See if you can find out network the chip make/brand.

If the make/brand is not obvious then try Belarc Advisor:
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
It does a good job of providing a wealth of information.

JS
www.pagestart.com


"Steve Garry" sgarry@simpilotdotnet wrote in message
...
JS,

Could be, the network chip is on board, and there is a control option to
enable and disable in BIOS, which is correctly set to enable, and the
option
for network boot is disabled, also correct.

Mobo is Biostar NF325A7.

Device manager is not showing any issues, and I am using the machine right
now to send these messages, that's the strange thing, once it's up, it
stays
there until the next cold boot, with no problems at all, and it's
downloaded
several gigabytes of updates for various applications without a single
missed
packet or retry.

This issue is very similar to one that has been causing huge grief with
Zone
Alarm recently (ZA is NOT installed on this machine), and ZA are saying
that
they are having problems finding the cause, and based on a lot of hours
this
week reloading XP Pro, and downloading the updates in a planned manner, to
try and isolate where this is coming from, I can understand that only too
well.

Do you know of any utilities or similar that would allow me to see what's
in
CMOS at various times, so that I can try and get an idea if something is
being changed, and if it is, when that's happening. Obviously, the time
area
is being constantly updated, but I would expect the other areas to remain
pretty static.

Cheers

Steve


--
Steve


"JS" wrote:

Sounds like you have a network chip on the motherboard
which is being controlled by the BIOS.

Does 'Device Manager' show any issues?

JS
http://www.pagestart.com


"Steve Garry" sgarry@simpilotdotnet wrote in message
...
Update,

Networking Does work, as long as I reset the defaults in CMOS before
boot.
If I don't, everything is there, and all the basics are in place, it
just
fails to connect from the machine to the hub.

That's what is so confusing about this, my understanding is that the
CMOS
is
checksummed, so if it was being corrupted, the Checksum error warning
would
show during boot, and ask for an update. It doesn't, the machine loads
apparently normally, and the only thing missing is the network
connectivity.
Reset the CMOS, reboot, and it's working, no other changes at all are
needed.

I have checked the possible implication of the changes for SP3, and as
far
as I can see, the necessary things are there.

Thanks

--
Steve


"JS" wrote:

Device Manager and Network Connections may be blank after you install
Windows XP Service Pack 3
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953791/en-us

Device Manager may not show any devices and Network Connections may
not
show any network connections after you install Windows XP Service Pack
3.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953979/en-us

Changes to the 802.1X-based wired network connection settings in
Windows
XP
Service Pack 3
Describes that the AuthMode and SupplicantMode registry entries are no
longer used in
Windows XP Service Pack 3 for a 802.1X-based wired network connection.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949984/en-us

You cannot connect to an 802.1X wired network after you upgrade to
Windows
XP Service Pack 3
Problem in which you cannot connect to an 802.1X wired network.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953650/en-us

JS
http://www.pagestart.com