# Computer doesn't recognize ethernet card or modem.



## grannygardner (May 4, 2005)

My computer has Windows XP loaded with all updates including SP2. It has an onboard ethernet card and a modem card. The computer was running fine yesterday morning and would go online with no problem. I shut the computer down and when I came back a couple of hours later it wouldn't connect to the internet. So far I've done the following with no results:

1. Cleared the BIOS and then restarted which reset the BIOS. I downloaded the updates for the BIOS on a second computer and uploaded them to the computer having the problem. 

2. Tried 3 different ethernet cards after turning off the onboard LAN. They each had the same results, computer wouldn't go online. 

3. Removed battery and left out for 4 hours. After replacing the battery, still can't connect to the internet. 

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

grannygardner said:


> My computer has Windows XP loaded with all updates including SP2. It has an onboard ethernet card and a modem card. The computer was running fine yesterday morning and would go online with no problem. I shut the computer down and when I came back a couple of hours later it wouldn't connect to the internet. So far I've done the following with no results:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## lharvey (Jul 1, 2003)

Agree with Gary

Connection issues, Always start on the outside and work in.

>Modem>Router>NIC

Never mess with BIOS settings.

Never remove the battery unless, like Gary said, you are seeing time issues and need to replace the battery.

Check your hardware to see if they are recognized.

Report back.

L


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## Labrat407 (Aug 24, 2007)

Don't forget the cables! If you have ones yu know work, swap them out. Animals, water, Pressue/bending, pulled or loose connectors, aPower surge can all damage cables.


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## grannygardner (May 4, 2005)

> How do you normally connect to the internet via a router or dsl modem? or dialup? If your using dialup what makes you think the ethernet isnt working, if your using ethernet what makes you think the modem is not working?



*I connect via DSL. The DSL is working as I'm able to connect to the internet with two other computers vis the router and modem.* 




> When you go into your device manager, do you see the devices? do you see unknown devices? Is your DSL,cable,router working? Maybe its the internet access thats not working


*When I go into the device manager the devices don't show up. *


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

from device manager scan the hardware again. If you still dont see anything install one of the other network cards then scan again.


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## grannygardner (May 4, 2005)

Gary in ohio said:


> from device manager scan the hardware again. If you still dont see anything install one of the other network cards then scan again.



I've tried three different network cards and neither of them show up.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Are there any cards in device manager that are shown as detected but unknown. Gosh lets see, dont use windows much, but think they will have yellow question mark next to it if I remember correctly. That means your drivers are screwed up. 

I wish people werent so afraid of linux. Pop in a live linux cd and boot from it, if linux detects the ethernet card/chip (linux has nearly universal support of ethernet cards), then the card is good and its a driver problem. 

If you do see the yellow question mark in windows device manager, you can delete the devices, then reboot and see if windows sees your ethernet. It should then either install proper driver or ask for your windows installation cd. Gotta love M$ since unless you bought very pricey retail version of windows install cd, no mainstream computer builder provides such anymore. The best you get is the a restore cd or restore partition usually and windows cant get driver off them as they are just restorable images, which means you have to restore windows from the restore cd/partition to get the drivers restored.

Hmm, though unless all your cards are identical, even without deleting current driver or unknown card, windows should detect the new different card (you can have more than one network or modem card installed at same time if you have enough available slots). Highly unlikely all your cards are dead. Just about gotta be a windows driver problem. Shame windows is such a royal pain to deal with anymore due to all the hurdles M$ sticks in customers way to protect their profits. At least up thru win2k, you could just easily reinstall from scratch when necessary. When I used win98 it was always easier to reinstall than spend hours diagnosing some obscure error that was probably from the operating system degrading anyways.


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## grannygardner (May 4, 2005)

This is a newly formatted hard drive. I used the HP disc that came with the computer and installed all the files that came with the computer when it was new. I had previously downloaded all updates and saved them to a CD. I installed them to this hard drive. When I try to install the driver for the onboard LAN it gets to 50% and stops and says _download complete_. After instation it still doesn't show anything in device managers.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

grannygardner said:


> This is a newly formatted hard drive. I used the HP disc that came with the computer and installed all the files that came with the computer when it was new. I had previously downloaded all updates and saved them to a CD. I installed them to this hard drive. When I try to install the driver for the onboard LAN it gets to 50% and stops and says _download complete_. After instation it still doesn't show anything in device managers.


Can you download the drivers needed on one of your other computers and burn them to cd or store them on usb key drive or something, then transport them to the problem computer? I am assuming these devices needed drivers not included in XP and when you reinstalled XP, you lost the necessary drivers. So the problem is getting them onto your hardrive somehow.

Drivers can be quirky to install. Sometimes there can be more than one for a particular device and one of the alternates works better.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

grannygardner said:


> This is a newly formatted hard drive. I used the HP disc that came with the computer and installed all the files that came with the computer when it was new. I had previously downloaded all updates and saved them to a CD. I installed them to this hard drive. When I try to install the driver for the onboard LAN it gets to 50% and stops and says _download complete_. After instation it still doesn't show anything in device managers.


I am confused, I though you said it was working a couple of days ago, So you reloaded the system and it stopped working? Well, thats a big piece of info that you left out. In that case you need to get the model number off the HP id tag, not the one on the front of the computer. Go to the www.compaq.com click on get support. Enter your product number and let the system find your drivers. 
I am betting you load CD didnt have the drivers and you will need to download and move to the new machine the drivers. I would download all the drivers and apply them as well. If there already there then they will not load, if they are needed they will load.


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## Mechanic Intern (Jun 10, 2007)

I speak from experience, and as such I'd just like to say that it also could be the motherboard. I had this problem when the PCI modem in our M$ computer dissapeared. I moved the modem over a slot, and it popped right back up (had to manually select the correct driver, as opposed to the generic driver windows loaded by default) and am still using it. It must have been a dead PCI slot (or a failing bus controller) that was stopping me. Just thought I'd throw my Â¢2 in here.


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## grannygardner (May 4, 2005)

Mechanic Intern said:


> I speak from experience, and as such I'd just like to say that it also could be the motherboard. I had this problem when the PCI modem in our M$ computer dissapeared. I moved the modem over a slot, and it popped right back up (had to manually select the correct driver, as opposed to the generic driver windows loaded by default) and am still using it. It must have been a dead PCI slot (or a failing bus controller) that was stopping me. Just thought I'd throw my Â¢2 in here.



Thanks for the info. I tried using another PCI slot and it now it won't let me install the software. :shrug:


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