Where'd my network card go!?

August 11, 2009 5:33 PM

My computer can't find its NIC, any ideas?

I used to connect to the internet via CAT-5, as God intended, but for a year or so I've been using a PCI wireless card. Reception in the current location is terribly, though, so tonight I took a couple hundred feet of Ethernet cable and plugged myself directly into the router.

I plugged the other end into a ethernet port, and the little green light came on. However, once I disconnected from the wireless network, that was it, no further connection.

The Device Manager only lists one NIC--the wireless one. I turned on "View Hidden Devices", but it still didn't list it.

I went into BIOS and turned on "Integrated LAN RAM"--I have no idea what that means, but it did not make my network card suddenly appear. At this point, I ran out of ideas. Any further suggestions?

Motherboard is Biostar NF61S/V Micro AM2, and I'm 80% certain that I used to have a wired connection to this machine--is there some sneaky way that I disabled and then hid my card?

posted by Squid Voltaire to computers & internet (13 answers total)

What happens if you physically remove the PCI network card?
posted by Cyrano at 6:07 PM on August 11, 2009

Let me see if I understand the situation.

Your computer has two network adapters. One is the PCI wireless card that you're currently using for network access. The other is the Realtek RTL8201CL PHY- Integrated 10/100 network adapter that is built-in to your Biostar motherboard. However, this interface doesn't seem to be working.

If the Realtek adapter isn't listed under "Network Adapters", and there's not anything in Device Manager listed as an "Unknown Device" then likely the onboard adapter is dead. There's likely a setting in the BIOS to enable and disable it, but if it's presently set to enabled and Device Manager doesn't even have a trace of it, it's likely dead.

You can order a PCI ethernet adapter for seriously like $10 from a site like newegg.com.
posted by kbanas at 6:16 PM on August 11, 2009

Let me reiterate - it would take some doing to "hide" the adapter from Device Manager. If it's not showing up at all (not even as an unknown device), something has gone seriously amiss. You could *try* running the "Add new hardware wizard.." but I'm fairly certain that won't yield anything.
posted by kbanas at 6:19 PM on August 11, 2009

So the ethernet port lights up, but doesn't appear under Device Manager.

You've checked and double checked your BIOS settings to make sure it's enabled...

And you've made sure there is no "Unknown Device" which needs a driver in Device Manager...

I dunno. It's rare for onboard nics to die, but it does happen.

I would download the latest driver package and install that. Sometimes these come in self extracting exes which run a wizard and install the driver on their own - in other words they find it for you.

One other option: download one of the bootable Linux images, burn that, boot from it, and see if Linux can see your nic. If so, then the problem lies in Windows.
posted by wfrgms at 6:33 PM on August 11, 2009

It's rare for onboard nics to die, but it does happen.

Not that rare - I used to see it all the time, particularly with Realtek NICs (although that may just be because the vast majority of onboard NICs are Realtek).

The other thing that comes to mind is this: is the PCI wireless NIC also Realtek? I remember one version of these from a few (maybe 3~4?) years ago which would steadfastly grab the same IRQ & I/O addresses as the onboard NIC, regardless of PCI slot, driver version & settings, BIOS settings, etc. It seemed to be a bug in the BIOS of the PCI NIC. This effectively masked the on-board NIC from the OS; the only thing that ever reported itself was the PCI card.

Have you tried pulling the PCI card?
posted by Pinback at 7:09 PM on August 11, 2009

I have seen this problem with on-board NICs and it is usually because the driver was never installed as part of the original set-up (sometimes preventing Windows from even seeing the device, although this should never happen), although it sounds like you have had the NIC working in the past. Try downloading the drivers from the motherboard manufacturer and installing them. If that fails, pull the wireless card and try again, as suggested by Pinback.
posted by dg at 7:27 PM on August 11, 2009

Also worth booting from a Linux live CD to see if the NIC is active in a fresh OS install.

In my experience, unlike onboard sound and video which never fail, onboard NICs die pretty often.
posted by Chuckles at 7:39 PM on August 11, 2009

I've seen wonky onboard NICs come good after a real (unplug the mains cable or switch off at the wall socket) power cycle.
posted by flabdablet at 3:26 AM on August 12, 2009

dg: "[...]although it sounds like you have had the NIC working in the past. Try downloading the drivers from the motherboard manufacturer and installing them."

Yeah, that's what I'd try, too - even if the NIC was used in the past the drivers might not have been re-installed after a new OS / new windows version had been installed.
posted by PontifexPrimus at 5:24 AM on August 12, 2009

Right click on your network connection icon in the taskbar and select repair or diagnose.

If that fails then in the device manager - write down the name of your NIC - (google the name + drivers if something goes wrong later). Right click the NIC, and click uninstall. Windows should reinstall the driver automatically, if not reboot. If nothing then google for the driver.
posted by glenno86 at 6:04 AM on August 12, 2009

glenno86, the issue is that Windows has forgotten that the NIC exists at all. There is nothing to right-click on, either in the taskbar or the device manager.

Squid Voltaire, you can find out whether Windows ever knew about that NIC as follows:

1. Open a cmd window and enter the following two lines:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
devmgmt.msc

This should bring up a Device Manager window. Turn on the "show hidden devices" option in the View menu. If Windows has ever seen your NIC, it should now show up with an appropriate collection of this-doesn't-work emblems attached.

Fastest way forward, though, is going to be booting a Linux live CD as Chuckles suggests.
posted by flabdablet at 5:28 PM on August 13, 2009

Wow, you guys are awesome, and fast! I didn't get a chance to try any of the suggestions until just now, but that was amazing.

As it happens, installing the drivers was all I needed to do. Who knows why it was missing, or why Windows wasn't showing it to me, but I'm writing to you now via a sleek, speedy ethernet connection!
posted by Squid Voltaire at 6:27 AM on August 18, 2009

Excellent!
posted by dg at 6:42 AM on August 18, 2009