10$ Paypal reward for the solution

R

R08813

Weaksauce
Joined
May 16, 2005
Messages
85
I'm working on a laptop... It is a Gateway 4028GZ and here is the problem: I have basically 24hrs to figure it out. Basically none of the network related hardware will work. The built in Wifi, NIC, and even a PCMCIA wireless card. What happens is, all of the drivers install fine (yes I have downloaded the latest drivers and reinstalled them many times!). But after they install they are listed in the device manager under the "Other" category. They all have a yellow ! next to them, and when I double click to check the status of any of them, they say "This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)". I recently reinstalled the network components and ran the netsh ip and winsock commands. When I hook it up to my router it pops up and detects a LAN connection, followed by detecting my router, and then an internet connection (all these are displayed). It can access the internet, but still says that there is a conflict in device manager. I bought and installed a Netgear PCMCIA Wireless G card and it does the same. Driver installs, but then has yellow ! mark in dev man and netgear connection software will not run!
Any ideas!!????!?!?!?!?!? I will pay whoever finds a solution if needed!
 
Have you tried reloading the chipset driver? Consider flashing the BIOS? Have you tried forcing a driver update through the device manager?

If none of those fix it, scan the hard drive (I've seen it before, and yes, it's weird!)

Worst case it looks like you have a recovery partition on that, so you can blow it all away and start fresh,
 
I believe the root of this lies more with windows than anything else.

Few questions?
How old is this system? When did the problem start, whats the time limit for? Has this system been used on the Interent much? What Version of windows?

Have you scanned with AV Spybot S&D and Adaware windows defender?
 
I would format and reinstall the OS then ty to reinstall the drivers.
 
As others have mentioned it sounds like a chipset problem. Try downloading the chipset version that Gateway recommends from their support site. If that doesn't work, download the latest from intel and give them a whirl.

You can also check the BIOS for IRQ/Resource reservations. This option probably won't be there as most laptop manufacturers keep the BIOS pretty plain.

Try also disabling certain features in the BIOS - such as disabling wireless, onboard network, sound, etc - to see if the problem goes away.

And while we're on the topic of BIOS - make sure there isn't a BIOS update for this laptop. Could just be a resource allocation bug.
 
OK, I will try to answer all the questions... First of all it is maybe a year or 2 old (Like I said it is a 4028GZ). I just tried installing the latest chipset drivers last night, and I would like to avoid reinstalling windows from the recovery partition. I just scanned with Spyware Doctor and it fixed 183 instances of spyware! Still no change with the drivers. As for IRQ conflicts, I'm not sure, but I'm going to try installing some other devices (i.e. printer, usb ethernet adapter, ect...) to see if they do the same, or if it is just devices that are network related. Thank you for all suggestions, I will try them and let you know who's solution works.
 
a fresh format will probably fix the problem, be much faster in the long run to fix, and probably good thing to do.

just backup your data and format, i can get a fresh install going in about an hour with all hte common programs.
 
That's what I wanted to avoid (hence the reward) but I'm starting to consider it... (therefore, no reward)
 
Unfortunately, I have the answer. You won't like it.

You have to use the Gateway provided drivers. You may be able to get them from the website. You must remove all drivers and then perform installation in this specific order using only Gateway provided drivers:

Chipset -> Video -> LAN -> Wireless -> The Rest

You cannot use any other drivers except Gateway provided drivers, period. Gateway has changed the PCI VendorID on the devices to their own, and no other drivers will ever work with them.
 
Does it really matter that he's not installing them in that order? From what he said he's using the gateway drivers. I'm just curious.
 
Hurdler said:
Does it really matter that he's not installing them in that order? From what he said he's using the gateway drivers. I'm just curious.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. It's a Centrino thing, more than a Gateway thing. The Intel "Centrino" chipset cards will not work at all, won't even detect, and never will unless you have the drivers in the right order. It's a component tie-in/tie-together on Intel's part. That's part of why 3945ABGs don't work in Everex XT5000T's (the tie-together; no "Centrino" chipset, card will not init.)
 
i've never installed drivers in any order, always works fine.......
 
