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Ethernet card not working?

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23 replies

by tardbag135

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i just built this brand new computer. it is running WinXP SP2 and is using a Gigabyte GA-EG45M-DS2H motherboard. It has onboard 10/100/1000 gigabit LAN card Realtek RTL8111. but the problem is the LAN card doesnt show up as an installed device in device manager. i installed the driver (thru setup), restarted, but no luck. no matter what i do, it doesnt show up. its enabled in BIOS. if theres anything else i should check, let me know. thank you for your help.

23 replies

by thechas

Look in Device Manager.
Are there any "Unknown Devices" ? Or any devices with yellow "?" or "!" ?

If so, one of those may be the network device. You will need to use the update driver option and point the installation wizard to the folder with the correct driver files.

Next, especially if there are no "?" devices, did you install the full chip-set drivers or just the network driver? Without the full chip-set driver installed, Windows may not even see the network controllers.

Chas

by tardbag135

no. i installed all drivers and there are no yellow question marks. is the chipset driver the SM bus controller? if so, yes. also i ran the intel INF update utility, which also says chipset drivers. do you think the motherboard is bad?

by oh smeg

That the M'Board is faulty.

Start off with opening the BIOS and looking under Integrated Peripherals make sure that the [b]On Board HW LAN is Enabled that Smart LAN is Disabled and Green LAN is enabled.[/b]

To enter the BIOS you press the Delete Key while the Post Screen or Gigabyte Logo is on the screen.

After checking/changing these settings press the ESC Key and scroll over to Save Settings and Exit press Enter and when the white window appears press enter again confirming that you wish to save the changes. Allow the system to start and look to see if it installs new hardware when Windows Opens.

At this point you [b]Do Not[/b] need a Network cable plugged in.

Also did you change any jumper settings before installing the M'Board in the case? If you did return these to where they where as you do not need to change any of these jumpers normally.

Col

by oh smeg

With this M'Board you can disable the LAN Hardware in BIOS.

If that is the case it is turned off and not available for Windows to see.

This may also be useful it is a application that can identify Unknown Devices and unlike Belarc Adviser it doesn't rely on the System Registry to find the hardware it looks directly at the hardware present.

http://tinyurl.com/2zv25t

Col

by tardbag135

well i installed an external video card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161238

a TV tuner:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815293002

and a WiFi card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16839121008

the ethernet worked the first time i installed XP. now it doesnt recognize at all. if it helps, here is my device manager:
http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=xzwmro2zom1&thumb=6

yes i did install the drivers once i got onto the desktop for the first time. all of them.

thanks for your help.

by willcomp

I suspect an IRQ conflict with one of the PCI cards (assume video card was installed initially). PnP and XP will attempt to share IRQs since there are only a few available after the mandatory ones. A NIC cannot share an IRQ, it must have full use of the interrupt.

Open Device Manager and view devices by connection. See if the NIC and another device are assigned the same IRQ.

To remedy, disable serial ports in BIOS (if possible) and remove PCI cards. Get NIC operable and then add PCI cards one at a time with reboots in between. Determine which card is the culprit. Install cards in different PCI slots when reinstalling. While doing all that, it's possible you may encounter a conflict between a PCI card and the video card.

PnP isn't called plug 'n pray for nothing :)

by thechas

Check out the details for that yellow "!" mark next to the PCIexpress bus. Odds are that your ntework adapter is hiding behind that PCI bridge and cannot be enabled until the conflict with the bridge is resolved.

As willcomp stated, it is likely that you have multiple devices attempting to share an IRQ that do not get along with each other.

I would also uninstall and physically remove both the TV Tuner and the WiFi adapter until you get the network card installed. As a general rule, I get all of the motherboard resources working properly before I start on plug-in cards.

Another thought, if you do not plan to use some ports, such as serial parallel and 1394, remove them from device manager and disable them in BIOS setup to free up resources for the rest of the system.

Also, how much RAM is installed? I hope between 2 and 3 GB.

Chas

by tardbag135

i have 4GB ram installed. i know i need a 64 bit OS, but i have 32 bit for now. XP MCE 2005 SP2. That yellow "!" when i open its properties says not enuf resources. so i will go into the bios and make those changes. right now in bios all parallel and serial ports are disabled. i need 1394 for my DV camera for editing video. ill pull out the unneccsary cards for now until i get this fixed. also one thing to note is that when i go to shut down, the STANDBY button is faded out. In most cases, this means the graphics driver hasnt been loaded. but it has. ive loaded the video driver for onboard and external graphics. maybe that needs more resources too. ill just have to wait and see. thanks for the tip.

by thechas

Thanks for the feedback.

It is always good to know when we help a peer get to the correct solution.

