I have an unusal problem with an NEC PC with an intel 915 chipset, whereby windows cannot detect either the installed PCI cards or the network card (which is integreated with the motherboard), although these are clearly identifiable in the BIOS.
The PC is installed with windows XP pro
The problem originated when windows refused to boot for no apparent reason (it had been working all of the previous day without problem and the ethernet port was connected directly to a router. It shut down without fuss) and I had to boot into the recovery console to fix the MBR. This allowed me access back into windows but resulted in the current problem.
Anything plugged into USB or other ports works without problem
The devices are not shown at all in device manager, as if they are not installed, and all other motherboard functions work without problem (ie PCI express graphics, USB, Firewire, COM ports). Forcing the PC to install drivers for these devices does nothing as this just leaves the device driver with the yellow exclamation mark next to the device in device manager.
The devices in question are a bog standard modem and a TV capture card, both which work flawlessly in another PC.
I have checked the BIOS many times to ensure that the devices are recognised, but still the problem persists. There must be a basic setting I am missing?
Is there any glaring issue that I am overlooking as this seems like an easy to solve problem - but apparently not to me
