M15X and Windows Server 2008 R2 Network drivers

I read that people were using the M15x with MS Windows Server 2008 successfully. I built mine up with Win2k8 R2 Enterprise and I cannot get the wireless network drivers nor the Intel drivers to work. When I use the drivers for Windows 7, it tells me that no Intel network adaptors exist. I am running 64 bit with 8GB ram and therefore I should be able to run Win2k8 R2 64 bit. Calling suport they tell me that only windows 7 and Vista are supported so they are not able to direct me to the correct drivers.

Can anyone help. Windows install doesn't find drivers, the web update doesn't find drivers and the Alienware disks drivers say that no Intel adaptors exist.

Ideas?

 

For testing purposes (I no its not ideal) you could try Win2k8 in a virtual environment, bridge the connection, and see how you get on with the drivers, we should be able to see if it's the Win7 NIC drivers that are causing conflict here.

Physically, hardware-wise, yes, you should be more than capable of running the server2k8 OS no probs.

 

It does work in a VM session with bridged drivers. The only problem is that the VM is slow (VMware 7.x workstation). It doesn't matter how much memory I throw at it. I want to run a MOSS 2010 development environment on this machine and therefore I'd rather run the base OS as Win2k8R2. Thanks for responding.

 

Howdy, I see this is an old Post, I am also trying to load up Windows Server 2008R2. I am a Microsoft Trainer and I need the Hyper V server in order to teach the classes. I have installed all the newest chipset and network drivers and still the adapter is NOT found. I have also tried the 64bit drivers from Win7, but they have not worked as well. Has anyone successful gotten Windows Server 2008 to work on an Alienware Laptop?

 

yes but unfortunatly it was the origional M17 pre Dell days. we have one as a mobile test bed. I can ask my husbands networking crew if any of them ever have.

 

That is awesome greatly appreciated. I had contacted Alienware support as well on loading Windows Server 2008, but they were not able to provide a solution as Windows 2008 is not one of their supported OS's. I have been working on this for a few days trying to get it to work, and I have close to 20yrs experience. I was hoping there was just something easy that I have missed. I teach Microsoft MOC classes and I need to run the course VM's inside of Hyper V. Running virtual machines inside of virtual machines is just very slow.

 

you sound like my husband he has 25 years of Microsoft / Novell / AIX networks under his belt and tends to get cranky on this " consumer grade crap " I have had my 8740W swiped a few times so he can hook up 3 or 4 servers on laptops to show a client a test configuration or try some new idea.

 

for the Ethernet you can go the the intel website and download there drivers directly. you can even try there online driver update, but internet explorer is running on high security settings and will not run java of activeX, unless something is changed.
Ethernet card is "Intel 82577LC"
wireless is "Intel 5300"

this is the driver website for intel support.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Default.aspx?lang=eng

also you may want to visit this website to get help on running win 2008 as workstation, as many features are disabled an making it hard for normal daily use.
Convert your Windows Server 2008 to a Workstation!

to enable wireless.
Convert your Windows Server 2008 to a Workstation! Blog Archive Enable Wireless Networking

 

If the Intel software isn't finding the hardware, make sure it is working properly. Shouldn't apply to the ethernet adapter, but it is easy to accidentally turn the wireless adapter radio off.

You've probably already checked this, but...

I've done this a couple of times.

Joe

 

Hey Everyone thanks so much for the help. The network adapter and the wireless were not working, but thanks to the links I was able to get them working. Windows is such a HUGE product from where I originally started working with it in Windows 3.0; I work with Windows Servers everyday, and I had never seen the Wireless LAN Service? I had checked the wireless radio adapter to make sure it was on, but in Windows Server 2008 you have to install the Wireless LAN Service in order to get any wireless adapter to work. I guess that most of my production servers don't have wireless .... lol. Anyways, I got the wireless to work perfectly. I then went to the Intel site and tried the online driver update. I ran it and got the same message: There were no Intel Adapters found. The Network card works perfectly in Windows 7, so I tried the old trick of adding a "New Hardware Device". I then chose the Network Card: Intel 82577LC, and low and behold it found it, and it works perfectly! Thanks so much again everyone, greatly appreciated! I have 4 other "unknown devices" that are not recognized in Windows Server 2008, I am assuming one is the media card reader. I am now just trying to to get the video drivers to work. I have dual 4870 Ati cards, and obviously the catalyst drivers are not being found. It is just using the standard Windows VGA driver. Any suggestions?

 

how can u hav dual 4870? which system are you using?

 

Please bear with me if my questions are very general as this is the first time i ever used a server window...

i have installed my windows server 2008r2 on a virtual drive, with my original windows 7 ... and i am having the same problem with network adapter...even after downloading it from intel site...what should i do to install those drivers...

is virtual environment and bridging connections be helpful to my scenario, if yes, how do i do it...

i installed this window in order to join my m15x and my desktop for more processing power and ram... since i am working with graphics and stuff...would this windows on virtual drive support clustering?

Hoping for a reply soon...

thanks in advance,
khizer...

 

Hey, i tried to install the network adapter this way...but couldnt seem to find the right version i.e. 82577LC... there were 2 82577LM and they both arnt working... there is still a yellow icon on the driver...n after installing the message appears ' the device may not work properly'...

I am using windows server 2008 r2 enterprise version...does this option have something to do with this version of windows?

 

if you can explain to me what you mean by installed on virtual drive. i will help you run server2008.

do you mean you have installed it in VMWare, microsoft's virtual PC or someother program?

the intel driver is the actual network card installed on the M15x, and will not work in a virtual machine environment. you need the drivers designed for that specific virtual machine.