Network card driver kills Windows 10?

[hummbug95]

That's a rather clickbaity title 

 

So yeah... My dad owns a Dell XPS 8700 in which the ethernet port was damaged by a lightning strike a couple of years back. This wasn't that much of a big deal since the computer also had a wireless card, but a few days ago he asked me to fix the port, i.e. buy a network card, due to the slower speed of wi-fi. 

I purchased a TP-LINK TG-3468 network card and installed it in the computer. Windows detected an ethernet connection, but there was no internet. I thought this was due to a missing driver, and installed a driver from realtek's website (note: the card does not support windows 10 officially, but it should work according to various forums). 

Since there still was no internet connection, I reverted back to the older driver, and used the "find driver" in the device manager window. After a successful install (still no internet), I restarted the computer in hopes that that would work. The computer shut down, but when it restarted it showed the BIOS splash screen and the dots in a circle, signaling that Windows is initiating, followed by a black screen. The mouse was working, but there was nothing else there. In addition the BIOS has now set the date to 01/01/1990, with no possibility to change the date 

 

My only conclusion is that the driver caused the failure, but at the same time it seems highly unplausable that a verified driver that Windows found should kill the kernel. 

Is this something that you guys have experienced in any way, shape or form, or is it just really bad luck?

 

Cheers     

[williamcll]

Can you get into safe mode?

[userzero]

I think that board is screwed.

 

Remove Ethernet card. Pop out the CMOS battery for a minute and put it back in. Power it on and set up the BIOS properly. Once Windows is stable then try the card again. If it screws up again, it's a bad NIC.

[hummbug95]

1 minute ago, williamcll said:

Can you get into safe mode?

Nope

 

It won't trigger after three failed attempts, but if i use a USB-stick with a Windows ISO, I can trigger the repair menu. I tried the boot-repair option but it failed, and since there is well over 3TB of photos on the computer, I'm not comfortable with restoring it to a safe point without knowing that the pictures are backed up (which they're not) 

[williamcll]

Can you remove the hard drive and copy your files elsewhere?

[hummbug95]

4 minutes ago, userzero said:

I think that board is screwed.

 

Remove Ethernet card. Pop out the CMOS battery for a minute and put it back in. Power it on and set up the BIOS properly. Once Windows is stable then try the card again. If it screws up again, it's a bad NIC.

That's my guess as well 

 

I tried to replace the CMOS battery, but it still won't let me change the time and date. 

I've currently removed the card, but it still fails to boot

[userzero]

What do you mean it won't allow you to change it? Are you using the correct keys to navigate that BIOS..

[hummbug95]

2 minutes ago, williamcll said:

Can you remove the hard drive and copy your files elsewhere?

Yes, I have a docking station for hard drives, but I'm not sure if the drives are in RAID or not (I'm leaning towards not), but I'm taking no risks due to the amount of pictures that are not backed up. Loosing the pictures would be catastrophical   

[hummbug95]

2 minutes ago, userzero said:

What do you mean it won't allow you to change it? Are you using the correct keys to navigate that BIOS..

Yes.

 

After setting the current time and date, it just reverts back to 01/01/1990 for some reason. Even after saving and restaring

[userzero]

If it just reverts then it can't save the settings usually due to the CMOS battery. As you said you've changed it already I think the board is toast.

[hummbug95]

1 minute ago, userzero said:

If it just reverts then it can't save the settings usually due to the CMOS battery. As you said you've changed it already I think the board is toast.

Probably, but it seems extremely coincidental that the board should die while installing a driver. 

I don't think it's due to ESD damage either, since i used a wristband while installing the card 

[userzero]

Probably just tipped an already damaged board over the edge. Doing things like this highlight other issues.

[williamcll]

2 hours ago, hummbug95 said:

Yes, I have a docking station for hard drives, but I'm not sure if the drives are in RAID or not (I'm leaning towards not), but I'm taking no risks due to the amount of pictures that are not backed up. Loosing the pictures would be catastrophical   

If there is only one drive in the PC then there is no RAID

[hummbug95]

3 minutes ago, williamcll said:

If there is only one drive in the PC then there is no RAID

There's a boot SSD and two hard drives

[Biggerboot]

Have you tried a Windows 10 install disc to attempt to repair the OS?

Also, replace the lithium battery for your cmos issue if you haven't done so.

[hummbug95]

2 minutes ago, Biggerboot said:

Have you tried a Windows 10 install disc to attempt to repair the OS?

I've only tried the start-up repair 

 

No I haven't because I need to be absolutely sure that the pictures on the hard drives are not going to be lost, corrupted etc. before I attempt any major repairs / rollbacks

[Biggerboot]

On 7/20/2018 at 1:17 PM, hummbug95 said:

I've only tried the start-up repair 

 

No I haven't because I need to be absolutely sure that the pictures on the hard drives are not going to be lost, corrupted etc. before I attempt any major repairs / rollbacks

Sorry for the late reply, but no.  You can run a repair with the install disc, which will not erase your files.  

If this doesn't work, you can try retrieving your files with GParted.  It could also be an issue with the partition, but I would go right to GParted if you want to backup without messing around with it further.