Where does this plug in?!

Hey yall, Kiev here XD

As some of you may know (Okay, no one probably knows.. XD), I've had enormous difficulty getting my computer to run the internet, and I've been running it (and Shaiya) on a separate, crappy computer. Unfortunately, about 3 hours ago, that computer kicked the bucket. Hard drive issues... I'm not sure if I can fix the problem save completely wiping the hard drive clean, or buying a new hard drive, but suffice it to say that I won't be connecting any time soon x.x I'm not even sure if the problem is the hard drive yet, though I have a strong suspicion... In case you're wondering I'm posting from a third computer, one I don't own XD

Baii

Hmmmmm, that sucks, hope you find the problem and fix it soon.

Hold on, hold on.

Computer #1: Network card = Dead.

Computer #2: Hard drive(?) = FUBAR.

Computer #3: Not actually yours

Did I get that right?

Maybe you can salvage your network card from #2 and try it in #1. Then you'll have 1 working computer, and 1 completely messed up computer.

If it were that simple, I would have done it 3 months ago x.x . Most motherboards have a built in network card, and since they rarely break or need upgrading, most people don't buy separate Network Cards. Besides the network card isn't the issue. It's getting the computer to accept the network card... And yeah, the 2nd computer's HD is FUBAR. For now. And this computer is my sister's computer XD

But I do have a question for all those Comp Sci people I keep running into: Can the old PCI cards work in the new PCI slots? Or visa versa? Or are they completely incompatible together?

If your talking about the pci express ports, no you cannot put a pci card into a pci express port. Express is mostly used for graphics cards(90% of time) and some really high end sound cards. For this reason it is rare for a motherboard only to have pci-e they usually have a combo of 1/2 pci-e and 3/4 pci. So although you can't put your pci into a pci-e there should still be some pci slots available. On a side note pci based network interface cards are only around 15$ only 9$ for a off brand so its not that hard of a fix. Just pop open the case undue the slot guard and slide it down. If you have a off board NIC then take out the old one and put it into its place. If not and there are no other free slots then look for a modem or other slotted device to remove(there is often a off board modem on pc's for areas that don't support DSL.) As far as getting the pc to recognize it, its really just a matter of 1.)opening device manager 2)disabling your old card, 3)installing the software for the new one, then plunging it in(power off and unplugged please). That is if you are using a windows based, if you are using mac make sure its mac compliant. If you are using linux/unix then use a wrapper program to emulate the driver. Simple ^_^

BTW if you wave your hand really fast in front of the monitor it looks like u have 12 fingers!

Thallis wrote:If your talking about the pci express ports, no you cannot put a pci card into a pci express port. Express is mostly used for graphics cards(90% of time) and some really high end sound cards. For this reason it is rare for a motherboard only to have pci-e they usually have a combo of 1/2 pci-e and 3/4 pci. So although you can't put your pci into a pci-e there should still be some pci slots available.

Ahh..now I see my problem.. here's my sound card. And here is what all network cards I'm finding looks like:
http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/33-127-102-16.jpg
(In fact that's the network card I bought). I guess I didn't know there were different slots outside of PCI-e, PCI, and AGP... (Stupid outdated tech class ><). Anyways, I only have slots that look like my sound card, so finding a network card is proving difficult =\

As far as getting the pc to recognize it, its really just a matter of 1.)opening device manager 2)disabling your old card, 3)installing the software for the new one, then plunging it in(power off and unplugged please)

Funny story actually.. there were no old network drivers... In fact the computer came quite deficient of many essential.. computer things (like sound.. or an OS..)

BTW if you wave your hand really fast in front of the monitor it looks like u have 12 fingers!

I know dude! It's awesome!! I used to do it all the time before I went to bed when I was little! XD

Thallis wrote:BTW if you wave your hand really fast in front of the monitor it looks like u have 12 fingers!

It doesn't work for me >.<