alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems

jordankoush · 10-20-2009, 11:55 AM

Hey,

I'm new to the forum and joined because I'm having trouble with my network adapters on my m9700. I can't get on the net at all, even if I plug an ethernet cord directly my computer doesn't recognize anything as being plugged in. I tried going to alienware's site to download the necessary drivers, but when I install them on my computer, nothing seems to happen. The network adapters all still have errors on them in the device manager. What drivers do I need to get my laptop working properly? I'll post the names of all the adapters if necessary....I'm using XP as well. Thanks.

Madcatz · 10-20-2009, 12:00 PM

If you open the device properties, what does it say for the error? like device cannot start? no driver?

If you still have the driver installer, then go into device manager, uninstall the wired adapter, delete the driver if it gives you that option. restart the computer and install the new driver.

Also, if you plug in an ethernet cable, doe you see any lights come on, on the port itself?

jordankoush · 10-20-2009, 12:12 PM

Here are the errors.....

Under network adapters in the device manager:

1394 Net Adapter
Bluetooth LAN Access Server Driver - Packet Scheduler Miniport
Direct Parallel
Marvell Yukon 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Marvell Yukon 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport
WAN Miniport (IP)
WAN Miniport (IP) - Packet Scheduler Miniport
WAN Miniport (L2TP)
WAN Miniport (PPPOE)
WAN Miniport (PPTP)

All of these network adapters have the device status as "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing (Code 39)".

I've tried uninstalling them and restarting, but it won't let me uninstall some of them because a box pops up saying that network adapter might be necessary to reboot the computer. I believe the ones I can't delete are the WAN Miniports, and Direct Parallel.

When I plug in an ethernet cable I don't see any lights in the port. And it's the only port on the computer to try it in.

Madcatz · 10-20-2009, 01:13 PM

are you able to manually install the driver?

Dell/Alienware driver installers usually extract themselves to a Driver folder on the root of the C drive. Try looking there, the folder usually is named Drivers or Dell, try and locate the LAN driver (PCI-E Gigabit ethernet controller), see if there is a setup.exe or install.exe and run that, or manually update the driver for it in the device manager and point it to that folder.

jordankoush · 10-20-2009, 03:09 PM

What do you mean by the root of the C drive? I go into the C drive, then the WINDOWS folder and there's a Driver Cache folder in there...

Madcatz · 10-21-2009, 07:15 AM

That is exactly where, when you click on C: in my computer, the very next window your looking at with the Windows folder, documents and settings, program files, that is the root directory. The folder should be in there, the name of it may vary. Just on Dell's its almost always named Dell or Driver.

jordankoush · 10-21-2009, 09:49 AM

All I have in there are:

Documents and settings
DVDneXtCopy
Program files
Remote programs
Temp
Windows
A file called -320918051
A text document called khalininstall
And 2 ms-dos batch files called ut and ut9x

Then a bunch of SQM files are hidden and so is a folder called Config.Msi

Madcatz · 10-21-2009, 09:55 AM

ok, when you download the driver and run it, it probably extracts the files somewhere, but does any window come up saying its installing the drivers?

jordankoush · 10-21-2009, 04:44 PM

when I download the Marvell one, it pops up in the system tray, but then says a problem has occurred with it. then a setup wizard pops up and wants to connect to the internet to update, but I can't connect to the internet at all, so then it just disappears from the system tray.

Madcatz · 10-22-2009, 06:42 AM

Has anything been done recently to the computer? any updates, reinstall windows? notice any problems before this happened? like crashing, freezing, slow performance?

Next thing I would suggest doing is to test the hard drive, windows loosing one or two drivers is one thing, but loosing 10 or more is something really wrong. Click the link in my sig for hard drive diagnostics, choose the brand of your hard drive, then download thier diag software (not the one that runs in windows) most will have a cd image or .iso, get that one, burn it to a cd, then boot your laptop to that cd and let it run the tests.

jordankoush · 10-22-2009, 09:01 PM

The computer's performance is fine. I think it happened with a windows update that ran back in may. I haven't tried to fix it since. Nothing is slower on it or anything.

I downloaded the ultimate boot cd. Do I just run it from the desktop or startup? I ran it on the desktop and when I click on pc-config to see what my hard drive is it just says the page cannot be displayed.

Madcatz · 10-23-2009, 07:19 AM

you would need to boot your computer to it, i belive there is a hard drive test on the UBCD boot menu instead of loading windows from the disc.

