# Windows Fails To Detect Wireless PCI Card



## Bdra (Jan 19, 2008)

I am trying to install a TrendNet TEW-423PI wireless adapter into my old Win98SE system. As far as I can tell the card is seated firmly and correctly in the motherboard. But Windows fails to detect it.

The instructions from TrendNet say to first install their utility software, then power down and physically insert the card, the boot up and let the drivers automatically install. But something is going screwy, and I can't figure out where the problem is.

The utility software install placed an icon on the desktop and a program group in the start menu. Trying to launch it produces an hour glass cursor for a couple of seconds, but the software doesn't load. I have tried reinstalling; same result.

The Add New Hardware control panel does not detect the card. I tried to point it to the drivers on the manufacturer's CD to install them manually, but this causes a rundll32 error.

I have a 3Com Ethernet card installed (I think the model no. is 3C905B-TX), and I am wondering if the cards are somehow competing for the glory of handling my network connection. But would that prevent the new card from being detected altogether? I would prefer to keep both cards installed, if possible.

I noticed in the hardware enumeration during the boot sequence that the display adapter uses IRQ 11, and an unnamed network adapter also uses IRQ 11. So I am wondering if this is an IRQ conflict. But the display adapter properties in Device Manager state that no conflicts are detected.

So I am at a loss. It seems that everything is going wrong, and I don't know where to look for a solution.


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## Bdra (Jan 19, 2008)

Well, I did some more searching and got a valuable clue - on Amazon, of all places. The customer reviews of the TrendNet card show that a lot of people have had installation problems: http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B0001DHHIY?filterBy=addThreeStar

Someone mentioned that TrendNet's utility software is so poorly written that it doesn't give an error message, it just fails to load if it doesn't detect the card. So I started poking around to find out why my system isn't detecting the card.

The two devices sharing IRQ 11 were the display adapter and the 3Com Ethernet card, which seemed to coexist in harmony. But looking into all this I found that there were apparently no free IRQs on the system. So in the end I have taken out the 3Com card, after all, and plugged the TrendNet in its slot.

I also ran into another problem due to moving cards around, a boot-up conflict in 2F8. Following advice I found online I disabled the COM2 port that uses this address, which also freed up IRQ 3.

So bottom line is that, whatever capacity was there before to accommodate the 3Com card has been freed up, and IRQ 3 has been freed up. Yet the TrendNet card is still not being recognized.

Now what do I do?


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

I think I'd buy a different brand card. :smile:


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## Lonergan (Jul 3, 2008)

I have the exact same problem


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

Exact same recommendation. :wink:


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## lazareth1 (Jan 10, 2005)

sounds like bad hardware to me.


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## Bdra (Jan 19, 2008)

I managed to resolve the problem, and John was exactly right -- it took switching to another card. Once that step was taken the rest was amazingly easy. I guess the art is to know when to stop troubleshooting a dead horse :sigh:

It is interesting that the information I couldn't find on several different hardware forums was all available in Amazon.com's user reviews.

Someone there had tried out several different cards for an old Win98 system, and said he had found that Linksys is the only brand whose software is fully compatible with Win98. So I tried a Linksys WMP54G Wireless-G PCI adapter, and it installed without a hitch, automatically configured itself, and I was online.


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

Yep, you need to stop beating it. :grin:


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