Network Adapter Does Not Show Up In Device Manager

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Rykhyth

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Sep 12, 2013
3
0
10,510
The Ethernet connection to my desktop stopped working suddenly. There had been a thunderstorm just before though I'm not sure if that's what caused it to stop. I just did a windows update right before as well. When I diagnose the problem through the network and sharing center it sais that it cannot find a valid driver for my network adapter but when I look for my network adapter in the device manager there isn't even a section for network adapters like there should be. Please help!
 

Rykhyth

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Sep 12, 2013
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10,510


I checked through every section of the device manager and it's not anywhere. I think you might be right about it getting fried. The little orange light that usually comes out of the Ethernet port on the back of my computer isn't coming on.
 

spd123

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Oct 6, 2013
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10,510


I also had the same problem. I purchased a new LAN card and added it to one of the PCI slot. When I start my Computer, now it asks me to insert a Boot device. Then I tried by changing the PCI slot, the computer did start, but it did not detect the card. I checked the back side of CPU, the Ethernet light does light up. Not sure why the crd is not being detected.
 

bob_mills

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Nov 22, 2014
4
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4,520
FIXED - this is my story...

What I have:

Asus P5KPL motherboard with onboard LAN by Realtek
Windows 7
Virgin Media 5G superhub (but I use a wired connection from this to my PC)

What happened:

1) This morning the PC apparently switched off by itself, Windows did not shut-down.
2) When I rebooted, I had no internet connection, although access to the internet from other devices was fine.
3) No network adapters showed up in Control Panel, there was not even a section for Network Adapters.
4) I downloaded the latest Realtek network adapter drivers, but they couldn't find a network adapter so that didn't help.
5) The network cable was attached and I hadn't changed any software or hardware.

What I did:

1) Checked in the BIOS (with my motherboard is done by pressing 'DEL' on startup) that the onboard LAN was enabled - which it was, it hadn't changed.
2) Removed the CMOS battery (round battery on the motherboard which holds information for the motherboard when PC is switched off).
3) Went out for a few hours.
4) Replaced the battery and rebooted. I had to change the boot sequence in the BIOS to make sure that the hard drive with Windows on it was the first device that the BIOS looked for.
5) Waited for Windows to load - which then went off and found some new hardware (which must have been something connected to the motherboard - could have been anything)
6) Rubbed my eyes in disbelief as I had a working internet connection which I'm using right now to post this.

What I suspect happened:

Most likely - my PC experienced a power surge either from outside the house or inside which went through my router, down the network cable and into the LAN port on the motherboard. This then gave the motherboard a heart attack which disabled the network adapter, either accidentally or on purpose - if the motherboard is clever enough to disable misbehaving bits attached to it.

Less likely - I have heard that certain malware or viruses can mask the hardware so that it disappears from Windows, but the virus can still actually use it in the background. This way Windows doesn't think you have a network adapter so won't let you go online to fix the virus issue - clever.

I reckon that forcing the motherboard to reset its settings by removing the battery made it take a fresh look at what was connected to it, and this re-enabled the network adapter. It is also possible that if a virus was to blame - and the virus had changed the motherboard or network adapter settings to its own benefit then forcing the motherboard to use the default settings over-rode these nasty settings.

Either way, this worked for me.

If this doesn't work for you, then you could install a separate network card which are cheap, and avoid the onboard LAN completely, or even a wireless USB type of device.

Good luck all.
 

Zannyth

Reputable
Jul 28, 2015
1
0
4,510
Thanks Bob I was having the exact same problem and this worked for me. However, my internet connection since the incident seems to flicker every few hours and I get temporarily disconnected, however I don't know if it's my network adapter or apartment's internet responsible for that. However last night my computer could not recognize the network adapter again so I'm going to go and take out the CMOS battery for a second time to reset it. I'm probably going to buy the linked network adapter though to see if that fixes my internet issues since I feel like there may have been long term damage done based on my connectivity and second loss of the adapter.
 
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