Main reason you want only the hard drive diag going is that way it can do a full test of the hard drive, if its running in windows it won't be able to access everything it needs to for it to do a proper test.

jordankoush · 10-24-2009, 04:11 AM

Ok sorry, I think I know my way around computers basically but can u tell me exactly what steps to take when I start my comp with the ultimate boot cd in.... Thanks

jordankoush · 10-26-2009, 12:10 AM

I ran the tests but I don't know what to do from here

Madcatz · 10-26-2009, 06:34 AM

did the tests pass or fail? and do you remember the name of the test that you ran?

jordankoush · 10-27-2009, 02:55 PM

I did the drive fitness test v4.09 (IBM/hitachi) under diagnostic tools. I did it for SCSI and ata support, then for adaptec. Then I tested the PCI IDE 2 master. I don't remember it giving me any errors

Madcatz · 10-28-2009, 06:39 AM

Ok, sounds like the hard drive is ok, though never seen one put on IDE 2. Unless....does yours have two hard drives in it? some of the Aurora m9700's did have two drives. Check that and see if it does. If so, I would suggest to test them seperately, take one out and test it. But you may want to get the updated version of DFT, 4.09 is quite a few years old.

jordankoush · 11-03-2009, 09:54 PM

Would getting a windows 7 update fix this?

Madcatz · 11-04-2009, 07:22 AM

Installing windows 7 may or may not be a fix. 7 does come with more drivers preloaded than XP does and may recognize your hardware automatically. But you will probably have to install some drivers also.

If you do want to try 7 on it, then I would see if 7 drivers are available and download them before getting rid of XP. That way once 7 is up and running and if it needs drivers you have them right there and will be able to tell very quickly if its going to work or not.

10-20-2009, 11:55 AM	#1 (permalink)
jordankoush Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 10 OS: xp	alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems Hey, I'm new to the forum and joined because I'm having trouble with my network adapters on my m9700. I can't get on the net at all, even if I plug an ethernet cord directly my computer doesn't recognize anything as being plugged in. I tried going to alienware's site to download the necessary drivers, but when I install them on my computer, nothing seems to happen. The network adapters all still have errors on them in the device manager. What drivers do I need to get my laptop working properly? I'll post the names of all the adapters if necessary....I'm using XP as well. Thanks.

10-20-2009, 12:00 PM	#2 (permalink)
Madcatz Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 1,424 OS: XP/7/Server 2008 My System	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems If you open the device properties, what does it say for the error? like device cannot start? no driver? If you still have the driver installer, then go into device manager, uninstall the wired adapter, delete the driver if it gives you that option. restart the computer and install the new driver. Also, if you plug in an ethernet cable, doe you see any lights come on, on the port itself? __________________ memtest86+ \| Hard Drive Diags \| Speed Fan \| Unknown Device Identifier

10-20-2009, 12:12 PM	#3 (permalink)
jordankoush Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 10 OS: xp	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems Here are the errors..... Under network adapters in the device manager: 1394 Net Adapter Bluetooth LAN Access Server Driver - Packet Scheduler Miniport Direct Parallel Marvell Yukon 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller Marvell Yukon 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport WAN Miniport (IP) WAN Miniport (IP) - Packet Scheduler Miniport WAN Miniport (L2TP) WAN Miniport (PPPOE) WAN Miniport (PPTP) All of these network adapters have the device status as "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing (Code 39)". I've tried uninstalling them and restarting, but it won't let me uninstall some of them because a box pops up saying that network adapter might be necessary to reboot the computer. I believe the ones I can't delete are the WAN Miniports, and Direct Parallel. When I plug in an ethernet cable I don't see any lights in the port. And it's the only port on the computer to try it in.

10-20-2009, 01:13 PM	#4 (permalink)
Madcatz Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 1,424 OS: XP/7/Server 2008 My System	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems are you able to manually install the driver? Dell/Alienware driver installers usually extract themselves to a Driver folder on the root of the C drive. Try looking there, the folder usually is named Drivers or Dell, try and locate the LAN driver (PCI-E Gigabit ethernet controller), see if there is a setup.exe or install.exe and run that, or manually update the driver for it in the device manager and point it to that folder. __________________ memtest86+ \| Hard Drive Diags \| Speed Fan \| Unknown Device Identifier

10-20-2009, 03:09 PM	#5 (permalink)
jordankoush Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 10 OS: xp	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems What do you mean by the root of the C drive? I go into the C drive, then the WINDOWS folder and there's a Driver Cache folder in there...

