[JohnWill]

If you are installing a PCI NIC, you don't need to do anything in the BIOS, since the only NIC the BIOS would know about is the on-board NIC on the MB.

[vicks]

What does it say the PCI thing is?
If you can, d/l install and run www.belarc.com. This free program will give us a list of everything on the computer, including model numbers, license numbers versions of software etc.
That might give us more to work with.
Vicks

[vicks]

Since JohnWill is back on line, I will bow out. He is very good at ferreting problems out.
I will continue to monitor this, just for my own learning.
Vicks

[JohnWill]

Well, I was too sleepy to notice the model number of the MB in the first post, so don't get too confident.

[Chickabiddybex]

Ok, I'll borrow a CD and get belarc on it tonight

[JohnWill]

SIW (System Information Windows) is another excellent and free system status utility. Sometimes it shows up stuff that Belarc misses.

[TheOutcaste]

The User Guide for this model doesn't have any info on the BIOS Setup options so I can't be sure, but sounds like enabling MAC LAN in the BIOS is the thing.
Media Access Control and Local Area Network would both be related to the Network Card.

Does the PCI thing in Device Manager say PCI Ethernet Controller or PCI Network Controller?

[Chickabiddybex]

From SIW:
Motherboard
Model C51MCP51
North Bridge NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Revision A2
South Bridge NVIDIA nForce 410/430 MCP Revision A2
CPU AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 2800+

It gives a lot of information, what other info do you need?

Also, I don't know if this helps but when I connect the PC to the internet via USB it works fine and the device manager shows Network Adapters - MT882
But that disappears when I unplug the USB cable. (it's connected to the modem I was trying to get online with, when I connect an ethernet cable to the very same modem it doesn't recognise it)

Sorry I haven't replied in a while - I went abroad.

[Chickabiddybex]

Ok, after using the USB to connect this PC to the internet instead of using my laptop to fix it... well I enabled the MAC LAN in the bios and restarted the computer after leaving teh above message. The PC then automatically installed everything it needed to detect the ethernet port all on it's own!

Thanks for all you help guys, problem SOLVED

[JohnWill]

Magic!

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