new WLAN PCI card not detected by old PC

[chiggz]

Quick Info:

- I have an OLD (10 years) PC. Spec: 400mhz PII, 256mb ram. It's hardly used but my dad wants me to set up wireless on it so he can browse the web at random times.

- I've upgraded it to winXP (yes, it works fine) thinking it'd be easier and safer for the wireless connection.

- I've bought and installed a Realtek (RTL8185L) WLAN PCI card.

The Problem: The PCI card is not detected by winXP at all.

- I've tested the card in this PC (AMD64 3000+) and it works perfectly.

- I've tried the card in other PCI slots - still no success.

- I've removed a RealMagic Hollywood card that XP doesn't support (and I no longer need) in case it caused conflicts - still no success.

- I've messed around with BIOS settings:
+ Enabling "PNP OS Installed" - OS can handle Plug and Play devices
+ Setting "Resources Controlled By" to AUTO - BIOS controls PnP devices automatically
+ Enabling "Reset Configuration Data" - Forces BIOS to reconfigure PnP settings

Below is a link I used to help me check BIOS settings:
http://www.pcmech.com/article/pnppci-configuration/

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I've now run out of options in getting this card to work. Have I missed out anything? It is possible for this old motherboard to not provide enough power to the PCI card, or any other motherboard related issue?

Worse-case solution:
1- I could buy and try another card (different brand) and see if that magically works - but my guess is it'll have the same problem.
2- I could reinstall winXP; maybe it'll help having the card installed during the installation of the OS?
3- I could buy a USB WLAN adapter - but the motherboard doesn't support USB2.0 and so I don't think it's a good idea? Or is it still fast enough?

EDIT: I forgot to mention the PC originally had a 56k modem PCI card which I have removed prior to installing the WLAN card - I assume the drivers to it were installed too. Could this possibly have disturbed the "network" settings and hence prevent my card showing up?

 

[BillytheImpaler]

Regarding USB adapters, USB1 is plenty fast for 802.11B but is not fast enough to maintain 802.11G speeds. If all you're doing is browsing the web you probably wouldn't notice the performance hit unless you have ridiculously fast internet access, but you would notice if you were trying to transfer files over your network.

 

[chiggz]

^^ thanks for that - if i find no solution to my pci card, that's probably what i'll do.

 

[mattyrigby00]

no yellow question marks in device manager at all i assume? might end up having to use a usb wireless card :\ i assume it didnt work in the PCI slot which previously had a card in? im not aware of if theres being any major changes in the pci standard in the last 10 years which would mean the card is too new. have you tried fully resetting the cmos?

 

[chiggz]

no yellow question marks in device manager at all i assume? might end up having to use a usb wireless card :\ i assume it didnt work in the PCI slot which previously had a card in? im not aware of if theres being any major changes in the pci standard in the last 10 years which would mean the card is too new. have you tried fully resetting the cmos?

No yellow q.marks or anything in device manager at all. The card I no longer needed did appear in device manager, so that slot was fine, and yes I tried the card in there.

I don't know much about cmos so I'll look into it - thanks for that.

 

[chiggz]

Just a closure to this thread incase it's ever searched for:

I couldn't get the card to work even after a full cmos reset and a full computer format. I believe the motherboard is somehow just unable to find the new device. I could look into this futher and find out how motherboards have changed in the last 10 years and maybe find a sollution.. but I've decided to just go out and buy a USB wifi device as suggested by post #2.