10-21-2009, 07:15 AM	#6 (permalink)
Madcatz Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 1,424 OS: XP/7/Server 2008 My System	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems That is exactly where, when you click on C: in my computer, the very next window your looking at with the Windows folder, documents and settings, program files, that is the root directory. The folder should be in there, the name of it may vary. Just on Dell's its almost always named Dell or Driver. __________________ memtest86+ \| Hard Drive Diags \| Speed Fan \| Unknown Device Identifier

10-21-2009, 09:49 AM	#7 (permalink)
jordankoush Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 10 OS: xp	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems All I have in there are: Documents and settings DVDneXtCopy Program files Remote programs Temp Windows A file called -320918051 A text document called khalininstall And 2 ms-dos batch files called ut and ut9x Then a bunch of SQM files are hidden and so is a folder called Config.Msi

10-21-2009, 09:55 AM	#8 (permalink)
Madcatz Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 1,424 OS: XP/7/Server 2008 My System	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems ok, when you download the driver and run it, it probably extracts the files somewhere, but does any window come up saying its installing the drivers? __________________ memtest86+ \| Hard Drive Diags \| Speed Fan \| Unknown Device Identifier

10-21-2009, 04:44 PM	#9 (permalink)
jordankoush Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 10 OS: xp	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems when I download the Marvell one, it pops up in the system tray, but then says a problem has occurred with it. then a setup wizard pops up and wants to connect to the internet to update, but I can't connect to the internet at all, so then it just disappears from the system tray.

10-22-2009, 06:42 AM	#10 (permalink)
Madcatz Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 1,424 OS: XP/7/Server 2008 My System	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems Has anything been done recently to the computer? any updates, reinstall windows? notice any problems before this happened? like crashing, freezing, slow performance? Next thing I would suggest doing is to test the hard drive, windows loosing one or two drivers is one thing, but loosing 10 or more is something really wrong. Click the link in my sig for hard drive diagnostics, choose the brand of your hard drive, then download thier diag software (not the one that runs in windows) most will have a cd image or .iso, get that one, burn it to a cd, then boot your laptop to that cd and let it run the tests. __________________ memtest86+ \| Hard Drive Diags \| Speed Fan \| Unknown Device Identifier

10-22-2009, 09:01 PM	#11 (permalink)
jordankoush Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 10 OS: xp	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems The computer's performance is fine. I think it happened with a windows update that ran back in may. I haven't tried to fix it since. Nothing is slower on it or anything. I downloaded the ultimate boot cd. Do I just run it from the desktop or startup? I ran it on the desktop and when I click on pc-config to see what my hard drive is it just says the page cannot be displayed.

10-23-2009, 07:19 AM	#12 (permalink)
Madcatz Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 1,424 OS: XP/7/Server 2008 My System	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems you would need to boot your computer to it, i belive there is a hard drive test on the UBCD boot menu instead of loading windows from the disc. Main reason you want only the hard drive diag going is that way it can do a full test of the hard drive, if its running in windows it won't be able to access everything it needs to for it to do a proper test. __________________ memtest86+ \| Hard Drive Diags \| Speed Fan \| Unknown Device Identifier

10-24-2009, 04:11 AM	#13 (permalink)
jordankoush Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 10 OS: xp	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems Ok sorry, I think I know my way around computers basically but can u tell me exactly what steps to take when I start my comp with the ultimate boot cd in.... Thanks

10-26-2009, 12:10 AM	#14 (permalink)
jordankoush Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 10 OS: xp	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems I ran the tests but I don't know what to do from here

10-26-2009, 06:34 AM	#15 (permalink)
Madcatz Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 1,424 OS: XP/7/Server 2008 My System	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems did the tests pass or fail? and do you remember the name of the test that you ran? __________________ memtest86+ \| Hard Drive Diags \| Speed Fan \| Unknown Device Identifier

10-27-2009, 02:55 PM	#16 (permalink)
jordankoush Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 10 OS: xp	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems I did the drive fitness test v4.09 (IBM/hitachi) under diagnostic tools. I did it for SCSI and ata support, then for adaptec. Then I tested the PCI IDE 2 master. I don't remember it giving me any errors

10-28-2009, 06:39 AM	#17 (permalink)
Madcatz Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 1,424 OS: XP/7/Server 2008 My System	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems Ok, sounds like the hard drive is ok, though never seen one put on IDE 2. Unless....does yours have two hard drives in it? some of the Aurora m9700's did have two drives. Check that and see if it does. If so, I would suggest to test them seperately, take one out and test it. But you may want to get the updated version of DFT, 4.09 is quite a few years old. __________________ memtest86+ \| Hard Drive Diags \| Speed Fan \| Unknown Device Identifier

11-03-2009, 09:54 PM	#18 (permalink)
jordankoush Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 10 OS: xp	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems Would getting a windows 7 update fix this?

11-04-2009, 07:22 AM	#19 (permalink)
Madcatz Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 1,424 OS: XP/7/Server 2008 My System	Re: alienware aurora m9700 network adapter problems Installing windows 7 may or may not be a fix. 7 does come with more drivers preloaded than XP does and may recognize your hardware automatically. But you will probably have to install some drivers also. If you do want to try 7 on it, then I would see if 7 drivers are available and download them before getting rid of XP. That way once 7 is up and running and if it needs drivers you have them right there and will be able to tell very quickly if its going to work or not. __________________ memtest86+ \| Hard Drive Diags \| Speed Fan \| Unknown Device Identifier