Q I was trying to upgrade one of our work PCs to Windows 95 and connect it to our network when the following problems occurred. I wonder if you can help me out.

A If the CD-ROM is attached to a SCSI card or sound card, the network card could be conflicting with it. This is easy enough to test. Simply pull out the network card and the CD-ROM should start to work. Here is how to resolve the conflict and get the network card to work.

Most new PC expansion cards are Plug and Play. There are cards, especially those that predate Windows 95, which are not. Plug and Play cards ù in conjunction with a Plug and Play system BIOS ù "work out" what settings the expansion card should have and Windows configures the drivers appropriately. Non-Plug and Play cards have preset factory settings. To use other settings you need to manually configure the card. Most network cards have special configuration utilities. Many network card manufacturers have Web sites from where you can download the setup utility. The SMC Web site is at www.smc.com. From there you will need to download a utility called EZStart. Older SMC network cards may need a utility called EZSetup. Other brand network cards will have their own setup utilities.

To configure the network card you first have to use the System Control Panel to work out what Input/Output range (Port), Memory Range and Interrupt Request (IRQ) settings are free. Then restart the system in MS-DOS mode. MS-DOS mode is essential to be sure that the setup utility works reliably (do not use a DOS shell). Configure the card with settings that you know are free.

Restart the computer so that you can install the correct drivers for the card. Windows 95 has a tendency to detect a number of different network cards as NE2000 compatible. Many network cards are in fact NE2000 compatible and will work with the Windows 95 NE2000 network drivers. But Windows 95 may determine that a network card is NE2000 compatible when in fact it is not. Sometimes a network card that is supposedly NE2000 compatible will not work correctly with the Windows 95 drivers. If the operating system tells you the card is NE2000 compatible you should install the Windows 95 drivers that came with it on disk, or download updated drivers from the vendor's Web site.

Chances are the network card will not work because Windows 95 has chosen the wrong settings for the card. Open the System Control Panel and click on the Device Manager tab. Select the network card and click on the Properties button. Click on the Resources tab to enter the correct settings for the card.