Lost Ethernet controller after installing Win XP Pro

I have reformatted my compaq 8000 (don't have the exact model # on me) from win xp home to xp pro. Now the Ethernet Controller hardware is found but cannot find a driver to make it work. I have inserted the xp disk but still can't find a driver. I have visited the HP drivers website, and, for my machine, there is no Ethernet Controller driver. On my machine I have tried navigating to the driver via the install hardware window, and tried every network adapter driver that it would accept, but none of them would work. I did remove each one before I installed the next one.

I have searched and seen that a few other people have had the same problem, but have not seen a solution offered, other than the ones mentioned above, and have not seen anyone post that these solutions worked for them. I used my compaq cds, tried every one of them that seemed likely to have drivers on it, and none had the drivers.

I am considering a reformat and install of the winxp home that came with the machine, in hopes that it will find its ethernet controller again, and then just updating to xp pro. Don't even know if this will be possible. any other suggestions?

Welcome to Windrivers techie

Did you look specifically for an ethernet controller driver or did you look for things like LAN or Network adapter driver at compaq? I note that on some of the 8000 series, they have "summer 2003 Network adapter"

XP has loads of drivers, but there are always way more people making LAN/ethernet cards than can be fitted on a cd....

Just need the exact model of the compaq

I browsed the xp cd as well as the compaq cds, and the compaq site for this specific computer. the drivers page for this specific computer, which is:

compaq 8RSXE1

had no Internet, LAN, Ethernet or adapters or controllers on it. Is there another site that has a bigger collection of drivers?

the system does find the ethernet controller, and calls it that, but can't seem to find the driver for it.

What do you think of going back to the original xp home cd and installing that system, to find the right controller driver?

Thanks for your help!

Gotta love compaq for doing this. according to the specs it's onboard - you can confirm this by looking at where the rj45 connector is. If it's up near the top, it's onboard.

This is the driver from a similar model Scroll down to "download only" rather than do the autodetect. It should work fine, since they both use the same motherboard.