ethernet driver failing to load

brav · #1 03-14-2005, 08:48 AM

----------------------------------
notes:
my ethernet adapter is an onborad one on my abit av8
my pc connects the the internet(broadband) through a firewall(smoothwall)
im using win xp pro sp2
i have norton av up to date
before this happened i was on the internet for an hour or two, played some counter strike source, checked my email, then i shutdown. i didnt insatll any new devices or any programs for over a week as far as i can remember so i dont know how this problem started
----------------------------------
when i started windows yesterday it loaded up as normal, but when i tried to go on the net nothing happened. so after about 2 hors of messing with cables checking my firewall etc i eventually went into device manager and saw there were 3 or 4
<!> listed and my ethernet port was one of them, so i uninstalled all of them(cant remember for sure but i think they were the human interface thing, a parallel port...).

when i rebooted all of them were fixed except for my ethernet connection.

i tried doing this a few times yet it still failed to load, looking at it in the case i can see the lights flashing yellow and the green light is on so i know there is power going to it. i tried disabling it in the bios and then reenabling it and reinstalling it, i event removed the driver from the system and reinstalled an old 1 which came with it when i got it, but it still didnt work

next i took out one of the nics in my smoothwall(which i know works) and put it into my pc but windows installs it properly and says you have to reboot but when i do the same thing again, it shows up in the device manager with a <!>.

1 thing i noticed is that it(both of them) showed up under unknown devices instead of network adapters...

i have a good few years of computer experience, but i dont know how to solve this one

the only thing i can think of is reinstalling winxp but that is a last resort which i dont want to do.

thanks for the help, and sorry about long post, i just wanted to get everything in!

pip22 · #2 03-14-2005, 01:36 PM

many people 'disable' the ethernet port if it comes already installed but is not currently required --- they do this to 'kill' the the annoying 'network connection not connected' icon nagging them in the system-tray. I wonder if perhaps you did this some time ago and forgot to re-enable it?

brav · #3 03-15-2005, 09:56 AM

no it was enabled as it was how i connected to my firewall. it was the only ethernet connection on my computer. i have tried disabling it and reenabling it etc but i still cant find a solution. system restore and checking services did help :~(

brav · #4 03-16-2005, 07:48 AM

just a quick note, in device manager it is under unknown hardware, which i think it should be under network adapters but there is no section for this, is there some entry missing in the reg possibly? i tried looking through regedit but i couldnt find anything about network adapers but im not too sure where to look and if it would be there

Gene K · #5 03-16-2005, 09:48 PM

Control Panel/Network Connections/If the ethernet [LAN] device is listed, right click it and select Repair to see if this will solve the problem.
Gene K

brav · #6 03-19-2005, 08:29 AM

when i go into network devices, it is empty

CaddyG · #7 03-23-2005, 10:20 AM

Hi I'm a New Member here and don’t mean to thread jack.. I have a machine on the bench with the exact same problem. After exhausting all the tricks I know I turned to this forum to see u guys working on it. I have already tried all that Brav has posted and am wondering if he resolved the issue. I don’t have a problem with reloading this machine, but I do like the challenge of repairing it.

brav · #8 03-24-2005, 06:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaddyG

I have already tried all that Brav has posted and am wondering if he resolved the issue.

no still no luck! i have this proble,m posted in about 4 different websites but no1 can figure out what to do.

the closest i have come to fixing it is when i go to safe mode and unistall the driver then reinstall it, the <!> is gone, but thats because windows doent load network drivers so when i go into safe mode with networking same problem again!

im just going to have to reinstall everything i suppose...

what mb(if using onboard ethernet) do u have?

just windering if there we have similar hardware

CaddyG · #9 03-24-2005, 04:08 PM

This is a Biostar M7VIG 400 with on board LAN (VIA Rhine II) I don’t think this is at all hardware related. I just finished a Format and Reload and all drivers were loaded correctly. Good Luck and let me know if you find out what caused this.

brav · #10 03-26-2005, 10:55 AM

i will do, im just putting back a reformat as i want to know how to fix it, but i spent te last few hours retrying everything!

my onboard is via velocity giganet(rhine I???)