I have tried TWO different nic's in my machine, both are 10/100 tx and each one causes my machine to just pause on the WINDOWS 98 splash screen. The bar at the bottom is still moving, but the boot won't go any further. Is there a special way you have to setup thte nic's so they don't conflict or something? I am new to networking.

Sounds like a device conflict. It may also indicate you have no usible IRQ's left. Have you tried different PCI slots? Some BIOS allow you to define the IRQ for their PCI slot positions. you could arbetrarily define one useing an available IRQ. remove the NIC and boot up. go to device manager and view the resources of each device. usually interrupts 5 & 7 are open but you'll want to check this.

Thanks. I will try and come back to here tomorrow, for more help if needed. I don't get the reason for BSOD. Speak to ya later.