Hi, looking for some guidance here. The inlaws asked me to take a look at their PC as they'd had a message pop up. It turned out that the Avast licence was running out and needed to be renewed. I renewed this, and noticed the machine was running a bit sluggish. So decided to clean it up a bit.
I uninstalled some programs they no longer used and installed some useful tools (defraggler, ccleaner, team viewer and Malwarebytes). I ran ccleaner, defragged machine and scanned for Malware (all from the comfort of my own home using team viewer). I also ran a virus scan. A couple of malware hits were found, and I got rid of them. Then made sure Windows was updated.
Early on I noticed something a bit strange but didn't think anything of it. Windows detected new hardware and installed drivers for it. At first it was the Epson Printer and then the DVD drive. It seemed to install drivers and the devices worked so I left it at that.
Then, after a reboot Windows detected new hardware again, this time it was the D-Link DFE-538TX PCI ethernet card in the machine. It asked for the driver disk to be installed. I didn't have it, and couldn't get the PC on line to download them. I downloaded the drivers at home and returned to the PC, pointed the prompt to the driver location and installed all ok, everything working.
The next time the PC was rebooted it detected new hardware again, the D-Link DFE-538TX network card. I wasn't there, but got a call to say there were messages on the machine. When I got there I discovered that multiple entries of the D-Link card were showing in Device manager, some had warnings against them and some not. There were also multiple LAN connections created, all showing "cable is unplugged" message. No connectivity to the card was available.
I updated the driver against one of the entries in device manager and it allowed connectivity and internet access. Left it like that as I had to go to work, and returned to it this evening. A reboot left it offline with no connectivity. I painstakingly uninstalled all entires (60 odd and a very old, slow PC !) in device manager with the view to reinstalling the card. Scanned for new hardware at which point the machine continously detected new hardware (the D-Link network card) and proceeded to create 60 odd entries in device manager again. Unable to get connectivity to the card and therefore internet access, I gave up, came home, vowed never to help anyone with their PC again, had a beer and posted this looking for help !
Anyone got any ideas.....
Lee.
I uninstalled some programs they no longer used and installed some useful tools (defraggler, ccleaner, team viewer and Malwarebytes). I ran ccleaner, defragged machine and scanned for Malware (all from the comfort of my own home using team viewer). I also ran a virus scan. A couple of malware hits were found, and I got rid of them. Then made sure Windows was updated.
Early on I noticed something a bit strange but didn't think anything of it. Windows detected new hardware and installed drivers for it. At first it was the Epson Printer and then the DVD drive. It seemed to install drivers and the devices worked so I left it at that.
Then, after a reboot Windows detected new hardware again, this time it was the D-Link DFE-538TX PCI ethernet card in the machine. It asked for the driver disk to be installed. I didn't have it, and couldn't get the PC on line to download them. I downloaded the drivers at home and returned to the PC, pointed the prompt to the driver location and installed all ok, everything working.
The next time the PC was rebooted it detected new hardware again, the D-Link DFE-538TX network card. I wasn't there, but got a call to say there were messages on the machine. When I got there I discovered that multiple entries of the D-Link card were showing in Device manager, some had warnings against them and some not. There were also multiple LAN connections created, all showing "cable is unplugged" message. No connectivity to the card was available.
I updated the driver against one of the entries in device manager and it allowed connectivity and internet access. Left it like that as I had to go to work, and returned to it this evening. A reboot left it offline with no connectivity. I painstakingly uninstalled all entires (60 odd and a very old, slow PC !) in device manager with the view to reinstalling the card. Scanned for new hardware at which point the machine continously detected new hardware (the D-Link network card) and proceeded to create 60 odd entries in device manager again. Unable to get connectivity to the card and therefore internet access, I gave up, came home, vowed never to help anyone with their PC again, had a beer and posted this looking for help !
Anyone got any ideas.....
Lee.
