Question Missing Ethernet Device in Device Manager ?

[Mo10Ko]

Hi, I just updated to Windows 11 after putting it off for basically as long as possible. I did a full clean install, and like usual I had the mobo drivers on a USB to install the wifi drivers. However, when I tried to install the ethernet driver, a command line just flashed and nothing happened. Nothing under the network section in setttings, and I double checked device manager, nothing there. There is actually no ethernet device there, not even under hidden items. I can see my wifi card and bluetooth, but nothing for ethernet. From what I can find, my mobo uses Intel i226-V, so I went to Intel to download the driver from there, but then the install tool says no intel network device detected.

Just going over things I have checked: Intel LAN Controller is on in BIOS, ipconfig /all says ethernet adapter bluetooth network connection: media disconnected but the description says the bluetooth device is there, adding/updating drivers and choosing the folder with the driver. If I missed any "obvious" things to check then let me know, but I guess I am just lost as to why there is no device at all for ethernet. I think back in the day I have dealt with something like this but that had the hidden code 45 device and I could see there was something. If anyone has any suggestions at all that would be great!

Specs:
9800X3D
ASUS B850i
RTX 3080
DDR5 8000 CL38

 

[Lutfij]

I did a full clean install
Installing the OS in offline mode? Manually installing all drivers in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator?

ASUS B850i

ROG STRIX B850-I GAMING WIFI | ROG Strix | Gaming motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global

ROG Strix B850-I Gaming WiFi offers AMD Ryzen 9000 support, PCIe 5.0, DDR5, WiFi 7, USB 20Gbps, ASUS AI Advisor and powerful cooling for top gaming performance.

rog.asus.com

Is this the motherboard you're working with? On that note, what BIOS version are you on for your motherboard?

 

[cruisetung]

post ipconfig /all output

 

[SkyNetRising]

There is actually no ethernet device there, not even under hidden items.
If anyone has any suggestions at all that would be great!

First you have to install chipset drivers.
Only then install lan drivers.
Download from motherboard manufacturer support site.
In chipset drivers section click on <Show All> and download/install latest AMD chipset driver.
(For windows 11 by default only AMD NPU driver is being shown in chipset section. You have to click on <Show All> , to reveal AMD chipset driver.)

ROG STRIX B850-I GAMING WIFI | ROG Strix | Gaming motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global

ROG Strix B850-I Gaming WiFi offers AMD Ryzen 9000 support, PCIe 5.0, DDR5, WiFi 7, USB 20Gbps, ASUS AI Advisor and powerful cooling for top gaming performance.

rog.asus.com

 

[Ralston18]

Yes: post the full results of "ipconfig /all". You should be able to copy and paste the results into a post without needing to retype everything.

As for networking: you mentioned both Ethernet (wired) and wireless.

Ensure that only one network adapter (either wired or wireless) is enabled on the system in question.

 

[Mo10Ko]

I did a full clean install
Installing the OS in offline mode? Manually installing all drivers in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator?

ASUS B850i

ROG STRIX B850-I GAMING WIFI | ROG Strix | Gaming motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global

ROG Strix B850-I Gaming WiFi offers AMD Ryzen 9000 support, PCIe 5.0, DDR5, WiFi 7, USB 20Gbps, ASUS AI Advisor and powerful cooling for top gaming performance.

rog.asus.com

Is this the motherboard you're working with? On that note, what BIOS version are you on for your motherboard?

Yeah, bypassnro in install and then run as admin on the setup exe file in driver download. Im on 0825 BIOS, which is behind but I normally dont do BIOS updates unless it is a known fix. Might be the case here

post ipconfig /all output

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : DESKTOP-6JBVTI9
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi 4:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : MediaTek Wi-Fi 7 MT7925 Wireless LAN Card #4
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : C2-BF-BE-38-6B-50
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi 5:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : MediaTek Wi-Fi 7 MT7925 Wireless LAN Card #5
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : C2-BF-BE-38-7B-40
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : MediaTek Wi-Fi 7 MT7925 Wireless LAN Card
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : C0-BF-BE-38-4B-70
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::acb:36ff:2842:c097%14(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.50.127(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, August 2, 2025 2:28:14 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, August 3, 2025 2:28:13 PM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.50.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.50.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 264290238
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-30-1F-8D-7E-C0-BF-BE-38-4B-70
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.50.1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : C0-BF-BE-38-4B-71
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

First you have to install chipset drivers.
Only then install lan drivers.
Download from motherboard manufacturer support site.
In chipset drivers section click on <Show All> and download/install latest AMD chipset driver.
(For windows 11 by default only AMD NPU driver is being shown in chipset section. You have to click on <Show All> , to reveal AMD chipset driver.)

ROG STRIX B850-I GAMING WIFI | ROG Strix | Gaming motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global

ROG Strix B850-I Gaming WiFi offers AMD Ryzen 9000 support, PCIe 5.0, DDR5, WiFi 7, USB 20Gbps, ASUS AI Advisor and powerful cooling for top gaming performance.

rog.asus.com

Yeah chipset is always the first one I install cuz I just save all the ones that I need on a usb so I dont need to install any internet driver first. Still nothing, maybe theres a way I can uninstall the chipset driver and restart?

Yes: post the full results of "ipconfig /all". You should be able to copy and paste the results into a post without needing to retype everything.

As for networking: you mentioned both Ethernet (wired) and wireless.

