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Tamarack TC9020 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet Adapter PCI
Dear Seventists,
I recently had the great fortune to be given a used computer that is only 5 years old (BIOS dates back to 2009), which is like brand-new to me as I used to have only very dated desktops, my most recent being from 2006. It consists of an ASRock N68C-S UCC motherboard and 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 DIMMs. In order to make use of the Dual-Channel advantages, I installed Windows 7 x64 and everything has worked like a charm so far. It feels like driving a Ferrari compared to the experience I've been having with my previous oldies. That is however until I ran into the following problem:
My old board had integrated Gigabit LAN, whereas the new one only has Fast Ethernet. I recently bought new Ethernet cables because I set up a home server and wanted to be able to distribute files as fast as if they were stored locally to get rid of the need of carrying around external hard drives. The fact that the N68C-S does not support Gigabit speed became even more bitter when I learned that the otherwise identical model N68C-GS does. Which means that one supposedly insignificant letter messed up my new network infrastructure.
Now after having put aside my personal distress about this particular circumstance, I lightened up when I accidentally found this old Gigabit capable PCI NIC (I wasn't even aware I ever had one in my possession). I thought serendipity had knocked on my door, as I was just about to buy one in a couple of days. Hours of desperate trial and error runs later though, it's more like the spirits of torture are amusing themselves on my account. I seem to be the only person in history trying to get thismodel to work on Windows 64 bit. All I could research is that the manufacturer "Tamarack" was acquired by IC Plus Corp. some time in 2005, so I looked up their website and installed the driver for their sole listed NIC product to no avail (wrong Device ID anyway). From there it was all downhill, because the other drivers I was able to locate wouldn't even bother installing due to incompatibility issues with Windows x64. Here are the ones I have tried out:
Gigabit Ethernet Network Adapter
TC902x, IC PLUS - TAMARACK TC902X/A 10/100/1000 Ethernet Adapter
SBE Tamarack TC902x Based 10/100/1000 Ethernet Adapter
Micronet SP2610T
Tamarack TC902x Based 1000Mbps Ethernet Adapter
Tamarack TC902x Based 1000Mbps Ethernet Adapter (Fiber)
GH-ELG64T 1000Mbps PCI (64bit/32bit)
All drivers are supposed to work for the same Hardware ID "PCI\VEN_13F0&DEV_1021", which applies to my Tamarack card. I even installed that piece of software called Driver Identifier out of desperation, only to end up with it apologizing that they were unable to find any drivers. I've really run out of energy on this one, so I currently see two options: Either be stuck with Fast Ethernet, or go back to x86 and lose the performance advantage of 4 GB RAM in Dual Channel mode. Or of course, go through with my initial plan to buy a new NIC. However, I'm unwilling to waste resources. Why spend money on a new card if I have one I've never used?
It goes without saying that I would be very grateful for any ideas on how to proceed. I'm thinking about installing XP x64 on an old testing machine to see if it might have a built-in driver that I could then extract and use. Should I give it a shot?