Problem with Ethernet in Vista x86

xplag

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Currently, I have a very odd problem that consistently occurs. I have looked in forums, faqs, and manuals and cannot find another person with this problem.
To begin explaining my problem, my mobo is a MSI K9A2 Platinum
Right now, the problem occurs with the onboard Ethernet adapter. When I first turn on my computer (including turning off my power supply), the computer is unable to recognize drivers for the Ethernet Controller and prompts me to install drivers. Installing drivers at this stage does not work. If I do not install drivers and instead restart, I am able to use the internet fine (drivers are recognized after restart). After shutting down and starting after being able to use the internet (without turning off the PSU), my ethernet port is not even detected in Device Manager. Using SIW shows the onboard ethernet controller is disconnected. To once again have access to the internet, I must repeat steps 1 and 2 (turning off PSU, starting Windows, then restarting). If anyone knows whats going wrong, please help!!!
 
first off i am not totally familiar with your motherboard, but this problem sounds like others i have seen. If you have both onboard ethernet and an ethernet card then it is possible that the two are fighting each other trying to initiate. If you have a card its most likely better than the onboard, so go into BIOS and make sure you have onboard disabled. Or just take out the card if you have one and use the onboard. Also, visit the msi website and check up on your chipset and BIOS drivers. You might need to do some registry cleaning as well. Good luck.;)
 
may be a bios or mobo problem. have you made sure your bios is the latest revision? head to your motherboard manufacturer's website and download the latest firmware for your board.

next you need to make sure that you have the latest drivers for the network card. you should be able to get them from the same place since it's an onboard card. completely uninstall the old drivers (should be able to do this in device manager...you may also have to manually delete the driver files from your hardrive), reboot and then install the latest drivers when prompted.

if you do all of this and are still having problems, then you need to contact the motherboard manufacturer and have their support help you out. there may be known problems with some of their drivers and Vista that they can tell you about. If all else fails, you may have to return the motherboard. if you don't want to go through all that hassle, then you may just want to go out and buy an add-in network card, disable your onboard card in the bios, and install the new one.
 
hmm it would also be helpful to know if you are running 64 or 32 bit vista, or if your computer connects directly to the internet or if it connects through another gateway computer.
 
i have this exact motherboard and i have no issues running it with vista ultimate 64 bit. sounds like you either installed drivers incorrectly or your hardware is bad. I am leaning more towards you didnt install them correctly..... so here is what i would do. delete the driver for your network card and any files for it then go back and reinstall the drivers and try again.
 
extra clarification

First off, I only have the onboard, no other ethernet cards. Second, I'm currently using 32 bit Vista. And I've tried uninstalling/removing all driver files and reinstalling them. I switched from 64 bit to 32 bit because I though 64 bit Windows was the problem. Meh... I was hoping it wasn't hardware, but I'm thinking that's probably it.
 
yeah - if you've already done a full delete/reinstall, then there is a good possibility it is a hardware issue. if this is a new motherboard, i'd RMA it as quickly as possible. if it's out of warranty, then just disable the onboard ethernet in the bios, then head out to your local computer store (or click on the newegg link on the site <cough cough>) and get yourself an inexpensive gigabit network card. good luck!
 

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