"Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)"

Problems with a generic, "no-name" gigabit LAN card. The drivers on the included cd identify it as a Realtek RTL8169/8110 Family Gigabit Ethernet NIC. Here's what properties for the device say:


Device type: Network adapters

Manufacturer: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

Location: PCI Slot 2 (PCI bus 2, device 0, function 0)

Device status: This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)


I have reinstalled the drivers several times. Even tried letting Windows connect to Windows Update from the Hardware Update Wizard, which, incidentally, identified the card as a Dynex Gigabit NIC (and which, obviously, didn’t work, or I wouldn't be writing).

The NIC worked the first time I installed it, but after installing and then uninstalling a Soundblaster card (which hosed the whole system), I started getting the error above. I have identical cards installed in nearly identical machines in our office (Dell Vostro 200’s), which are NOT having the same problems.

But - there is one other machine - a Dell Dimension 3000 - which is having a similar problem with the very same type of "no-name," generic gigabit NIC. The already-mentioned Soundblaster card actually came out of the Dimension 3000 and into the Vostro machine that I was initially writing about. However, the Soundblaster was already in the Dimension 3000 when I installed the NIC card in the Dimension 3000, and even though the NIC card in the Dimension 3000 is having similar problems as the Vostro, the Dimension 3000 didn't have the same system-wide problems as the Vostro when the Soundblaster was in the Vostro. (And sorry for the run-on sentence.)

Anyway, the Soundblaster isn't in either machine at the moment, but both are having pretty much the same problems with the NIC.

Any ideas?