Ensure that only one network adapter (either wired or wireless) is enabled on the system in question.

Sorry can you elaborate on the network adapter thing? Should I not have wifi and ethernet active at the same time?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Yeah chipset is always the first one I install cuz I just save all the ones that I need on a usb so I dont need to install any internet driver first.
Still nothing, maybe theres a way I can uninstall the chipset driver and restart?

Are you sure, you have chipset drivers installed? And not NPU driver instead?
Anyway - reinstall chipset drivers.

 

[Ralston18]

Reference:

"Should I not have wifi and ethernet active at the same time?"

You can have both wired and wireless devices active on a network at the same time.

You cannot (should not) have a network device such as a computer using both wired and wireless at the same time via its' installed network adapters.

Likely to cause network conflicts resulting in interference and other issues.

If a wired connection is detected then the host system is likely to disable wireless.

Overall, using two network adapters of any sort (wired or wireless) within a computer is used for special circumstances: e.g. bridging.

As I understand your posts and circumstances bridging is not a requirement.

Looking for two enabled network adapters is one thing I look for in "ipconfig /all". There are other things in the results that are helpful with troubleshooting network/connectivity problems.

 

[bill001g]

I would first start with USB linux boot image. This is mostly to be sure there is not some strange setting in the bios that somehow turned off the ethernet port.
Linux tends to have all the common chipset installed so if it works you should be able to just test with the simple included browser. You might have to disable the wifi just to be 100% sure it is using the ethernet

What is very strange is that this does not just work without installing any extra drivers. With microsofts insistence you log into a microsoft account to even install windows and this is before they give you a chance to install any drivers they seem to have added support for the common chipset....just like linux has for years.

As you have alluded to when you can't even find the device in the device manager it tends to be a very basic problem. Asus has tons of junk in their bios. If you ran a linux test you at least to a point know it is not disabled or something silly. Unfortantly windows now has the ability to make bios setting changes. Mostly this is related to wake on lan type of stuff and other power options but generally for this to work the device has to at least exist in the device manager screens.

Maybe start all over with a windows install. Try to not install the the wifi drivers. I think there is still a command hack that lets you bypass the network requirements but microsoft keeps stopping these work arounds.

 

[Mo10Ko]

Reference:

"Should I not have wifi and ethernet active at the same time?"

You can have both wired and wireless devices active on a network at the same time.

You cannot (should not) have a network device such as a computer using both wired and wireless at the same time via its' installed network adapters.

Likely to cause network conflicts resulting in interference and other issues.

If a wired connection is detected then the host system is likely to disable wireless.

Overall, using two network adapters of any sort (wired or wireless) within a computer is used for special circumstances: e.g. bridging.

As I understand your posts and circumstances bridging is not a requirement.

Looking for two enabled network adapters is one thing I look for in "ipconfig /all". There are other things in the results that are helpful with troubleshooting network/connectivity problems.

Sorry if you missed it but I posted the ipconfig info above, if you can take a look that would be great. I definitely do not need both ethernet and wifi at the same time, and while wifi does work, I just wanted to figure out what is going on with my ethernet driver. As to your point about the system disabling wireless if wired connection is detected, that is normally the case, where it defaults to using ethernet, but in this case it showed that I was on wifi which is when I realized there was a problem.

I would first start with USB linux boot image. This is mostly to be sure there is not some strange setting in the bios that somehow turned off the ethernet port.
Linux tends to have all the common chipset installed so if it works you should be able to just test with the simple included browser. You might have to disable the wifi just to be 100% sure it is using the ethernet

What is very strange is that this does not just work without installing any extra drivers. With microsofts insistence you log into a microsoft account to even install windows and this is before they give you a chance to install any drivers they seem to have added support for the common chipset....just like linux has for years.

As you have alluded to when you can't even find the device in the device manager it tends to be a very basic problem. Asus has tons of junk in their bios. If you ran a linux test you at least to a point know it is not disabled or something silly. Unfortantly windows now has the ability to make bios setting changes. Mostly this is related to wake on lan type of stuff and other power options but generally for this to work the device has to at least exist in the device manager screens.

Maybe start all over with a windows install. Try to not install the the wifi drivers. I think there is still a command hack that lets you bypass the network requirements but microsoft keeps stopping these work arounds.

I did the bypassnro thing during the install which avoided having to connect to internet, and I did double check in the bios that the Intel LAN controller was enabled (I also disabled and re enabled just to check). Of course last resort is to just clean install windows again, but ideally I dont have to do that, plus the wifi does work so it is not a massive issue.

As for the linux boot image, could you explain or point me to somewhere on how to properly do this? I am not too familiar with linux. Thanks

 

[cruisetung]

Download Linux Mint Cinnamon edition and burn the iso file onto usb flash drive using Rufus and boot from it.

 

[COLGeek]

The power to booting into Linux from a USB drive (not actually installing) is to determine if you have a hardware issue.

 

[SkyNetRising]

If a wired connection is detected then the host system is likely to disable wireless.

This does not happen automatically. Additional software is required.
Laptops usually have such wired/wifi connection switching.

 

[Ralston18]

From "ipconfig /all":

- Disable IPv6

- Configure the DNS Servers to Google at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

- On the router, set the lease time to a week (versus the current one day setting). Technically does not make a difference. However, short lease times can be problematic.

Also ensure that network adapter is configured as "Auto" for Speed and Duplex.