PCMCIA (PC-Card) Ethernet Adapter in Windows 95

Here are some suggestions if you are having trouble getting a PCMCIA (also called PC-Card) Ethernet adapter to work with Windows 95.

Follow your computer manufacturer's recommendations for setup and configuration of your PCMCIA slot. Most computers require only the standard Windows 95 drivers for initialization of the slot, while others may require special drivers in your CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT files. Your computer MUST be able to recognize that an active device is plugged into the PCMCIA slot before any driver will work for the PCMCIA slot. You can verify the PCMCIA device has been initialized by examining the PC-Card icon in the Control Panel, or by removing the Ethernet card while in Windows 95 and checking for an audio or visual indication that the status of the port has changed.

Once your system has recognized the presence of the network card, Windows 95 may load a default driver for that card and proceed to initialize it. Other cards may require a driver that is supplied by the card manufacturer. Some InvisibleLAN supplied cards require such a driver, and are included on the driver disk in a directory labeled WIN95. Check with your Ethernet card's manual for a complete description and location of the card drivers.

Once the driver is loaded for the card, it is susceptible to the same resource conflicts as other types of cards. Go to the Control Panel, System icon, Device Manager tab, and examine the Network Adapters entry. Verify a valid entry for the network adapter card installed in your system.

If you do not see a network adapter, your PCMCIA card has not be properly recognized and initialized by Windows 95. Try rebooting your computer without the card inserted, and while at the Windows 95 desktop insert the card. You should get an audio or visual indication that a card has been inserted, as described above.

If you see your network card listed and it DOES NOT have a "X" or "!" next to it, then your card is working correctly. If it does, then there is an error with the card, its settings, or the driver. You should verify that the IRQ and I/O base Windows has assigned is not conflicting with another device. (These can be checked and changed from Control Panel, System icon, Device Manager tab, Network Adapters, select your adapter, click Properties, then Resources tab. Next remove the checkmark from "Use automatic settings" and select a different I/O and IRQ that has no conflicts). If the problem persists, remove the adapter entry from the system list, and use the Windows 95 "Add New Hardware" wizard to re-identify the adapter. You can also verify the adapter is working correctly by testing the card with Invisible LAN for DOS (this may require the use of a direct enabler such as CARDGO).

Notices: Copyright 1997 by Invisible Software, Inc. Invisible Software and InvisibleLAN are trademarks of Invisible Software, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

This document was prepared on 01/30/97, and was believed to be accurate as of that date. Procedures, specifications, and compatibility may change without notice, and therefore this document may be out-of-date and/or inapplicable to current product versions. Invisible Software provides this document "AS IS" and without warranty of any kind. Under no circumstances shall this document be construed as creating or expanding any warranty of product performance.

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