Help required with some kit that i playing around with.

Compaq Deskpro EN Series Small Form Factor running Windows ME (quite well as it happens).
This is fittd with Netgear FA330/331 Fast Ethernet Card.

Old Nec Versa 550D Laptop running Windows 95 B, fitted with a Netgear FA410TX Fast Ethernet PCMCIA Card.

Both systems run fine are just used for messing around on, however when I try to network them together the laptop re-boots all on its own.

Ive tried a CAT 5 and UTP (crossover) and still does the same, the lights on the dongle, 100M stays lit and Link/Act stays solid but flickers every now and then (and it is every now and then).

If i run winipcfg i get mac address of card on laptop and thats it.

Both cards have updated drivers and the Compaq even connects to the broadband without a hitch.

Any Ideas folks

this is just a long shot but it sounds like the laptop is somehow not getting enough power to run the network card, it may be a good idea to try a different network card in your lappy, this happend to me once with a wireless card tried another and worked fine, im assuming it was a power problem

Very strange... No idea I'm afraid... the power issue sounds like the most likely one out of all of them...

You might want to check your power saving settings to see if that might be a possible cause... and even bios if you can get in...

Beyond that narry a clue... I guess a call to the support line for NEC if it still exists would be worth a shot... You never know.

Try re-installing TCP/IP, possible the stacks gone tits up.

You tried specifying the media type?

try setting them both to 100 Full-Duplex so they don't have to auto-negotiate - it could be that causing the problem.