Wireless Card Problems

[stephentony]

I have an older desktop computer that I tried to install a wireless internet PCI card into. The computer is a Pentium II 450 running Windows 98SE. I have tried 2 different cards with no luck. I asked both times for assistance from the maker of the cards tech support people. They were both very helpful, but neither one could get the card to work. I am wondering if it is possible that the motherboard does not support wireless networking. The PC was purchased in 1998 from Micron and the BIOS has never been flashed. Nothing else makes sense because every other step has been taken to get the card to work. I even installed Windows XP Service Pack 2 on the PC, and because I have 512MB's of memory and a good size hard drive, the OS runs very well. Even letting Windows configure the wireless connection did not work. The signal is very strong in this area of my house. In fact my laptop connects just fine at the same spot my desktop is located. Does anyone think my BIOS question is valid? I just cannot think of anything else at this point. Any help woould be appreciated. Thanks!

[Ob1]

so your wireless card is detected and drivers are installed in windows xp? can you see the wireless card in the device manager? does it say it is working properly?

do you have any encryption on your wireless signal? if so, did you put it into the wireless client software? if you can't get it to work, remove the encryption and see if the wireless card can connect to an open network

[glc]

The NIC may require PCI 2.2, and I think a machine that old would be PCI 2.1 at best.

[toomyg]

Originally Posted by stephentony I have an older desktop computer that I tried to install a wireless internet PCI card into. The computer is a Pentium II 450 running Windows 98SE. I have tried 2 different cards with no luck. I asked both times for assistance from the maker of the cards tech support people. They were both very helpful, but neither one could get the card to work. I am wondering if it is possible that the motherboard does not support wireless networking. The PC was purchased in 1998 from Micron and the BIOS has never been flashed. Nothing else makes sense because every other step has been taken to get the card to work. I even installed Windows XP Service Pack 2 on the PC, and because I have 512MB's of memory and a good size hard drive, the OS runs very well. Even letting Windows configure the wireless connection did not work. The signal is very strong in this area of my house. In fact my laptop connects just fine at the same spot my desktop is located. Does anyone think my BIOS question is valid? I just cannot think of anything else at this point. Any help woould be appreciated. Thanks!

My wifes PC is just about the same thing as yours win 98 se I tried to install a wireless card and it worked randomly disconnect freeze the computer or it would not boot I think GLC hit the nail on the head with the PCI 2.2 and 2.1 so I tried I usb wireless card and that works good but now the computer boots slow but at least it works wireless

[stephentony]

I do not have encryption enabled and the device manager sees the card and it is working. Not really working. LOL. But it says it is. I think the PCI 2.1 is right on the money. I never even considered that. I bought the PC in early 1998 and there is no way that it came with PCI 2.2. I will try the USB card but I'll bet it works! Thanks for your help guys. I'll post with the results after I pick up a USB card later today. Thanks again.

[toomyg]

Originally Posted by stephentony I do not have encryption enabled and the device manager sees the card and it is working. Not really working. LOL. But it says it is. I think the PCI 2.1 is right on the money. I never even considered that. I bought the PC in early 1998 and there is no way that it came with PCI 2.2. I will try the USB card but I'll bet it works! Thanks for your help guys. I'll post with the results after I pick up a USB card later today. Thanks again.

Just to note the USB is still buggy at times but it is 99% stable then when I tried the PCI card

[glc]

Before you do that, what does the spec sheet for the PCI adapter say about PCI version requirement?