Realtek built-in ethernet suddenly stopped working for no reason.

[Koniving]

No recent installs, nothing recently changed. Yesterday there was a power outage but I turned it back on and all was fine. This morning I start the computer and it warns me that Windows detected a major hardware change and I would have to reactivate windows. It finishes loading and fails to connect. Automatic troubleshooting tells me my network card doesn't exist.

It's built in, so I restarted. It tells me this time there are no drivers. Tried using the Realtek driver installation; "Cannot find a realtek network card."

Device manager does not list any problems, but neither does it list my Realtek ethernet card or even an unknown device.

Under hidden devices there's all kinds of network related stuff. None of it is my card or has a problem.

Saw a suggestion of making sure my Bios says Online LAN is turned on. It is, as is my USB ports, although initially those weren't being detected either until I changed USB ports for my headset and my usb external storage hard drive.

My computer absolutely will not detect the onboard card.

Computer info: Windows 7
Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 -- AMD 970
AMD Phenom™ II X4 970 CPU (4x 3.50GHz/2MB L2 Cache)
Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)
3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
1000 Watt -- CoolerMaster RSA00-AMBAJ3-US
And one AMD Radeon 6870 video card.
This is not a recurring problem, it's the first time.

 

[mauller07]

do a full cmos clear and see if it helps.

if not grab driver fusion and use it to clear any realtek network drivers on your pc. then grab the latest realtek drivers from their site and reinstall them if it re appears.

 

[Maxx_Power]

Your realtek problems are actually somewhat common on Gigabyte boards with Realtek NICs. They suddenly disappear and (usually) do not come back. There was some threads around the internet from just a few years ago on batches of premature failures of Realtek NICs on GB boards.

The obvious thing is, try that CMOS reset already suggested. If that doesn't do it, you may need to RMA the board entirely. Let me guess, your Realtek chipset has a model number of 8111E ?

 

[Koniving]

The number is what's given for the driver for my gigabyte motherboard, so yes. How do I do a cmos clear? Scratch that; just realized CMOS is the blue bios thingy.

 

[Koniving]

So... There seems to be no fixing my built-in Realtek ethernet. The CMOS "fail safe" settings has only brought back a banner for the motherboard. 🙁 I've placed an order for an ethernet card to replace it, and a wifi usb piece just in case.

 

[Maxx_Power]

So... There seems to be no fixing my built-in Realtek ethernet. The CMOS "fail safe" settings has only brought back a banner for the motherboard. 🙁 I've placed an order for an ethernet card to replace it, and a wifi usb piece just in case.

That's too bad... Are you sure you don't want to RMA the board to get a replacement ? Gigabyte does have a standard 3 year warranty.