge yourself before doing all of this??? :p

One should discharge daily for good measure....

Seriously...since the card worked in another machine under Win98, it appears that either a resource conflict or a couple of bad slots are at the heart of the problem. I can't imagine a USB 2.0 card being manufactured that is not compatible with XP UNLESS it's an issue with SP2. But thats just a crazy notion since we all know how infallible M$ is.

just my .02....

When did he post that it worked under windows 98??

Hello, The Duck it was in his last comment in post #18 in the thread.

This really is a weird one, as I would have thought that Allenb~ and Morgana~ had more or less covered all the angles?

I guess I would send the card back at this stage. I have mentioned before that I once had this problem with identical MoBos and identical modems. Switching the modems over got them both working :confused:

I am wondering if this card is right at the edge of the manufacturing specifications? that would explain why it won't work in a known working PCI slot, but will work in another machine.

I suggested the deinstall/reinstall because I had that with a USB scanner and WinXP a little while back..............but that did not work :(

I have done a Google search and this does not seem to be a Sony Vaio problem?

I guess that I would get the PCI card replaced, preferably with a different make..........these things are made in batches ;) so the same supplier may have a whole lot of duds?

Hmmm... if it worked in a 98, it should work in XP. The best thing I can think of is some kind of mobo/card incompatability... But yeh, this is weird...

I have seen ISA/legacy devices that work fine with 98 but crap out on XP however a USB 2.0 card SHOULD NOT be one of them. Correct me if I'm wrong, but XP has been around longer than USB 2.0 so I'm left wondering if the card is in some way not compliant with the PCI standard that the m/b is using.

One other test...can you install some other PCI card in the slots that are in question here and see if they detect/install?

A lot of motherboards show what cards and resources are being used right after post. I would boot up without the card and record whats there and then with the card and check for differences. If there isn't any, then its probably not a windows driver issue.