Oh no, that also removed Windows 98 and Windows NT compatibility!

Just kidding, that is really strange. The RTL8139 drivers are pretty agnostic as far as card manufacturer and chip revision go.

Maybe a peek at Windows 95 device manager item conflict details might help?

Windows shows no conflicts 😒

The only message I see is (and this is my translation from my Spanish Windows 95):

"Device failure: Try changing the driver for this device. If that doesn't work, check your hardware's documentation. (Code 2)"

Hm...you didn't say anything about the drivers PC Hoarder Patrol and I provided. Did they throw the same message?

kind regards
soggi

soggi wrote on 2024-09-26, 16:05:

Hm...you didn't say anything about the drivers PC Hoarder Patrol and I provided. Did they throw the same message?

kind regards
soggi

Sorry I have limited time and also limited transferrability of files since my floppy drive died! will try asap

by https://github.com/TimmermanV/TweakPCI try
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ralf/pub-files/rbpci119.zip and https://web.archive.org/web/20180403184856im_ … sutil/pci07.zip from pure DOS, those should list all PCI devices in your system

kelmer wrote on 2024-09-26, 16:08:

Sorry I have limited time...

We all have, (un)fortunately (I'm still undecided). 😒

kelmer wrote on 2024-09-26, 16:08:

...also limited transferrability of files since my floppy drive died! will try asap

Just leave a note when you tested it! 😀

kind regards
soggi

At this point I'd try another system/OS to make sure the card works, nothing too tedious just the bare minimum for a quick test.

Ok so I tried the 8139.exe drivers, I had to remove the current device and then manually add new hardware, otherwise when restarting windows it would just choose the previous drivers for me without prompt. But even by manually installing these (which seems to have worked fine), when I restart I see the previous drivers (as in the same name I saw before rather than the slightly different new one). I dont see an option in the device properties to choose another driver!

I did run the dos diagnostics program and it recognized the card just fine.

Side question is, what does one need to do to connect Windows 95 to the internet via ethernet? Cause maybe the card just works despite the warning but i need to take some extra step in the OS?

konc wrote on 2024-09-27, 06:32:

Ay this point I'd try another system/OS to make sure the card works, nothing too tedious just the bare minimum for a quick test.

Wish I had another computer but i dont even have room for it

kelmer wrote on 2024-09-27, 12:11:

konc wrote on 2024-09-27, 06:32:

Ay this point I'd try another system/OS to make sure the card works, nothing too tedious just the bare minimum for a quick test.

Wish I had another computer but i dont even have room for it

I don't know the specs of the PC you are using, but if it allows it you could run another OS (temporary on another HDD or even boot a live Linux that supports the card). Just to rule out a hardware issue, since nothing seems to work until now.

kelmer wrote on 2024-09-27, 11:53:

Ok so I tried the 8139.exe drivers, I had to remove the current device and then manually add new hardware, otherwise when restarting windows it would just choose the previous drivers for me without prompt. But even by manually installing these (which seems to have worked fine), when I restart I see the previous drivers (as in the same name I saw before rather than the slightly different new one). I dont see an option in the device properties to choose another driver!

Please try first the drivers I provided here: Re: Drivers for ethernet card - if the manual installation (via device manager) doesn't work, you can also do a clean install of Win95 which shouldn't take that long. If these drivers don't work, try the ones @PC Hoarder Patrol has posted (Re: Drivers for ethernet card)!

kelmer wrote on 2024-09-27, 11:53:

Side question is, what does one need to do to connect Windows 95 to the internet via ethernet? Cause maybe the card just works despite the warning but i need to take some extra step in the OS?

You need a NIC (you already have one), a router and a patch cable (CAT 5 or higher) on the hardware side - on the software side you have to configure the network environment (auto config via DHCP or IP address of the Win95 machine and the DNS server [usually the router]). Your network should support IPv4 as Win95 doesn't support IPv6.

