[mara-]

Hi,

Two days ago, my Asus switch died. I replaced it with new. Since then I'm having very strange problems with my network card. Sometimes it will work, sometimes it will not. I need to keep rebooting until I get connection. Simply, network card does not start at all (LED indicator is off). Card is Atheros L2 Fast Ethernet 10/100Base-T Controller, integrated on my board (model in my signature).
First I thought that it is some problem with Vista, and after trying to fix it in all possible ways I could think off, I decided to do a clean install of Vista. After clean install, I just installed latest drivers for network card, which I used before this problem. Problem still exist.

Now, I would like to know, if this could be a hardware problem? Is it possible that switch, when died, damaged my network card? And is it possible, that only card is damaged, and rest of my motherboard is fine (I did not notice any other problem for now)?

Also, my cousin is having similar problem. He can't get connection at all. He just keeps getting warning of Limited Network Connection. I'm planing to reinstall Windows XP on his computer, just to be sure if it is software of hardware problem too, on his computer. Since I found some malware on his computer and Security Center does not work at all, I'm thinking that it might be software problem, but I will know for sure tomorrow, when I do reinstall.

I would like that somebody comment my text in bold. Thanks in advance.

Cheers

[puntoMX]

A network card will cost you less than 4€ so i would buy one and test it, it always comes in handy .

[mara-]

Yeah, I know, that is not a problem. I 'm just wondering if that could happen. And I'm also having problem with slots in motherboard. My graphic card covered one slot and in other two is my tv card and sound card. But, I'll remove TV card, since I don't use it much. And here card ittle expensier, 7,5 €, but again, it's not problem, I can buy and test it. Thanks for reply.

Cheers

This post has been edited by mara-: 30 May 2009 - 02:55 PM

[puntoMX]

I've seen the problem before, even on my own system as it now. It' has 2 onboard NICs and one stopped being recognized but after some weeks it's back up again. It's must be something with a charged circuit and you should discharge that circuit or wait till the charge leaks away. Normally it can be done by just grounding the board without the PSU and battery connected but you have to try it out.

[mara-]

Believe it or not, I never done grounding, so can you please explaing how exactly to do it?

Cheers

[mara-]

OK, I talked with my father, and we did grounding. But, it did not help. I got new card, and everything works fine. It seems that integrated card have some serious problem. But, I'll check it in few weeks to see if anything changes.

Cheers

[mara-]

I checked my cousin's computer and his integrated network card also does not work. This is probably caused by thunderstorm we had. Network cable goes on the roof and then to next house so it probably got some electricity and it damaged our cards and switch.

Cheers

[puntoMX]

mara-, on May 31 2009, 04:41 PM, said:

This is probably caused by thunderstorm we had. Network cable goes on the roof and then to next house so it probably got some electricity and it damaged our cards and switch.

ZAP! Although it didn't hit the cable, it still can collect a big charge indeed. You are lucky that you didn't fry more. The internal NIC probably isn't going to work anymore.

[gamehead200]

mara-, on May 31 2009, 05:41 PM, said:

I checked my cousin's computer and his integrated network card also does not work. This is probably caused by thunderstorm we had. Network cable goes on the roof and then to next house so it probably got some electricity and it damaged our cards and switch.

Cheers

Have you considered getting a wireless router with directional antennas instead of running a cable outside?

[mara-]

puntoMX, on Jun 1 2009, 06:33 PM, said:

mara-, on May 31 2009, 04:41 PM, said:

This is probably caused by thunderstorm we had. Network cable goes on the roof and then to next house so it probably got some electricity and it damaged our cards and switch.

ZAP! Although it didn't hit the cable, it still can collect a big charge indeed. You are lucky that you didn't fry more. The internal NIC probably isn't going to work anymore.

The strange thing is that mine sometimes work, sometimes not, and cousin's is not working at all. But since I have new card now, everything is OK.

gamehead200, on Jun 1 2009, 07:12 PM, said:

mara-, on May 31 2009, 05:41 PM, said:

I checked my cousin's computer and his integrated network card also does not work. This is probably caused by thunderstorm we had. Network cable goes on the roof and then to next house so it probably got some electricity and it damaged our cards and switch.

Cheers

Have you considered getting a wireless router with directional antennas instead of running a cable outside?

Well, this was way cheaper, but it seems it takes higher risk. We did this, because my cousin has no way of connecting to internet because he has some device which gives him telephone line, but adsl can't be used. And where we live, there is no other solution which is cheap as adsl. You'll think maybe that I only look for the price, but in this case I have to. We have a big monopoly here. I'm paying 38€ for 2Mbps/192Kbps and bandwidth is unlimited. And this is the best solution abailable in whole country. In other part of country where this ISP is not available, other ISP does not offer unlimited bandwidth at all. It just have slightlly better speed.

Cheers

This post has been edited by mara-: 01 June 2009 - 11:37 AM

[Zenskas]

Ha you think your country has a big monopoly? I have one of the best (if not the best) $50 per month plan in Australia. I get 1.5Mb/s DL and 256Kb/s UL with a 10GB cap after that it goes down to 64Kb/s. But as soon as my ISP puts a DSLAM in my area I can upgrade to 24Mb/s DL and 1Mb/s UL with a 10GB cap for no extra money per month. Much Better than Telstra's plans though (they own all the phonelines in Australia) which cost something like $80 per month for the same thing.

Although I would recommend getting a wireless router, if running a cable outside has been working for a while (up until now) then I suppose you can stick with that if necessary.

[broknindarkagain]

puntoMX, on May 30 2009, 05:16 PM, said:

I've seen the problem before, even on my own system as it now. It' has 2 onboard NICs and one stopped being recognized but after some weeks it's back up again. It's must be something with a charged circuit and you should discharge that circuit or wait till the charge leaks away. Normally it can be done by just grounding the board without the PSU and battery connected but you have to try it out.

Both the keyboard and mouse port on an old machine of mine died recently....I have usb ones hooked up now....think this would help revive those ports?

[puntoMX]

That's hard to say, I think not as the PS/2 ports are likely hooked up to their own low I/O controller. If it works and doesn't work sometimes and the connectors are good, than I would try it. It's mostly capacitors that are charged and can't discharge, but also other electronic parts can keep up a charge and "block" other components out of the circuit...

Mind you that it has been a long time that I digged really in problems with electronics at those levels, I did however ground some parts on motherboards to see if I could get them to work and they did...