IQON PC..restriction in installing new hardware

humaxf1

Hi all,

A friend of mine bought one of the IQON Tesco PCs (XP Media Centre). Went to install a wireless PCI card, but it wont install it.

Could it be a hardware restriction builtin to the motherboard?

Yes, the card works in another PC.

TIA

Beano

can you be a bit more specific about what the problem is?

humaxf1

Basically, after physically installing the card, I boot the PC.

At the desktop, there's no sign of the 'Found new hardware wizard' or a green 'remove hardware' icon beside the clock. Nor is there an entry in device manager under network adapters.

That's about it really... I installed it in a Dell 4400 tower and it works fine.

WillieDH

It is possible in the BIOS to restrict adding hardware not supplied by the OEM, DELL used to do this so you had to use their memory but I'd be surprised at a Tier 2 vendor like Iqon having this level of sophistication.

I'd say the motherboard slot is just knackered.

humaxf1

I took out a 56k modem and put the wifi card in in it's place...same result.

subway

probaly a dead pci slot, is there a working one you could try?
maybe swap the soundcard out.
failing that, call iqon

and a link to that story about dell locking their bios to dell ram would be interesting as it seems incredibly unlikley

humaxf1

Hi subway,

As you can see I have tried another PCI slot.

I have, in the meantime, emailed IQON. their reply as follows...

The only thing we can do is a full system recovery. To do this you must turn off the pc and disconnect any usb devices you have *printer, scanner ipod etc*, turn it on and rapidly tap the F10 key. You could see a screen then that says ‘Boot option’. If this screen appears press enter then quickly start pressing F10 again. Click system recovery quick format when in the PC recovery screen.

If this still proves unsuccessful you can purchase a recovery disk for £50.

I replied back to say that I took the modem out and put the wifi card in in it's place...same result, so awaiting a reply.

In fairness to them, they replied with in 1/2 hour.

subway

woops,
i thought you said you tried a 56k modem in the same slot that you tried the wifi card.
is there any other pci cards installed. the wifi card may need more power than your pc can supply (unlikely) but worth a shot if there are some other cards you can remove.
what happens when you plug in a new usb device?

also, try unsintalling the modem from windows (device manager > modem properties > uninstall) rebooting without the card in the system,
then powering down, reattaching the card and turnin on.
if the modem doesnt install it could be a windows issue as the support guys suggest

irlrobins

humaxf1 wrote:

The only thing we can do is a full system recovery...

So their solution is to wipe all your data from your HD? Nice....

subway

at least they got back quickly

BKtje

There is nothing i assume under "Unknown Devices" in the device manager?

is_that_so

irlrobins wrote:

So their solution is to wipe all your data from your HD? Nice....

That menu gives three options IIRC

1. Copy Windows files
2. Non Destructive Restore
3. Destructive Restore

irlrobins

The words "quick format" would lead me to believe it's destructive.

humaxf1

The PC was purchased last week, so nothing Office/pics/music wise has been saved.

A reinstall of any kind could be done immediately if thats the case. There are no entries for "Unknown Devices" in device manager, exclamation marks or red "X"s.

subway

its only new?
you should bring it back to the shop for a replacement as the machine is not working out of the box.

deadl0ck

Have you verified the the Wireless card itself is not knackered by trying it in another machine ?

humaxf1

READ the first post for this thread!