No Network Interface Controller in Integrated Devices part of Bios setup

Question

I would like to boot / PXE sequence on GX100 (with 3C905B-TX network card). It works when booting on "MBAdisk" Floppy from 3Com (DHCP server ok, TFTP server ok, etc.)

The problem is I can't boot directly on NIC. NIC is not in boot sequence and I have no Network Interface Controller in Integrated Devices part of Bios setup

(as I should have http://support.ap.dell.com/support/edocs/Systems/opgx100/en/ug/setupopt.htm#integrated_devices)

I would like to execute following operations in bios:

F2 enter setup
=> Integrated Device (Legacy Options)
=> Network interface controller : On w/ PXE
=> save config
But I can't find Network interface controller !

Bios was A03, I upgraded it to A10 without any result.

NIC Driver updated without any result.

If you can help me...

Cold_Fulcrum · Answer

Hmmm...   We have many of these computers and I have seen a window that brings this up, but you have to press F3 instead of F2 at the BIOS screen, then it brings up a option to enter that configuration program.   However I haven't actually seen a reason for it, our RIS server picks up our clients wether they use MBA or PXE.

PiGiN · Answer

Thanks for your recommendation.

However... I may have found a raison for this NIC missing. First I thought the card was not totally bootable. After reading the followings http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/~davea/Library/3com_mba.htm , http://www.infracity.de/pxe/ and http://www.hollants.com/pxerom_3c905.html , I tryed to flash my NIC's ROM...

The error returned was: "missing ROM" ...

Opening the PC was the last step: the 3C905B-TX cards on my company's GX100 have no ROM.

I think this is the raison why I have no Network Interface Controller in Integrated Devices part of Bios setup. Booting with floppy disk is my temperary solution.

Cold_Fulcrum · Answer

Wow, that is strange.   All of our GX1,100,and 110 dells have boot ROM on them.  The older GX models with the Aquamarine and Black BIOS screens don't say anything about the NIC but they can still be booted to PXE with the F3 key by default.   I suppose your systems could be different, I just haven't seen any like that before.

PiGiN · Answer

You are right; F3 should work as le screen displays "Attempting Network Boot". [I did not know the use of this key during the boot]

As I see here, the network boot is however canceled and HD boot is following.

Cold_Fulcrum · Answer

That key works on all Dell Optiplexes that we have in the district.

I think your assessment is correct, your BootROM isn't working. You should be fine using the RIS Disks...and I know that is a pain. We have a group of GX50's in the district with duplicate GUIDs, that also force us to use RIS Disks.

Good Luck!

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

No Network Interface Controller in Integrated Devices part of Bios setup

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