On Board and PCIe Ethernet not working

[spyder09827]

I have an Issue with my Ethernet ports neither one of them work, I was first having issues with my on board Ethernet so I bought a Realtek PCIe Ethernet card. After I got everything installed, it worked fine for a few weeks but the same issue started again so I uninstalled the drivers and ran a virus scan just to be sure then I restarted my computer and it worked but only for a few weeks. After that I did a fresh install of windows but it's still happening. I tried to reinstall the drivers again but it only worked for a few weeks. While all this is going on I have tried my cord on other devices and it's fine, Ive tried a different wire on both ports to no avail. I have factory reset the router but still nothing, I've switched the port on the router but that didn't help. I have 3 other wired connections and they all function properly so I think it might be either my bios or a faulty motherboard.


Both network cards are RealTek
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 960 2GB
CPU: AMD FX8350 Black Edition
Ram: 8 GB
Motherboard: M5A78L-M/USB3

 

[anotherdrew]

You never really mention what issue is ... lag? disconnects? port not detected? etc

Are you using a cable directly from the computer to the router or does it go to a plug in the wall?

BIOS ... probably not
faulty motherboard ... maybe ... but less likely if network issues are the only ones you are having.

 

[spyder09827]

You never really mention what issue is ... lag? disconnects? port not detected? etc

Are you using a cable directly from the computer to the router or does it go to a plug in the wall?

BIOS ... probably not
faulty motherboard ... maybe ... but less likely if network issues are the only ones you are having.

it says cable disconnected even though its plugged in, device manager shows a realtek pci gbe network controller as functioning properly, Ive tried different cables and such as i said above. The cable is directly plugged to the router. If i do get a connection its completely random, it could last 5 minutes or 5 days. the only other problem is the audio taskbar button disappearing.

 

[anotherdrew]

When you installed the realtek network card, did you go into BIOS and disable the onboard ethernet port? I wonder if you having some kind of driver conflict between the two. Does your device manager show 2 network adapters or just 1?

 

[spyder09827]

When you installed the realtek network card, did you go into BIOS and disable the onboard ethernet port? I wonder if you having some kind of driver conflict between the two. Does your device manager show 2 network adapters or just 1?

I had completely forgot that the power went out and my BIOS had reset itself, I uninstalled the drivers and changed the BIOS and it seems to be working now. Can't believe I didn't catch that, thank you for you're help.

Oh I don't if it matters but there's only one realtek GBE controller.

 

[anotherdrew]

Just a heads up ... if your BIOS is resetting when the power goes out that is normally due to dead motherboard battery. They cost $2-$3 bucks to replace. Just remember to unplug your computer before digging around.

 

[spyder09827]

Just a heads up ... if your BIOS is resetting when the power goes out that is normally due to dead motherboard battery. They cost $2-$3 bucks to replace. Just remember to unplug your computer before digging around.

oh no it's a feature of my board, it has surge protection which I can either reset the BIOS or load it up and fiddle with the settings when the power comes back. I know enough about PC's that Ive built and customized my own. It's just that it had been so long since I put the card in that I forgot about disabling it. This actually is the first time I decided to post and when you said check the bios I kinda felt stupid for even bothering posting. I laughed at myself for having such a duh moment.

 

[spyder09827]

Hello, It's seems like disabling the on board LAN controller didn't work, my connection just dropped randomly as I was using my PC, I've tried a restart but it didn't help, do you have any idea?

 

[anotherdrew]

You know the lights on the Ethernet port? Normally a yellow one for activity and a green one for connection speed ... are they still lit up? If they are, then this is software related (probably) .... driver or something. If not it's hardware.

Remember there are lights on both the Ethernet card and your router. If one is lit and other isn't then I would guess the one not lit is faulty ... or we are in wacky land.

 

[spyder09827]

ok so... on the card the the green light is solid and the yellow light is off; on the router the the green light is off and the yellow light is blinking. Oh I forgot to say that it says my cable is unplugged but Iv'e tried another cable i own and get the same result and the cable in it now works with other devices

 

[anotherdrew]

Checking your owners manual for your motherboard, solid green means 1Gbps connection, but no orange light means no link. I'm not sure about the LEDs on your router since I don't know the model, but generally the blinking yellow is activity, but no green means 10 Mbps connection.

