Faulty NIC ??? on WinME

Hi

I have been using a simple network between a Win XPP
laptop and a WinME desktop using a croosover cable for
over a year without problems... until yesterday.

Now, whenever the WinME desktop tries to browse
the "Entire Network" from "My Network Places", and error
message is displayed:

Unable to browse the network.
Windows is unable to gain access to the network. This may
be for a number of reasons.
....

Since nothing has been changed nor installed on either PC
in months, and they could talk okay on Thursday, I
suspected a hardware problem. The laptop NIC is okay: I
can see a network printer via the hub that they are both
usually connected to.

However, the desktop can't see anything. After removing
all network devices, protocols and clients, I re-installed
them, but to no avail. So I suspect a fault on the desktop
NIC. However, the system device manager reports that it
working okay.

How can I find out if the NIC is working? (Unfortunately
its onboard the mobo, so I can't remove it).

Thanks for any suggestions.

P-L

I recently had a similar problem but with two WMe computers and, like you,
suspected hardware when it stopped working. I substituted NICs and cables
and then even bought a hub. Still didn't work.

At my wit's end I then reinstalled WMe from the CD onto one of them and
everything worked properly.
HTH
Mike


"Poh" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:00fa01c3a624$fbbc4900$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi
>
> I have been using a simple network between a Win XPP
> laptop and a WinME desktop using a croosover cable for
> over a year without problems... until yesterday.
>
> Now, whenever the WinME desktop tries to browse
> the "Entire Network" from "My Network Places", and error
> message is displayed:
>
> Unable to browse the network.
> Windows is unable to gain access to the network. This may
> be for a number of reasons.
> ...
>
> Since nothing has been changed nor installed on either PC
> in months, and they could talk okay on Thursday, I
> suspected a hardware problem. The laptop NIC is okay: I
> can see a network printer via the hub that they are both
> usually connected to.
>
> However, the desktop can't see anything. After removing
> all network devices, protocols and clients, I re-installed
> them, but to no avail. So I suspect a fault on the desktop
> NIC. However, the system device manager reports that it
> working okay.
>
> How can I find out if the NIC is working? (Unfortunately
> its onboard the mobo, so I can't remove it).
>
> Thanks for any suggestions.
>
> P-L