Question Realtek onboard ethernet and PCI NIC simultaneously ?

[jimzzzak]

I have a pretty good computer with the following specs:

Gigabyte Z790 UD AC motherboard
i9-13900
64 GB DDR5
Windows 10 Pro
RTX 4080

I just got fiber internet recently.

One day I noticed that the computer was connecting over Wifi. Upon investigation, the Realtek ethernet controller was not visible in Windows option. It was available under hidden devices in Device Manager but I couldn't get it to become unhidden and reactivate.

So I uninstalled the device and restarted. That Realtek ethernet controller was then completely invisible. I tried reinstalling the driver from Gigabyte, TCP/IP reset, and resetting the network settings in Windows. Nothing.

So I popped in a $25 Realtek PCI card. It worked fine. Great speeds.

Then I noticed something strange. The original motherboard Realtek ethernet controller was fully visible. And indeed, when I plugged in the cable, it worked fine.

However, I assumed that a separate NIC would work better so I just kept using the newly purchased PCIe card.

Until....

Just as mysteriously as the first controller stopped working, so did this one. Boom. Gone. Invisible to Device Manager completely. And when I pulled in the ethernet cable, no lights.

Fortunately, the original motherboard controller continues to work.

But my question is "what the heck?"

This is insane the way I have keep chasing ethernet.

Is the new ethernet card attempting to use the same driver unsuccessfully? However, remember at first, the two controllers seemed to co-exist happily.

At least now I have a backup USB to ethernet dongle if the remaining controller decides to hide again while hopefully someone that reads this can give me an explanation and possibly a fix for this strange problem.

Happy Holidays.

JAZ

 

[dwd999]

When you decided to use a separate nic you would normally turn off the internal nic in your bios and also any wifi options that might need to be turned off.

 

[jimzzzak]

I mentioned that when I installed the NIC, the motherboard controller was not visible or functional.

The motherboard controller only "reappeared" once I had the NIC in. If the MB controller had been turned off, I would not have discovered that it was functional again.

I realize this is somewhat circular logic.