Windows 2000 Small Business server Network Issue

Hi,

Dont know if this is the right place to post this, but i could not find a better place to make this post.

I`m having a major problem with the server at my workplace, We are running on a (HP Netserver E800) Windows 2000 Small Business server (SP4) I`m not an administrator of the network, but i have some experience with networks.

A little history:

There was installed a new NIC on the server, It was working fine for a couple of days, then we tried to start AutoCAD on one of the clients but it would not authorize the program (some kind of network license i assume).

So we tried:

We restarted the server, when we tried to start it up again the system halted on the start up at "preparing network connections", took about 4hrs for the system to get up. We guessed that the fault was from the new NIC, so we removed it, and enabled the old NIC again. The NIC is shown on the "Device manager" Says it`s working fine, BUT no network service has started (cant manually start either), cant find the Domain, cant enable the DNS service.

When i look at the Network and Dial-up Connections folder there is no connections there. Completely blank.

Tried to work on the system, but many changes requires an restart and it takes ages to start.

Been "Googeling" it for tips or if anyone have had the same issue, but cant seem to find anything that would help.

What i haven't tried:

- Checked if the Network Connections service is running (something i found searching google)

- Restore of the system (we took a backup of the system before we changed the NIC`s) Old tape discs so they might get corrupted.


Would like to know if anyone know what can cause the problem, or have any ides of what we can try or at least check.

If you need anymore information just ask, i will try to give you the information that you need.

Best Regards
Øyvind Solem