As to the RAM issue, just keep in mind that up to 1.5GB of your 4 GB of installed RAM will not be available for Windows to use.

Let us know if you get everything working, or need more assistance.

I work with systems that have bridged back-planes and as many as 5 plug-in cards that have their own PCI bus controllers. The exact sequence of plug-in card installation and the specific slot used has a big impact on how the different cards all share resources and work with each other.

Chas

by tardbag135

yay. i finnaly got it fixed. turns out it was the video card at fault. is there ANY POSSIBLE WAY that i can use that card? i paid 100+ dollars and dont want it to collect dust doing nothing.

Another question...will my integrated intel G45 video controller be able to handle:

- Movie on one screen (VGA)
- standard computing & internetting (DVI)

i have both ports and wanted to take advantage of 2 screens. can that handle it? i sure hope it can. thanks to all for the responses. its been very helpful.

by willcomp

Where did that come from? Do I need to get my eyes checked?

by hal 9000

So I didn't bother replying because what you aid to do is the correct thing to do.

I did however like the fact that the OP said that the RJ45 Port isn't working and then conveniently forgets to add anything about any plug in Cards on th M'Board. The face that it's fully populated doesn't make a difference I suppose.

Now I know that I'll have to find another SCSI interface for that Crystal Ball of mine.

Col

by rob miners

sheil be right. :p

Some people even add one card at a time. ;)

by willcomp

that it would have been nice to know that NIC stopped working after adding PCI cards en masse.

That's why we have to ask questions. At least we got responses on this one which is not the norm.

Now I'll let you 2 from Down Under carry on.

by willcomp

I was questioning where that piece of information came from. Charlie and the questioner must have a private conversation going on.

And, of course, I was on target :) What else did you expect?

by thechas

Follow the fourth link in the PCI card details post and you will see the screen capture that shows the yellow "!".

No magic or side conversations.

It did take a few clicks to get to the image on the hosting site.

As I recall from the original post, this was a re-install of Windows. Odds are the first time around the cards were added after the base system was up and running.

I agree that it is nice when we get response back that help us narrow down the problem.

Have a great day,

Chas

by willcomp

I just flat overlooked that link since it was in a list of cards. I'll try to recalibrate my old eyeballs.

by willcomp

From mobo manual:

Dual Display Configurations:
This motherboard provides three ports for video output: DVI-D, HDMI and D-Sub. The table below shows the supported dual display configurations.

Dual Display
Combination Supported or Not
DVI-D + D-Sub Yes
DVI-D + HDMI No
HDMI + D-Sub Yes

I recommend this sequence if you want to use ATI video card.

Disable serial port and parallel port in BIOS Setup freeing 2 IRQs. An adapter is required to use the ports. Assign IRQ4 to PCI Slot that will be used for wireless adapter (see page 57 in manual).

Shutdown --> remove all cards --> reboot

Uninstall involved drivers including NIC driver

Reboot --> install NIC driver --> shutdown

Install video card --> boot --> install video driver --> check IRQ assignment for card -->shutdown

Install tuner card --> boot --> install driver --> check IRQ assignment for card --> shutdown

Install wireless card --> boot --> install driver --> check IRQ assignment for card

Stop at any point where there is an IRQ conflict with any of the cards. All those cards and the NIC require a dedicated IRQ.

by tardbag135

between the 2 video cards (onboard intel G45 chipset) and this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161238

which do you think is better? to tell you the honest truth, i think the G45 outperforms the external one, my computer runs much faster with the G45 and playing HD games like quake 4 and the new call of duty dont lag at all with onboard video but with external video lags. (slightly) im not sure why, but thats just how it is. please let me know what your opinion is. thanks.

PS. you would think external video processing would help out the CPU but it doesnt appear to work out that way.

by thechas

The problem these days with PCI video cards is that the standard PCI bus data transfer speed is just too slow to take advantage of the GPU speed and performance. You cannot get the data to the card fast enough for the GPU to process it at full speed.

All of the high performance video cards are now on the 16X PCI Express interface.

One reason that your on-board video is working well for you is that you have enough system resources to support it. Some of that upper 1GB of RAM is being used by the video card. Newer chip-sets and dedicated on board GPU chips have taken most of the performance issues out of the on-board video systems. Generally speaking, unless you are playing high end video games or doing other graphics intensive tasks, the better on board video systems have all the performance you need.

Chas

by tardbag135

well actually the Smart LAN cant be enabled/disabled -- it more like a diagnostic utility. the Green LAN (when enabled) doesnt help becuz it causes LAN to not show up in Windows. when disabled, works perfectly fine.

I left the jumpers alone. i didnt have any reason to change them. thanks for the help. my PC is back up to top notch! :)

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