Windows 2000 / Beta 3 / Build 2031
Etherlink III PCI (3C590) Hack To Make it
Work !!
They said it just wasn't compatible. Microsoft
HCL doesn't list it and I was shit out of luck!
The good people in #Windows2000 recommended I buy another cheapo NE2000 compatible
NIC. Sure I could've bought another NIC... but I have one of them Dell Optiplex's
with integrated 3COM (3C590) network interface cards built in. Besides....
why buy when you can HACK!
I knew from the #Win2000 FAQ *website*
and from other sources that 3COM may not upgrade all their drivers to be W2K
compatible. I thought,
"SHIT, that aint cool.... but what if I try this......"
What you need in advance:
1. A Bootable floppy disk with
the 3COM (3C590) *download* drivers from the NT4 CD.
2. A non NTFS installed W2k system. If NTFS then YOU figure out how to boot
into W2k parition without loading Windows.
3. A running W2k system which wont recognize your NIC after you chose the
UPGRADE option upon W2k installation. In other words, I had NT4 running with
my NIC recognized PRIOR to installing W2k. ( Gee... i wonder if this is the
reason why I got it to work. Email
me if it works for you under a different configuration)
Lets Go!!:
@ Go into Control Panel | SYSTEM icon | HARDWARE tab | Device
Manager
@ Click into the Etherlink Device and hit DRIVER tab. Click
UPDATE DRIVER.
Select "DISPLAY A LIST OF KNOWN DRIVERS......."
@ Select the 3COM Etherlink XL 10/100 PCI -
For Complete PC Management NIC (3C905C-TX).
Click NEXT and W2K will prompt you that the "Driver was not written specifically
for hardware...Are you sure you want to use this....blah..blah"..
click YES.
@Reboot when instructed. After W2k loads again (still not locating
your NIC). Reboot but Boot your prepared Floppy.
@From Dos prompt, Go into the C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS directory.
Find the EL90XBC5.SYS driver and rename it to something else.
@Copy the EL59X.SYS from floppy to this directory and rename
it to EL90XBC5.SYS.
@Reboot
As you can see... all we're doing is fooling
W2k by replacing the .SYS driver file it's looking for, with the driver we know
works for NT4.
Hell, maybe this kind of hack works for
other non HCL hardware.
These are simple directions and may not
work for everyone. To be honest... i'd be damn surprised if it works for other
people. :-)
Shirley I was surprised when it suddenly worked for me!!! Could it be because
I had NT4 running before it. Ahhh... i dunno, i'm
no bigtime PC genius, but I do have one kick ass , stable Windows
2000 system running on my Novell 4.11 Network with all MS Shares visible and
all Netware Volumes accessable and Mapped.... kewlness!
[email protected]
