Old system. Onboard LAN stopped working. PCIe and PCI card also won't work.

[unknownsoldierX]

I have an old AMD system I use for various things. Besides not being ready to to spend the money to replace it with something newer, I'd really like to learn the cause of this problem, so please don't suggest I just ditch it.

 

ASRock 939SLI32-eSATA2

Opteron 170

4GB ram

Win7 x64.

 

The onboard LAN stopped working. The device properties in Windows says the device is working fine. LED on the port does not light up and Windows says there is no cable plugged in. I booted into Linux and it's the same thing.

 

I have a cable tester and confirmed that the cable is fine, but I tried different cables anyway. My router it plugs into is in good working order.

 

I dug out an old Linksys 10/100 PCI card. It installs fine, yet it has the same problem as the onboard LAN.

 

I bought a new TP-Link PCIe card. It installs fine, but has the same problem (LED doesn't light up, Windows says it's working but cable unplugged). I've had a USB 3.0 card plugged into the slot and it has always worked. I removed the LAN card and put the USB card back and it still works.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

Ditch it!

 

Might be a motherboard problem. It just has problems with ethernet ports. Did you try the pci/pci-e in Linux?

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

Maybe the port on your router is bad?

[Jim K Global Moderator]

No blinky lights at all?  No blinky lights throughout your variations (to include Linux and other ethernet devices)?  Hmmm....problem lies somewhere between the PC and the router (or the router itself).  Have you tried another computer (or notebook via ethernet) with the router or another port on the router?  

 

You can also check your TCP/IP stack by pinging 127.0.0.1  (though I doubt that is the problem)

 

Anyway, I'd be leaning more towards cable/router as the problem.  Could be cable, maybe a bad port, maybe some configuration within your router.  Can you hook up your cable modem directly to the PC...bypassing the router?

[+Biscuits Brown MVC]

Sounds more like the router port than the PC to me.

[unknownsoldierX]

Forgot to mention, it doesn't work when plugged directly into the modem. My router is fine. Other devices work when plugged into the same port.

 

It's for sure not a cable problem, as I have tried three different cables and I tested each of the cables with my RJ45 tester.

[flynempire]

I have learned that normally when you try more than one of a product and they fail it has to be something else.

 

What I mean by that is that you tried onboard and it failed and you tried to internal network cards PCI and one brand new PCIE card and they failed also. It probably lies in the modem or router or your motherboard is having a problem with ethernet devices.

Have you tried all the devices in linux and the same thing occurred? If it did it has to be either on the board or modem, router. You bought a new ethernet adapter so unless you have some bad luck how will that fail just like that?

Try a different router or modem if you can and see if that fixes it.

[+Zlip792 MVC]

Nothing seems from the BIOS Update for the motherboard seems to indicate for the bad mobo issue but it could be due to aging. Try to blow some airs in router / modem / motherboard ethernet (RJ45) ports to remove any dust (if any).

 

Although you can try by installing PCI or PCI-E card, disabling the on-board Ethernet through BIOS.

 

I'll recommend you to try updating the drivers for the Ethernet once again through using some third party tools like Snappy Driver Installer.

 

Download - https://sdi-tool.org/download/

Usage - http://www.ghacks.net/2015/04/10/snappy-driver-installer-checks-downloads-and-installs-drivers-on-windows/

 

Though from the all above mentioned, it more seems like router or modem issue since you tried many others as well.

[flynempire]

Try what +Zlip792 suggested which did not cross my mind. Disable the onboard LAN in the BIOS and then try one of the PCI cards again. If it still fails I think is router/modem or the board

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

just to determine if it's the motherboard, i'd uninstall the components and clear the CMOS. Start from scratch and only install the minimal components you need. If the onboard LAN still doesnt work, you can probably guess that's the issue.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

35 minutes ago, Jason S. said:

just to determine if it's the motherboard, i'd uninstall the components and clear the CMOS. Start from scratch and only install the minimal components you need. If the onboard LAN still doesnt work, you can probably guess that's the issue.

Technically, no. His Ethernet port could be busted, but his board is fine. Being that he still has the on-board Ethernet port enabled, it could still be trying to go to that device. Hence why his PCI devices not working.