Old computer won't start after installing a PCI card

[Beefstu]

Well, to make a long story short all I am trying to do is put an old computer from 1995[strike] (cant find serial numbers on anything) [/strike]onto the internet again. So to do this I attempted to add a Linksys EtherFast 10/100 lan card (5.1),which states it has compatibility with windows 95.
Upon install, the computer activates the fans and the power LED flicks on for a split second and the hard drive reads. There is no video signal or bios beeps.
After I remove the LAN card from the pci slot, it works fine.
I tried many other PCI cards, all without luck except for a pci modem with a built in sound card. It also is the only card that has the 5v setup rather than the universal. All I know about it is that it is from an old Dell pc. With this card installed it attempts to find drives after booting windows, so I am sure the motherboard is not the problem here.
Any help is appreciated.

Turns out, there is a motherboard number! It is a PA-2007.
A diagram can be found Here

 

[Alain123]

Maybe it's too much to handle for the PSU cause it's a pretty old system.

 

[Beefstu]

I doubt it, after all, I did mention it could handle a PCI modem, which should use little power, same as the Ethernet card.

 

[Tradesman1]

Did you load the drivers for the card before installing so it has something to work from, may be seeing the card and saying -Don't have any idea what this is

 

[Alain123]

It also could be incompatibility cause a windows 95 system was a looooongg time back.
Before I was born 😛

 

[Beefstu]

Did you load the drivers for the card before installing so it has something to work from, may be seeing the card and saying -Don't have any idea what this is

I took what you said and applied it. Unfortunately, the Linksys card installs through the "found new hardware" wizard, which only comes up after the hardware is installed into the computer. I also learned that the weak power supply could not be the problem because I removed all the unnecessary cards (ISA modem and ISA sound card) and it still would not start with it in.

 

[Beefstu]

It also could be incompatibility cause a windows 95 system was a looooongg time back.
Before I was born 😛

On this website, it shows that the card is compatible with windows 95, in fact it says it even has plug and play support. You can find it in the "features" section of the details.

 

[Alain123]

Hmm weird that it isn't working for you.
I'll look if I can find something.

 

[GhislainG]

If you can't find a compatible Ethernet PCI card (5V bus) you could try an old ISA controller.

 

[Beefstu]

I have discovered the answer.
I guess the old pc does not accept "Universal Pci cards". An example can be found here:

It does, however accept the regular 5V design of pci, an example is below:

So I guess if anyone has a very old computer with a pci slot that looks like it was still in the pioneering era of that slot, then they need to consider only getting 5v only pci cards.

 

[Tradesman1]

Glad to hear, you have it figured out!