So ... definitely some weirdness. When you try other cables, do you get the same light pattern? What model router do you have? Are other LEDs on your router the same or different? If you move your cable to another port on the router, is the same or different?

Let us know.

 

[spyder09827]

Checking your owners manual for your motherboard, solid green means 1Gbps connection, but no orange light means no link. I'm not sure about the LEDs on your router since I don't know the model, but generally the blinking yellow is activity, but no green means 10 Mbps connection.

So ... definitely some weirdness. When you try other cables, do you get the same light pattern? What model router do you have? Are other LEDs on your router the same or different? If you move your cable to another port on the router, is the same or different?

Let us know.

I was actually using my PCI card because I disabled the on board per your advice but I will switch to just the on board and deactivate the PCI card to make this easier to troubleshoot. I will try everything you said with the on board and let you know.

 

[spyder09827]

Ok, the on board LAN has a problem all of it's own,now I remember why I bought the PCI card. There are no lights on it at all but the yellow light on my router is blinking, my computer says that the controller doesn't exist that deep sleep mode may be enabled to plug the cable when I install the drivers. I've tried using a new cord, removing the ram and cmos battery for a few minutes, nothing seems to fix it. Should I put my PCI card back in my PC?

My router is a Technicolor TC8717T. My port the right light is yellow and all other ports the left lights are green.

here is the user guide pdf for the router: https://www.timewarnercable.com/content/dam/residential/pdfs/support/internet/ModemUserGuides/technicolor-tc8717t-userguide.pdf

 

[anotherdrew]

I have never seen the deep sleep error message before, so I googled it. Lots of different solutions ... Reinstall windows (you did that), reinstall drivers (you did that), start computer with network cable unplugged (I bet you did that). The only thing left is hardware fault.

Is it possible the PCI card you bought also has a hardware fault ... sure, but unlikely. Especially in how it works and then doesn't work and then works again. Just sounds more like software (I could be wrong). I would:

1. In windows, go to device manager. Click view and click show hidden devices.
2. In the network adapter section find all the Realtek devices, right click and select uninstall device. In the popup box, check "Delete the driver software for this device"
3. Shutdown and restart into BIOS. Disable onboard LAN.
4. Shutdown, unplug the computer, and reinstall the LAN card. (if you unplug, will you have to go back into BIOS?)
5. Hopefully windows does not find any default drivers and you have install all new drivers from disk or USB.
6. Pray.

I am still stuck on the idea of some driver conflict because both the onboard and PCI card are Realtek. If you have $20 I might consider buying an Intel or Broadcom NIC (not cuz I hate Realtek ... 7 out of 8 computers in my house use a Realtek NIC). Especially if the windows finds drivers and automatically installs them.

Let us know.

 

[spyder09827]

I have never seen the deep sleep error message before, so I googled it. Lots of different solutions ... Reinstall windows (you did that), reinstall drivers (you did that), start computer with network cable unplugged (I bet you did that). The only thing left is hardware fault.

Is it possible the PCI card you bought also has a hardware fault ... sure, but unlikely. Especially in how it works and then doesn't work and then works again. Just sounds more like software (I could be wrong). I would:

1. In windows, go to device manager. Click view and click show hidden devices.
2. In the network adapter section find all the Realtek devices, right click and select uninstall device. In the popup box, check "Delete the driver software for this device"
3. Shutdown and restart into BIOS. Disable onboard LAN.
4. Shutdown, unplug the computer, and reinstall the LAN card. (if you unplug, will you have to go back into BIOS?)
5. Hopefully windows does not find any default drivers and you have install all new drivers from disk or USB.
6. Pray.

I am still stuck on the idea of some driver conflict because both the onboard and PCI card are Realtek. If you have $20 I might consider buying an Intel or Broadcom NIC (not cuz I hate Realtek ... 7 out of 8 computers in my house use a Realtek NIC). Especially if the windows finds drivers and automatically installs them.

Let us know.

I tried everything; it still didn't work, looking at my NIC, I realized that it was made by Rosewill, its a rc-400-LX but it uses realtek architecture. I tried the drivers from Rosewill, Realtek, and Windows; none of them worked. I think the card may be dead, not sure. So I will be buying a new card. It'll be a few weeks before I can get it, so, I'll update you then.