Dell Broadcom Drivers

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We experienced a strange problem lately with a client where we enabled the second Broadcom integrated NIC on a Windows 2003 Enterprise Server. What we discovered was that when we set the static IP address on the server’s second network adapter, the first network adapter dropped into this semi-DHCP state. When we corrected the first adapter, the second one would go into the semi-DHCP state. I say semi because it actually showed the adapter in DHCP mode, but unable to find a DHCP server so it used the automatic IP address – which is typically 169.x.x.x, but instead of that, it actually retained the static IP address. But when the server rebooted, it would loose the static IP address (since it was set to DHCP mode) and would pickup a new, dynamic IP address.’

So I performed the normal troubleshooting steps from uninstalling the network drivers, reinstalling the existing driver, and then finally installing the latest drivers – which would always fail. So after a bit of messing around I called Dell Enterprise Support and to my surprise the provided a shocking list of prerequisites before we could upgrade the drivers…

To Ensure the Broadcom Installer Works:

1) Download the new Broadcom drivers

a. 32-bit http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/Bcom_LAN_12.4_W2K3_8_A02.exe

b. 64-bit http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/Bcom_LAN_12.4_W2K3_8_64_A03.exe

2) Ensure Microsoft’s .Net Framework 2.0 SP1 is installed.

a. Install .Net Framework 2.0 SP1 from Microsoft.

i. 32-bit
 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=79bc3b77-e02c-4ad3-aacf-a7633f706ba5&DisplayLang=en

ii. 64-bit
 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=029196ED-04EB-471E-8A99-3C61D19A4C5A&displaylang=en

3) Ensure .Net Framework 2.0 SP2,  3.0 and 3.5 are NOT installed.

a. They can be reinstalled after installing the new Broadcom drivers.

4) Disable/Pause any Antivirus and Threat-Protection scanners that can interrupt the Broadcom driver installation.

5) Uninstall the existing Broadcom drivers from Add/Remove Programs.

6) Reboot

7) If they started, Disable/Pause any Antivirus and Threat-Protection scanners that can interrupt the Broadcom driver installation.

8) Install the new Broadcom drivers

a. Double-click the Broadcom installer to extract the files to C:\Broadcom\w2k3_8.

i. 32-bit:   Bcom_LAN_12.4_W2K3_8_A02.exe

ii. 64-bit:   Bcom_LAN_12.4_W2K3_8_64_A03.exe

b. Navigate to C:\Broadcom\w2k3_8\Driver_Management_Apps_Installer

c. Double-Click Setup.Exe.

d. Follow the installation wizard to complete the installation.

NOTE: Using Device Manager to install the network drivers is not a complete installation of the Broadcom driver.
Both the Device manager driver AND the BACS software MUST be installed for the driver to operate correctly.

9) Reboot, if the driver requests.

10) Reinstall .Net Framework 2.0 SP2, 3.0 and 3.5 if either were installed.

11) Restore any Antivirus and Threat-Protection scanners that were paused during the driver installation.