Try running the system file scanner. From a command prompt:
sfc /scannow

You might need a Windows disk. We had a similar problem with some HP laptops at work, and this fixed them right up.
 
AreEss said:
Absolutely. It's a Centrino thing, more than a Gateway thing. The Intel "Centrino" chipset cards will not work at all, won't even detect, and never will unless you have the drivers in the right order. It's a component tie-in/tie-together on Intel's part. That's part of why 3945ABGs don't work in Everex XT5000T's (the tie-together; no "Centrino" chipset, card will not init.)
Click to expand...

Huh, I learn something new everyday. Thanks!
 
marley1 said:
i've never installed drivers in any order, always works fine.......
Click to expand...

Generaly it doesn't but as a rule you should always load the chipset drivers first. It can cause issues. Does it happen often? No but it can.

The file scane someone elce posted "sfc /scannow" is what I was thinking of too.
 
you can dick around for a few days trying to fix it or you can backup data, wipe the pig and reinstall fresh. You should do that with a windows box every year or two anyway. If you run vista you should wipe it about every 4 months. :)

 
Captain Colonoscopy said:
you can dick around for a few days trying to fix it or you can backup data, wipe the pig and reinstall fresh. You should do that with a windows box every year or two anyway. If you run vista you should wipe it about every 4 months. :)

Click to expand...

every four months huh? I've been going strong on my Vista install since last March. Well, that is until the motherboard died last week. My laptop has had the same install of Vista since I bought it in early September.
 
Captain Colonoscopy said:
If you run vista you should wipe it about every 4 months. :)
Click to expand...

Hell untill I rebooted my machine 2 days ago it had been running since June without a reboot. Machine really didn't need to be rebooted either. I was installing something that required the reboot.
 
Captain Colonoscopy said:
you can dick around for a few days trying to fix it or you can backup data, wipe the pig and reinstall fresh. You should do that with a windows box every year or two anyway. If you run vista you should wipe it about every 4 months. :)
Click to expand...

I'm very curious where you got that 4 month figure.
 
I can't believe nobody has suggested this..

Grab Knoppix or another live linux CD, boot it up and see if your hardware works.

The wireless may not, but that should at least tell you if it's a windows problem, or a hardware problem/conflict.
 
I guess the smiley wasn't enough indication that I was joking about the vista 4 month thingy. I apologize. My personal experience with Vista is that it is reasonably stable but I have had a lot of problems with it in the enterprise, less so at home. Most of the apps I need to run do not work with 64-bit Vista, be that the developer's fault or MS is none of my concern. I have had to wipe and re-install Vista three times since RC2 came out due to various different issues, one of which I blame on Cisco's crappy 5.0.0.340 IPSEC VPN client which doesn't play nice with Vista and won't install on Vista 64bit at all.

Anyway, enough about my apparently retarded decision to mention Vista in this person's thread . . . .

The idea of booting off a Linux LIVE CD is a brilliant idea. I have used both Knoppix and Ubuntu Live CDs, you should give one of those a shot and see if you have the same hardware issues. Like the above poster mentioned, you may not get the wireless to work in linux depending on your chipset, so don't worry about that one.

 
scoob8000 said:
Grab Knoppix or another live linux CD, boot it up and see if your hardware works.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, the only way this will really help is if things *do* work in Linux, then that shows that the hardware works. Past that, it won't help much. If things don't work in linux, it could be because of a Linux issue or because of a hardware issue... no way to really tell.
 
if the computer is less than three years old all the hardware will work in linux with the exception of wireless which may or may not work. I have yet to see a computer that was reasonably new that had something in it ubuntu wouldn't pick up and configure automatically.

 
True, but they were also saying to try a Knoppix CD, not Ubuntu. Past that, if I understand the OP's post, everything works fine, it's just not showing up correctly in the device manager. There's no need to use a Live CD... the hardware works. This is purely a software issue.
 
Does the OP have an update for us???? I wanna know who was the first to be right :p
 
Considering that he only had 24 hours to fix it and he still hasn't replied, I doubt we'll be seeing one at all. Even if the reward doesn't show, it would be nice to know what fixed it. Oh well...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top