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Onboard lan requires NIC

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8 replies

by jenee.molyneux

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I have seen this problem on two different PCs and the fix was the same for both (one case two PCs networked and other case PC connected to ADSL modem via ethernet cable). One PC has XP Home SP2 and other has XP Pro SP2.
In both cases the network stopped working. Installed a new NIC card and tried network on card but would not work. Changed ethernet cable back to onboard lan and network works fine (NIC card still installed).
Does anyone know what would cause the network to suddenly stop and why having a NIC installed but not used, fixes the problem.

8 replies

by hal 9000

Most likely by installing another NIC you have updated the On Board LAN Drivers and cured the problem for yourself.

If after you remove the NIC the LAN stops working again you need to look in the Computer Management to see what is going on with the LAN Port and you'll most likely need to update its drivers as well.

Just one thing to remember here if you have an On Board Gigabite LAN you'll need to use a Gigabite NIC as you can not mix a Gigabite and 10-100 T Base and have any of them work.

Col

by jenee.molyneux

I don't believe it is a driver issue as on one of the PCs, the onboard lan had been working fine and the motherboard failed. A new motherboard was installed with all the latest drivers. The lan worked for about 10 minutes then failed.

by statykserver

What I have seen is that when a pc gets internet directly from a cable/dsl modem they sometimes tie it into the mac id of the network card itself so that is probably why the new network card won't work with it. As for your onboard lan card ... have you tried turning off the power management for that device under the device manager? That might solve that problem for you.

Another option is to get a cable/dsl modem with a built in switch (around $40) and they can usually clone the mac id of your network card plus you can connect other systems, ps2, and/or laptops to it all through one connection.

by jenee.molyneux

In the case of the adsl router, another adsl router/switch was tried and did not work either. The isp tried to ping both the adsl modems and could not get a response. He was convinced both modems had failed. Both modems worked fine when the NIC was installed and onboard lan used.

by statykserver

Well that just doesn't make sense to me. The only other viable option I see is that your motherboard is shot.

by jenee.molyneux

Considering one instance happened on a brand new motherboard, I don't think it is the motherboard. Both PCs that were affected are very different (AMD and Intel) and everything works perfectly fine.

by thekandiman

I see two possible explanations to this based on the supplied info. You mentioned that ISP tried to ping 2 seperate modems and could not. This indicates a break in the line between the ISP and the end-point (your modem) since the modem sits in front of the router or NIC. Of course, the ISP would be unlikely to admit this because it makes them look bad.

The second possibility is a problem with the TCP/IP stack. Installing a new device reloads the stack from the windows file protection cache using the default settings. This could be caused by a download manager or speed tweak program.

by jenee.molyneux

I could possibly accept that installing a new NIC card reloads the TCP/IP stack however, that does not explain why neither the network or adsl modem will work on the new nic card but will now work on the onboard network facility.

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