Network card causing STOP error on Windows XP (Soldering Thread)

[Halcyon]

Just something interesting I came across today when rebuilding an old PC. The system would crash upon first boot after installing Windows XP. Pulling out the network card solved the problem and on closer inspection of the card itself (just a cheap Realtek-based card), it looks like the soldering on the main chip wasn't inspected properly (although there is a "QC OK" sticker on the card).

[bktemp]

Nothing wrong here with 3 GND pins beeing shorted together.

There are often traces between adjacent GND pins without solder mask. Therefore solder bridges can easily form here.

[nctnico]

Nothing wrong here with 3 GND pins beeing shorted together.

There are often traces between adjacent GND pins without solder mask. Therefore solder bridges can easily form here.

Sure these are ground pins? I always avoid putting traces between pads so no solder bridges can form between pins. It makes visual inspection easier; there should be no solder bridges!

[bktemp]

Nothing wrong here with 3 GND pins beeing shorted together.

There are often traces between adjacent GND pins without solder mask. Therefore solder bridges can easily form here.

Sure these are ground pins? I always avoid putting traces between pads so no solder bridges can form between pins. It makes visual inspection easier; there should be no solder bridges!

According to the datasheet, yes.

Traces between pins should be avoided, but there are a lot of lazy board designers who simply do not care. At least you can see this quite often.

[SeanB]

Try clearing the CMOS, and then install the realtek drivers ( not the ones XP ships with, those are known to have issues with some vendors realtek cards) and then install the card. That should solve the problem, probably caused by PNP becoming confused by some setting in the driver or the card eeprom.

[Halcyon]

Nah just threw the card in the bin. I'll stick with Intel NICs :-) I don't even know how the Realtek one ended up in my parts box.