Cheap NIC with Windows 7 driver

Hello All,

Just upgraded my Compaq Persario SR1550TX to Window 7 32 bit. The NIC card was not recognized. After chatting with HP they said there is no driver, as of yet, for the built-in Motherboard NIC for windows 7, good luck. (RealTek Sis)

So i went out and bought a Trendnet TEG-PCITXR NIC card. Windows Compatibility Website says it is compatible for Windows 7. After a reply from Trendnet technical support, there is no driver for Windows 7 for the NIC card.

Can anyone recommend a cheap NIC PCI card that has windows 7 driver? I have tried D-Link, Netgear and a lot of others but when I see if they have the driver for windows 7 they do not.

Anything under $25 bucks would be great. After 3 days of struggles any suggestions would be nice!
Saxual

I use an Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 PCI-E Ethernet Controller and it works very well with 32bit Windows 7 Professional.

Have you still got the Trendnet NIC? Did you try installing it and see if Windows has the driver already in its database? I'm sure we can get that card working (and probably even the onboard one if you wanted).

Your NIC card uses the Realtek RTL8169SC chipset. I verified this by going to TrendNet's website and downloaded the TIFF image of the card. The photo shows the chipset on the card. When I googled it, it looked like a Realtek chipset because of the logo printed on the chipset face. Then I verified it. See image below cropped using Snagit.



Realtek's website DOES HAVE a Windows 7 Driver available as of 10-23-2009. You can download just the driver itself or the install program incl. the utility.

The driver version is: 7.006 and it works for either 32bit or 64bit.



The download page for this driver is HERE.

Hopefully this will cure your problem!

That is a great bit of investigation there Nibiru2012!

Thanks Ian. I know that Realtek is constantly updating their drivers on a regular basis, especially since Windows 7 came out.

Trendnet's tech support cracks me up!

Must have been "Dave" based in India!

Well, I agree with the other users, that was some great work.

I took the NIC out of the Compaq machine to make sure that the pictures were a match, and they were a match.

But it didn't work. I know the Trendnet NIC is seated properly because when I plug in the Ethernet cable the light does come on.

When running the setup program for the driver downloaded, it tells me at the end "The Realtek Network Controller was not found. If deep Sleep Mode is enabled Please Plug the Cable." (What a great last sentence. It makes no sense.)

I have tried SIS drivers for windows SP, I have tried old drivers from HP for Windows XP.

Any other suggestions?

There is no driver already in its database. Or it would be working and I wouldn't have to write thread. lol

Sorry, I'm a little frustrated with everything.

My computer can only handle PCI, not PCI express card. But anyway I did go and see if the Manufacturer had a Windows 7 driver, i could not find one.

Does the NIC show up in the Device Manager - Hardware section?

Did you go into the BIOS and disable the on-board NIC interface? If not, the system may be getting conflicting hardware messages.

Do you have a friend or relative from whom you could borrow their NIC card and see if it works in your setup?

Which ever store you bought the Trendnet card from should be willing to take it back since your having issues with it. They may hit you with a 15% restocking fee though.

I know that D-Link, Netgear and Linksys make very good NIC cards. For the price Airlink101 NIC cards are pretty decent too. Linksys is not supporting some older cards these days though.

Great price on an Airlink card here.

You're about 26 miles from a Fry's Electronics you could look there too. Here is some from their website.