NIC problems with 2003 Server?

**bostonflunkie** · August 9th, 2005, 10:51 AM

I can not get my NIC working on a fresh 2003 Server installation.
I have tried many NICs, all of the ones I tried works fine with all of the Windows os 98 to XP.
Anyone has any idea. I search other sites and found someone else posted similar problem, but there was no response!
Thanks.

***DonJ*** · August 9th, 2005, 11:15 AM

From M$ website:

Network Configuration Best Practices for Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003

It has lots of good info and recommendations. Let us know what ends up working for you.

**InTheWayBoy** · August 9th, 2005, 11:15 AM

Well whats the problem then? I mean, what issue are the NICS giving you?

**bostonflunkie** · August 9th, 2005, 12:41 PM

It does not work. shows a yellow excalmation in Device Mgr. It recognizes it at boot up. ask for the driver and then say it can not start code 10?????
Same thing with every NIC.

**InTheWayBoy** · August 9th, 2005, 01:36 PM

Error 10 is usually a faulty device...you say these all worked on previous OS's...was it in that same machine? I'm wondering if a PCI slot if FUBAR...you might wanna try swapping the cards to different slots. Just some ideas...Also, what drivers are you loading? There may be better drivers that what you have...and is it SP1?

**confus-ed** · August 10th, 2005, 06:40 AM

Originally Posted by InTheWayBoy

Error 10 is usually a faulty device...

How many do you think he can get ? He's tried a range ..

This is what M$ have to say about matters :-

Code 10
If the device has a "FailReasonString" value in its hardware key, that string is displayed as the error message. The driver or enumerator places this registry string value there. If there is no "FailReasonString" in the hardware key, the following generic error message is displayed:

This device is either not present, not working properly, or does not have all the drivers installed. (Code 10)

Try upgrading the device drivers for this device.

Solution button: Update Driver

To resolve this error code, make sure the device is connected to the computer correctly. For example, make sure all cables are plugged in fully and that all adapter cards are properly seated. Follow the suggested solution button and update the device driver. It may be possible to remove the device and redetect it using the Add New Hardware wizard.

What they(M$) don't seem to know or mention is that nearly all errors in device manager are dependent on bios being able to support all of these cards in the physical positions that they are placed, so try the NIC in a different slot, &/or look for the latest bios for your m/b.

**bostonflunkie** · August 10th, 2005, 08:46 AM

I have this NIC installed on an existing fully functional box. This machine has multilple HD, each HD has a different OS, I select boot HD from bios, I use it for testing purpose, all the hardware stays the same. So, this NIC works fine with everything except 2003 server, this is my first time tinkering with 03 server.
Hope I have made it clear...
Thanks for everyone's input.

**confus-ed** · August 10th, 2005, 09:09 AM

Is the motherboard you are using 'designed for server 2003' ? Stuff must be on the HCL(Products Designed for Microsoft Windows – Windows Catalog and HCL{hardware compatabilty list}) to be sure of not getting device issues like this.

**InTheWayBoy** · August 10th, 2005, 05:21 PM

Wonder if this could be a multi-boot issue...so lets say you have two HD's...one for WinXP, the other for Win2003. You say you choose to boot between the two from the BIOS...so either boot to Primary Master (WinXP) or boot to Primary Slave (Win2003). The problem that might be happening is that even though you are using different drives, you can still see and access the other HD's when they are not in use...at least, that's how I see it happening.

If that's the case then maybe somewhere along the line the Win2003 setup is accessing and trying to use files/drivers from your WinXP setup...which won't work.

I would try this...and yes, it's kinda extreme but it's all I got. Unhook all the other HD's, except one. Repartition, Format, and Install Win2003 on it and see what happens. Don't hook another drive up until you complete this.

If it works in that state, then what I said before is probably the case...what you do from there I don't know. I would think you would need some more sophisticated boot manager that will hide the other drives when they are not booted.

If it still gives you an 'Error 10' then I don't know what to tell you...that's just plain wierd. You are installing the latest Win2003 drivers right? Even though it's similar to WinXP, it's not recommended you use WinXP drivers on a Win2003 system if you can get native Win2003 drivers.