Ethernet not working.

[Fuzziekiwi]

Hi, I am currently trying to fix a friends' PC.

She said that all of a sudden while she was browsing the internet it just stopped working. Upon inspection, it said drivers were not installed.

As a background, the ethernet card (their onboard ethernet port stopped working, so I replaced it with a TP-Link TG-3269, and was fully functional for a year until this week.

I troubleshooted by doing these following things:
- Disable and re-enable in device manager (it was not showing under the adapters section in the Network and Sharing Center)
- reseat PCI card in the same slot
- Uninstall the driver, restart PC, and the driver reinstalled itself, but still had the same problem
- Uninstall driver, install driver, restart
- Tried a different PCI ethernet card, with the same exact issue and following all the same steps as above
- System restore
- Disabled onboard Ethernet through the BIOS

PC is running Windows 7 64-bit

What are some other things that I could do to help solve this problem/any solutionis?
The only thing I could think of that I didn't do was switch the card to another PCI slot.

 

[SchizTech]

Upon inspection, it said drivers were not installed.

What said that? Also, this makes unclear what you did in the device manager - if the driver wasn't appearing what did you disable/enable or uninstall?

Anyway, the next step to try would be a different PCI slot. It may be worth a shot to reset the BIOS also (unplug from power and pop off the little round button battery for a minute or so)

 

[SgtScream]

I had a very similar situation at work. Luckily the computers were still under warranty, but I finally found out it was the power strip that powered both the workgroup switch providing network connectivity and the computer, as well as the lighting system for my desk. It ended up being the desk lighting system causing some sort of power surge was plugged into the same power strip. As soon as I connected most of these devices to a separate power strip, it stopped happening. I bet your buddy isn't in the exact scenario I was in, but this might help shed light on a possible power issue he might be subject to, which is rendering his nic cards inoperable. Good luck to you.

 

[Fuzziekiwi]

Upon inspection, it said drivers were not installed.

What said that? Also, this makes unclear what you did in the device manager - if the driver wasn't appearing what did you disable/enable or uninstall?

Anyway, the next step to try would be a different PCI slot. It may be worth a shot to reset the BIOS also (unplug from power and pop off the little round button battery for a minute or so)

Device manager gave me that. It wasn't appearing under Network and Sharing Center's adapter settings, but it would appear on device manager with a yellow exclamation point saying the driver wasn't installed/properly installed.

 

[SchizTech]

OK, thanks for making that clear. Let me know what happens in a different slot, or after a BIOS reset.

 

[Fuzziekiwi]

OK, thanks for making that clear. Let me know what happens in a different slot, or after a BIOS reset.

Will try it out, thanks for the feedback.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Did you try the Ethernet card in a known working computer? One would think if the on-board Ethernet is not working, I'd be leaning towards a failing motherboard.

-Wolf sends

 

[Fuzziekiwi]

OK, thanks for making that clear. Let me know what happens in a different slot, or after a BIOS reset.

Did you try the Ethernet card in a known working computer? One would think if the on-board Ethernet is not working, I'd be leaning towards a failing motherboard.

-Wolf sends

Okay so I went over again today, and took one of the wifi cards with a PCI Express x1 and put into that slot since the mobo only has one pci express x16 slot. The wifi card worked in the x1 slot.

Again, I tried the ethernet card in the x16 and in device manager it said "Device could not start".

My friend ended up having an extra wifi card so I put that in there and it worked fine in the x1 slot. In order for that card to work I couldn't just install it using the exe alone, I had to install it using device manager.

Is it safe to assume the x16 slot is dead? Could it be a driver issue still?

 

[Wolfshadw]

Ok... I'm a little confused here.

You said the Ethernet card you got was the TP-Link TG-3269, correct? If so, this is a PCI card and not a PCI-E card. It shouldn't even fit within a PCI-Ex16 slot and it certainly won't work from there.

-Wolf sends