Error: Expansion ROM not initialized ? PCI Network Controller on Motherboard

I’m hoping someone can help me as I’ve tried everything (which my knowledge is very limited) that I know what to do and I am unable to fix the problem I am having. I have a Dell Inspiron 710M which is no longer under warranty and yesterday I received the following error upon boot-up. The 710M was purchased in February 2006. Windows XP Home Edition SP3 was installed.

Phoenix NoteBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0
Copyright 1985-2002 Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
All Rights Reserved

A06
CPU = Intel® Pentium® M Processor 2.00 GHZ
1007M System Ram Passed
2048K Cache SRAM Passed
System BIOS shadowed
Video BIOS shadowed
Fixed Disk 0: ST9808211A
ATAPI CD-ROM: _NEC DVD+/-RW ND-6650A
Mouse initialized
ERROR
Expansion ROM not initialized – PCI Network Controller on Motherboard
BUS:02, Device:05, Function:00

Press <F1> to resume

50% of the time when I try to start the computer nothing happens – I don’t even get see the above error. The screen stays blank. The HD activity light never starts. The other 50% of the time I get the above error and after I hit F1 it goes to the Windows XP start up screen, starts loading and then freezes. I have to shut down the system by holding the power button. Once in a very few tries I am able to get to the log on screen, log on and have access to my files. My system was already backed up so saving data wasn’t an issue.

Here are the remedies I have tried:

1. I read on this site, on the IBM Thinkpad forum, that someone had a similar error which was solved because his boot-up sequence did not have the HD first in line. When I hit F12 it shows the HD first, DVD second and something else third (I’m sorry I forgot). The arrow buttons worked and I tried to run the diagnostics which froze for 30 minutes when checking the memory. I manually shut it down.

2. I tried to get into the BIOS setup, hitting F2, and the arrow buttons did not work. The function keys did not work. I see the setup screen but it freezes. This happened before and after I updated the BIOS on item #6 below. While I was able to see the BIOS setup screen I was unable to make any changes.

3. I tried to do a Dell System Restore, Ctrl-F11. I have only had to do a Dell System Restore once in October 2007 and that system restore was done successfully. Now when I hit Ctrl-F11 the system freezes. I don’t even see the start of the Dell System Restore.

4. Prior to this I had other little problems – which I always associated with the system being a couple of years old – such as once in a while the system would freeze when I had too many programs open. Once in a while it wouldn’t shut down correctly. Again, these type of problems occurred infrequently but I figured now was a good time to try a Windows XP Clean Install. The first time I tried the Windows XP Clean Install it got stuck for over an hour when it was “installing devices.” I manually shut it down and tried again. The second time I was able to do a clean Windows XP Install. After the Windows XP Install I still got the above error.

5. After the Windows XP clean install I was, infrequently, able to get into the log on screen and into the system. I tried to load the wireless drivers, using the Dell Drivers CD, so I could update the BIOS from A06 to A07 but when it was installing the driver it kept adding wireless devices. It got into a loop and I had over 20 wireless devices installed. I had to ctrl-alt-delete to stop the driver install and went into the device manager and deleted all of the wireless devices.

6. I then added the Ethernet driver successfully and was able to update the BIOS from A06 to A07. Unfortunately, I am still getting the above error.

7. All of the above occurred last night. Today, I have not been able to get the system to start at all. I never even see the error message. The HD activity light doesn’t start. I opened up the back panels for the HD and the RAM and made sure they were securely installed. They looked fine.

So I have now exhausted my limited knowledge of what to do. Does anyone have any thoughts, suggestions? Is the HD or motherboard going?

Thank you

 

I think the error makes it pretty clear... your network controller is dying or dead. Chances are that you'll have to replace the motherboard. But just for kicks, if you can locate the network controller on the motherboard (it'll probably be a Broadcom chip), press down on it (like pretty hard) and try to start the machine.

 

Thank you for the reply. I guessed it was a motherboard issue but I was hoping it wasn't. Not sure if I will replace the motherboard as I did a quick check and it appears a new motherboard is approximately $200-250. Plus the speakers died about six months ago. Maybe I'll look into getting a new laptop.

Thanks again for the response.