Wierd power/network problem

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Any one help me?
Rather strangely, when starting up, if the ethernet cable is connected, my computer resets itself just before it gets to the XP welcome screen.
If the cable is left unplugged, starts up fine, and if I plug the cable in after XP has loaded fully, no problems whatsoever. Any ideas?

 

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Drivers? Have you updated them recently?

Is this problem at work, or at home? I ask because I'm just wondering if there is something bouncing around the lan that might cause interference with the network adapter (although quite what I'm not sure!).

Have you tried booting into safe mode with the cable plugged in?

:hhhmmm :hhhmmm :hhhmmm

 

Have you tried another NIC?

Pete

 

Try another cable then replace the nic and we can go from there

Neall

 

Gaz,

Have you enabled boot logging from the advanced start up options to see what service is failing to start?
The boot log should be in the root of the OS as a .txt file

 

The NIC is of the onboard variety. I believe it's a 3com chip(s), the motherboard is a nForce 1 chipset.

The comp crashes when I install the drivers, although it is the full suite (no individual drivers for the onboard LAN)

Pretty sure there's nothing wrong with the cable as no problems if its plugged in after XP has loaded.

Boyce - what's the file called?

 

Have you checked to see if there is a BIOS update available?

Pete

 

Unless I'm mistaken, it's bootlog.txt.

<prepares to be proven mistaken>

 

Sounds like a conflict to me. Boot into safe mode to rule out a hardware problem(F8 during startup, then choose safe mode).

Try downloading another driver from 3com. You should be able to see the model number of the nic by going to device manager.
Uninstall the old driver and reinstall the new.

Try resetting the TCP/IP stack. Dont think this will help but it narrows things down. Enter the following at the command prompt(Start/Run - cmd) - NETSH INTERFACE IP RESET LOG.TXT

Then look for conflicts mate and check your bios settings, maybe just try setting them to defaults at first.

Neall

 

This would be where i start my investigation!

I assume they are the latest drivers from the manuf. website

Have you got the old ones that used to work.

When did it stop working, what were you doing when it did (or the last session it worked)

 

Agreed, eyeball. The latest drivers have now been installed properly (they crashed if the network cable was plugged in during install), but the same problem occurs.

I was setting up a new network (BT ASDL router) when this happened - the first i've connected this comp to.

Have booted to safe mode, runs fine. Safe mode with networking enabled has the same problem as normal boot.

No driver conflicts detected by windows, the only BIOS settings are on-board lan off or auto (i.e. on)

Its actually an nForce2 m/b, if that makes any difference.