Then you're connected to the Internet, but finding software to access it could be difficult. For example the only web browsers I know still working on Win95 are roytam1's builds of K-Meleon 1.5.4, RetroZilla 2.2 or RZ browser 2.2 (even with TLS 1.3 support). They are are available from roytam1 (https://rtfreesoft.blogspot.com/) or from my tools page (https://soggi.org/misc/tools.htm) together with roytam1's other builds. Personally I'm using his New Moon 28 build on WinXP SP3 POSReady "hacked".

kind regards
soggi

Long shot: Did you take the opportunity to switch the controller into another PCI slot? Some systems are picky on that one.

Well what do you know, i dont know what version of windows 95 i had but i downloaded a new one, reinstalled, and now everything works on the first attempt.

Thank you so much for your help, but it seems it was a lost case with the os like that!

Omg I spoke too fast; I rebooted my PC and now it doesn't work anymore. Same issue as before. Truly maddening!

There is no legal download source of Win95 and I wouldn't trust such downloads!? You don't have an original CD (or diskettes), it should be extremely cheap these days, why not buy it?

kind regards
soggi

I got it from REMOVED which I believe its pretty reliable?

Anyway I installed windows 98 SE and the same problem exists.

I was able to get the card working once by unplugging and plugging it back again a bunch of times it's kinda on and off whether windows will recognize it even though it looks like its always properly plugged in.

However if I then connect my Aztech sound card (ISA slot) it starts failing again, so it does look like a conflict issue on top of a slot connection issue. Windows throws error 1F6 at me which I'm not sure what it means exactly (online search doesn't offer much). It looks like i might not be able to have both things at the same time which is unfortunate. I'll keep testing and reporting the results!

As you're Win95/98 .. you can back out to pure DOS (Not DOS under Win9X, boot to pure DOS)

If you get PKTDRV from my site, it has a couple things that might help.

PCINIC is a little tool to identify a PCI network card, it has a database of common venders/cards.

There are also LOTS of packet drivers for various cards .. that won't help with windows, but if a DOS
packet driver loads/works, it would tell you the card works.

If you get a packet driver to load, you can use my DDLINK to easily test actual network traffic between
two systems.

Also, try different PCI slots - unlike ISA, PCI has slot dependent addressing, I've had cards that didn't work
in one slot, but worked fine in another.

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal

I will try that, thanks! But I've verified the card **does** work on those two occasions Windows wasn't whining, I managed to access google.com with Internet Explorer 5. Might be the contacts on the PCI slot? I did try swapping between the 2 pci slots I have with similar results.

kelmer wrote on 2024-09-30, 09:50:

I got it from *** which I believe its pretty reliable?

It doesn't matter if it is reliable - it is not legal, it's warez (Win95 isn't abandonware or even freeware).

You didn't again say what driver you used. Maybe it's a problem with BIOS, do you have the latest version flashed? And try out DaveDDS's tools!

kind regards
soggi

kelmer wrote on 2024-09-30, 09:50:

I was able to get the card working once by unplugging and plugging it back again a bunch of times it's kinda on and off whether windows will recognize it even though it looks like its always properly plugged in.

However if I then connect my Aztech sound card (ISA slot) it starts failing again, so it does look like a conflict issue on top of a slot connection issue. Windows throws error 1F6 at me which I'm not sure what it means exactly (online search doesn't offer much). It looks like i might not be able to have both things at the same time which is unfortunate. I'll keep testing and reporting the results!

These intermittent issues suggest a physical issue, earlier you said:

kelmer wrote on 2024-09-26, 08:24:

Tried the diagnose app within DOS and it says IO/interrupt is illegal, but I dont see an option in my BIOS to change that.

then later:

kelmer wrote on 2024-09-27, 11:53:

I did run the dos diagnostics program and it recognized the card just fine.

and now it's back to working "sometimes". Given that the motherboard uses a riser card, and it seems to affect ISA as well, I suggest removing the riser card and cleaning the slots as well as the card edge that slots into the motherboard. Clean the slot on the motherboard too. Use contact cleaner if you have otherwise IPA might do as well.

Check the solder joints on the riser to see if they are in good condition (wiggle the slot slightly to see if any of the joints move), if not then reflow it.

Stick to the DOS diagnostics program, if that doesn't work chances are Windows won't work with the card either.