Troubleshooting

1. How can I tell if the network adapter card is installed properly? (Back to DFE-910 FAQ questions)

In Windows 95, 98 and 2000, you use the system Device Manger as the primary tool to determine whether the card is installed properly. To open the Device Manager window go Control Panel à System à Device Manager. Ideally, when you open the Device Manager window, none of the individual device categories should be open (expanded) and you should not see any symbols preceding the names of any of the devices within these individual device categories. The presence of a yellow exclamation mark preceding a device usually means that the device has a resource conflict, typically an IRQ conflict or an improper I/O base address. The presence of a yellow question mark usually means that for some reason the device driver for that device did not install correctly. The presence of a red X means that Windows installed the device and then determined that it was necessary to disable the device to prevent it from causing problems with another installed device.

In the case of a network adapter card, you are primarily concerned with those devices enumerated under the category called, Network adapters. For instance, if you see the Network adapters category expanded, with a yellow exclamation mark preceding a device named DFE-530TX+ 10/100 Fast Ethernet NIC, then right-click on the name of the device, select Properties, and select the General tab to view the device's status. Note: A properly installed device will have a status that reads, "This device is working properly."

For help with troubleshooting problems directly related to the network adapter card, please refer to the FAQ section devoted to that particular model, e.g., DFE-530TX, DFE-530TX+, or refer to Troubleshooting Guides in our Technical Resources section: Adapters and Netowork Kits.

There are three things you can try:

1. Click on the Windows Start button and go to Find. Select Computer& and enter the name of your computer in the box labeled Named. Be sure to type the name exactly as it appears under the Identification tab in the Network Properties window. Click on the Find Now button and wait to see if your computer is located. If it is found then you know that the network adapter has basic functionality. If it is not found then try the following test.

2. If the TCP/IP protocol is installed, click on the Windows Start button and go to Run. In the box labeled Open, type the word "command" and press the <Enter> key. This will open a DOS window. At the DOS prompt type "ping localhost" and press the <Enter> key. Assuming that you have peer-to-peer network, you should get several lines of text that read similarly to this,

   Pinging {yourcomputername} [127.0.0.1] with 32 bytes of data:

   Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
   Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
   Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
   Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128

   Ping statistics for 127.0.0.1:
        Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

   Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
        Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

   If, instead, you get a reply that indicates a timeout or some other failure, then you know that the network adapter cannot find the computer in which it is installed. In either case, proceed to the next test.

3. Again, if the TCP/IP protocol is installed, click on the Windows Start button and go to Run. In the box labeled Open, type the word "winipcfg" (or "ipconfig" in Windows NT and Windows 2000) and press the <Enter> key. This will open the IP Configuration window.

When the window opens, the name of the adapter or the name of its driver appears in the selector box. Click on the down arrow and select the network adapter. In most instances, this will be the NDIS 4.0 driver or NDIS 5.0 driver. Immediately below this box is another one labeled Adapter Address. This box should contain six, hyphenated, alpha-numeric pairs (hexadecimal bytes). The first three pairs should read, 00-50-BA or 00-80-C8. If you see some other pattern then you know that the network adapter card has an illegal address and is probably defective. If the address is "good," the only other thing to do is run the adapter. s diagnostic program. This diagnostic program is usually on the floppy diskette that came with the adapter; otherwise, it may be on a CD-ROM disc.

Note: If you do not have the TCP/IP protocol installed, when you run the command "winipcfg" (or "ipconfig" in NT) you will get an error message box saying, "Fatal Error -- Cannot read IP configuration."

The program will execute from a DOS prompt within Windows; however, the configuration information displayed and/or the test results will not be accurate. To run these utilities reliably, you must reboot your PC, enter the Microsoft Windows 95/98 Startup Menu, and select the option that says, "Safe mode command prompt only." With the floppy disk inserted in the drive, at the command prompt, enter "a:" followed by the <Enter> key. The name of the diagnostic program is "diag.exe" or simply "diag." If you type "diag" at the prompt the program should start. If it doesn’t start, change the directory path to a:\diag and type "diag" again. Then follow the procedures for running the diagnostic program as you normally would.

The Link light illuminates when you connect the computer to another active Ethernet device, such as a hub, switch, cable modem, DSL modem, or with a crossover cable to the network adapter card in another PC. This tells you that you have a "good" connection between the two devices. The Activity light illuminates whenever the network adapter card senses network "traffic," as defined by the Ethernet specification. If, for instance, you turn off power to all the devices on your network, except of course your PC, both lights on the network adapter card will turn off.

Note: Some models of D-Link adapter cards have a third indicator called the 100 Mbps light. This light illuminates when the Ethernet connection is running at the 100 Mbps speed as opposed to the slower 10 Mbps speed.