Network is freezing my computer

Ok, I've tried everything to fix this problem, even formatting and while installing xp, it froze during the network setup section of the installation. It happens at random times and the only way I fixed it last time was by giving it to an IT consultant, he went to look at it and it had fixed itself, it's now happened again. I've switched ethernet cables, I've uninstalled my realtek driver, I've ever reinstalled bloody Norton and searched for viruses (finding none as usual). As soon as my comp turns on, it freezes then resets, if I remove the ethernet cable however it runs perfectly, then as soon as I put it back in, it freezes again. Any help on this situation would be greatly appreciated.

　(^^;(Freeze by NetWork? Very rare and interesting.)

Hi, calm down!

Specify your NetWork environs, using hub, etc.?

Also your PC specs and OS.

And what have you been doing mainly till then?

Also check the LED condition when it spins up.

Change the card and experiment it, if possible.

Check the bios wether the network-boot is disabled or not.

Im running off my server now, we're using a pretty poor 5 port hub, i havent tried playing around with the hardware as I haven't really got another network card to plug in, I've got a celeron 1.8ghz and 512meg of ram running xp. The thing is this has happened to me before, but it was because of an ogg vorbis driver I downloaded although to fix it all I did was delete every single audio codec I had and the problem was solved, and the last time it just randomly fixed itself as soon as an IT consultant turned it on.

For the moment, We can assume the cause is IRQ conflicting.

What are your NetWork Card and Sound Card?

And How they are installed, that is, Where are these put in the PCI slots? (Is there another card?)

At first, remove Sound Card, and experiment it.

My sound card doesnt really have anything to do with it, it was just a buggered driver I had earlier. My network card is a realtek card on a gigabit mother board.

Why can you assert that.

But when you remove the sound-card, and if that matter happens again, then you can say that it has nothing to do with it.

IRQ is bios-level settings which is not concerned with drivers.

Be more descriptive.

Realtec is one of the easiest card, standard, not so troublesome if not broken.

you say the system boots fine without freezing as long as you have a network card unplugged from the network. My first suggestion would be to get another network card. If you go to just about any large-scale department store (BestBuy, OfficeMax, Office Depot, Circuit City, etc.) you should be able to buy a new one, and return it (if necessary) claming that the card is broken. you might only get store credit for it, but at least you can use that for something else later. Try that because it sounds like it's possible the network card could have been damaged (electrical storm, power surge, etc.) even if you have a surge protector, it isn't impervious to everything. cards can be damaged just the same by having too little power sent to them just the same as too much, and surge protectors don't protect against that.

Yeah, it seems my good old network card was buggered, I just snaked a free one from somewhere so its working fine now thanks