Ethernet Not Recognising

[TechUp]

Hi everyone,

Having a problem with a desktop Windows 7 64bit machine

It will not recognize a Ethernet cable (get network logo with red cross)
First thing I tryed was updating the drivers directly from the motherboard website (Gigabyte GA-H61M-D2-B3) for the onboard LAN (This is what the windows troubleshooter said it could be)
The device shows under network adapters under device manger fine with no errors and the correct driver version

I then tryed a system restore - again with no luck

I then disabled all Anti virus and firewalls

I did a Malwarebytes scan to perhaps see if it was virus?

I booted into safe mode with networking and still no connection

ipconfig dosnt even show a LAN adapter?

I made sure no settings in the BIOS had been changed - nothing stood out to me anyway


I then decided to buy a external PCI express ethernet card
I installed the drivers for this and disabled the onboard card via device manager

Still no ethernet connection


Would I be right in assuming this could be a windows issue?

 

[Deleted member 13571]

Honestly, I'd try booting into a linux-based liveCD (ubuntu or the like) and just double-check it's not a hardware issue. Another silly question: did you try multiple ethernet cables and ports on the router?

You just want to make sure it's not anything external to the system under test.

 

[TechUp]

I run Ubuntu and the external PCI Express Ethernet card which I installed does work. I have the Onboard LAN disabled in the bios to achieve this though

Is there something in windows I need to change so it dosnt look for the Onboard LAN and instead just used the card I installed

 

[Romaniac]

It should just be able to detect the card, and use it.

You can try disabling the built-in LAN adapter, under device manager. Right click> disable.

But if you have on-board LAN disabled in BIOS, then it should not be enabled under device manager.

 

[TechUp]

Yeh your right the onboard LAN dosnt show in device manager after disabling it in the BIOS so it should be no conflicts with the external card.

This one has me puzzled

 

[Martyn]

Yeh your right the onboard LAN dosnt show in device manager after disabling it in the BIOS so it should be no conflicts with the external card.

This one has me puzzled

If it doesn't work in Windows but does with a Linuxlive cd I would say a corrupt Windows tcp/ip protocol stack. I think there is a repair option in D7 or one of the other utilities.

If not this is from Microsoft's site

Use a manual method to reset TCP/IP for Windows Vista and Windows 7
Note This section is intended for advanced computer users. If you are not comfortable with advanced troubleshooting, ask someone for help or contact Support. For information about how to contact Support, see the Microsoft Help and Support contact information Web site:
http://support.microsoft.com/contactus

The reset command is available in the IP context of the NetShell utility. Follow these steps to use the reset command to reset TCP/IP manually:1.To open a command prompt, click Start and then type CMD in the Search programs and files.
2.Right-click CMD.exe icon in Programs and choose Run as administrator.
3.When the User Account Control box pop up, click Yes.
4.At the command prompt, copy and paste (or type) the following command and then press ENTER:
netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt
Note If you do not want to specify a directory path for the log file, use the following command:
netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt

5.Reboot the computer.
When you run the reset command, it rewrites two registry keys that are used by TCP/IP. This has the same result as removing and reinstalling the protocol. The reset command rewrites the following two registry keys:

SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\
SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DHCP\Parameters\

To run the manual command successfully, you must specify a file name for the log, in which the actions that netsh takes will be recorded. When you run the manual command, TCP/IP is reset and the actions that were taken are recorded in the log file, known as resetlog.txt in this article.

The first example, c:\resetlog.txt, creates a path where the log will reside. The second example, resetlog.txt, creates the log file in the current directory. In either case, if the specified log file already exists, the new log will be appended to the end of the existing file.

 

[bertie40]

If I've understood correctly, you have given up with the onboard LAN connector, and are concentrating on the addin Ethernet card.

It wasn't clear that with the Linux disk, whether or not the onboard LAN was recognised. You only mentioned the addin.

I agree resetting the top stacks is probably the way to go, but I would remove that card first, and re-enable the onboard LAN in bios and within device manager.

THEN rerun the Linux disk and if ok, perform the tcp reset.

Did anyone say "d7 to the rescue"?
Oh....., just me then.

Regards.

 

[TechUp]

Hi Martyn I forgot to mention I did try this Microsoft method early on (before putting in the external ethernet) thank you though

Hi Bertie I did try the on-board while in Ubuntu but it didn't work, but as I said the other card did work but still not in windows even after Martyn's tcp/ip cleanup.

I am about to bite the bullet and re-install windows as I have spent way to much time on this machine already and still haven't really ruled if its hardware or software

 

[brandonkick]

First off, and not to be funny, but you should verify that the cable is working correctly.

Can you verify, by plugging the ethernet cable into another device, that the cable and router are both working correct?

Secondly, have you properly installed the PCI add in card with the correct drivers? Rebooted the machine after installation? Can see the card properly installed in the device manager?

If the answers to all of those questions are yes, then you have a major software issue. Booting up a live linux disk should allow you to use the built in ethernet just fine. You may end up nuking and paving this one.