I have a Realtek RTL8139 PCI Fast Ethernet NIC i was using an old driver RTL8138.sys which worked before i restarted. I have a cable modem from timewarner with earthlink as my isp. I have tested the cable modem with another computer running windows 98 se. I know that Cable modem works and that the straigh thru cable works also. On my second computer i was recently running windows xp pro. I was running the default drivers for my network card from windows. Then I reinstalled windows and during installation the computer locked up when it was "installing network devices". So to get passed the problem i unplugged the cable and reinstallied with no problems. Then when everything was set up i plug the cable back in and it freezes. Everytime i plug it in it freezes. I updated drivers from realtek to the most recent version. Didnt work. Removed the nic card reinstalled, then tried installing another nic that way same problem. I also switched another card from another computer in case the nic was bad. The other nic card works but not with windows. My Realtek nic lights up when i plug it in and says it works fine in device manager. My question is how do i get around windows not freezes during installation. Or how can i fix it currently since everytime i plug it in it freezes. Thanks

what motherboard do you have? have you tried another pci slot?