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NIC keeps going 'disabled'

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14 replies

by pharus

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I lost the on-board network card due to lightning and installed another PCI NIC. I disabled the on-board NIC in the BIOS. Every now and then the new network card will be in 'disabled' mode under Windows XP. Has anyone experienced this before and is there a solution of stopping it from going 'disabled'?

14 replies

by cg it

disabled in XP means no continuity between connection points. Could be the PCI card rather doubt that though. Could be the cable. could be the ethernet connection on the other end.

Do the standard troubleshooting. Replace the hardware items with known good items. If the trouble persists, then start checking software configuration.

by pharus

Not a hardware problem but an XP software problem as referred to in the question.

by pharus

Not a hardware problem but an XP software problem as referred to in the question.

by mcharney

XP, all versions, has a default setting of turning the NIC off to "conserve power". Why you would want this in a network environment I don't know. To fix this Open the Device Manager, and double click teh NIC card in the list. You should see a Power Management Tab. On this tab you will find a button that says Allow computer to turn this device off to save power. Un-check this and then close the device manager. I would suggest a reboot at this point to make sure the NIC come back on and is re-activated correctly.

by pharus

The power-save option was enabled on the NIC. I unchecked it. Why Microsoft would include such an option is really beyond me. But then, they are now calling bugs in their software "Undocumented features"...

by pharus

The power-save option was enabled on the NIC. I unchecked it. Why Microsoft would include such an option is really beyond me. But then, they are now calling bugs in their software "Undocumented features"...

by bitbyte989

Could be the PCI slot that you installed the new NIC card was also damaged by lightning. Try moving it to a new PCI slot and see if that helps. If not, then modify your device settings in device manager, and disable the on-board NIC in all profiles, and see if that prevents it from switching back and forth from enabled to disabled.

by pharus

Not a hardware problem but an XP software problem as referred to in the question.

by pharus

Not a hardware problem but an XP software problem as referred to in the question.

by jonny memonic

All those are good answers i would say if you have the option to change memory allocations that would something you could try changing to make sure it is not conflicting.

by pharus

Not a hardware problem but an XP software problem as referred to in the question.

by pharus

Not a hardware problem but an XP software problem as referred to in the question.

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