More ramblings...
 

Right after I posted about how I thought it foolish that a Mac I worked
on did not report a SMART error...

I was working on a PC that one minute died and the next, the drive was
dead. No SMART error was reported.


The conclusion: Everything will fail.


My next project was adding a wireless card to a PC I'm going to give away.


Out of the 6 or so in my junk box, only got one working with Win7


When I let Windows search for the driver on-line...none were found
....but they are new enough that there should be support.


Just for the heck of it I tried another Win7 machine and all but one had
drivers .


What the heck?


My conclusion:

Time to take a break.

More ramblings...
 

On 9/6/2015 3:54 PM, philo wrote:
Just for the heck of it I tried another Win7 machine and all but one had
drivers

Sounds like the first machine is misidentifying the new hardware for some
reason. Honestly, I don't know if that could be a problem with the BIOS or
the MB hardware or just the phase of the moon. From what you write it
should be possible to determine which drivers the second machine found
acceptable and then pre-load them onto the first and then force it to pick
the right one.

More ramblings...
 

On 09/06/2015 03:05 PM, John McGaw wrote:
On 9/6/2015 3:54 PM, philo wrote:
Just for the heck of it I tried another Win7 machine and all but one had
drivers

Sounds like the first machine is misidentifying the new hardware for
some reason. Honestly, I don't know if that could be a problem with the
BIOS or the MB hardware or just the phase of the moon. From what you
write it should be possible to determine which drivers the second
machine found acceptable and then pre-load them onto the first and then
force it to pick the right one.



It really is weird.

Both machines are running Win7 32 bit


I could possibly understand if there was some type of hardware problem
with the mobo and it would have been impossible to install any wireless
card...but doggone it , one worked.


Since the machine needed to go on-line to find the drivers...maybe it
was simply a problem with Microsoft's site...as the 2nd machine (where
they worked) was used a few days later.


Maybe I should try the first machine over again?

More ramblings...
 

On 9/6/2015 9:22 PM, philo wrote:
On 09/06/2015 03:05 PM, John McGaw wrote:
On 9/6/2015 3:54 PM, philo wrote:
Just for the heck of it I tried another Win7 machine and all but one had
drivers

Sounds like the first machine is misidentifying the new hardware for
some reason. Honestly, I don't know if that could be a problem with the
BIOS or the MB hardware or just the phase of the moon. From what you
write it should be possible to determine which drivers the second
machine found acceptable and then pre-load them onto the first and then
force it to pick the right one.



It really is weird.

Both machines are running Win7 32 bit


I could possibly understand if there was some type of hardware problem with
the mobo and it would have been impossible to install any wireless
card...but doggone it , one worked.


Since the machine needed to go on-line to find the drivers...maybe it was
simply a problem with Microsoft's site...as the 2nd machine (where they
worked) was used a few days later.


Maybe I should try the first machine over again?

Probably can't hurt to try beyond spending a bit of time but can't you just
copy the relevant driver(s) from the second machine to the first and then
force it to pick the correct one for the install? Wouldn't answer the
underlying question but it should get the job done.

More ramblings...
 

On 09/07/2015 08:43 AM, John McGaw wrote:


Since the machine needed to go on-line to find the drivers...maybe it was
simply a problem with Microsoft's site...as the 2nd machine (where they
worked) was used a few days later.


Maybe I should try the first machine over again?

Probably can't hurt to try beyond spending a bit of time but can't you
just copy the relevant driver(s) from the second machine to the first
and then force it to pick the correct one for the install? Wouldn't
answer the underlying question but it should get the job done.



Well the guy picked up the machine early this morning so I won't be able
to experiment. I did fire it up to confirm that it was working OK
though. One thing I did at least was to test all my wireless cards and
get rid of a few dead or obsolete ones.



BTW: Now that I am in a clean-up mode I'm wondering what to do with the
big box of 3C905 net cards that do not have support in Win7 and up

More ramblings...
 

On 9/7/2015 2:55 PM, philo wrote:
On 09/07/2015 08:43 AM, John McGaw wrote:


Since the machine needed to go on-line to find the drivers...maybe it was
simply a problem with Microsoft's site...as the 2nd machine (where they
worked) was used a few days later.


Maybe I should try the first machine over again?

Probably can't hurt to try beyond spending a bit of time but can't you
just copy the relevant driver(s) from the second machine to the first
and then force it to pick the correct one for the install? Wouldn't
answer the underlying question but it should get the job done.



Well the guy picked up the machine early this morning so I won't be able to
experiment. I did fire it up to confirm that it was working OK though. One
thing I did at least was to test all my wireless cards and get rid of a few
dead or obsolete ones.



BTW: Now that I am in a clean-up mode I'm wondering what to do with the big
box of 3C905 net cards that do not have support in Win7 and up

No idea what to do with them. A few months ago I finally gave up and took a
Subie full of 'stuff' from the hardware archive AKA the junk closet to the
local recycling center (where they probably headed straight to some slum in
India or Bangladesh). Loads of cards, power supplies, a printer, a
driverless HP SCSI-interface scanner and other miscellany finally left the
theater...

More ramblings...
 

On 09/07/2015 05:11 PM, John McGaw wrote:




BTW: Now that I am in a clean-up mode I'm wondering what to do with
the big
box of 3C905 net cards that do not have support in Win7 and up

No idea what to do with them. A few months ago I finally gave up and
took a Subie full of 'stuff' from the hardware archive AKA the junk
closet to the local recycling center (where they probably headed
straight to some slum in India or Bangladesh). Loads of cards, power
supplies, a printer, a driverless HP SCSI-interface scanner and other
miscellany finally left the theater...



We have metal scavengers going down the alley with pick up trucks...
so if I have computers or other metal junk to get rid of I just put it
next to the trash can and it's usually gone within a few hours.


If it potentially has any value though, such as my entire darkroom which
I had not used in 15 years...I put it on Craig's List.