so i recently upgraded my dc7900 to windows 7 from windows xp. since then i have not been able to get the ethernet working on it. there is no light on the ethernet port when i plug it in. is it dead or is something just messed up?
I'm guessing yours has an intel vPro cpu. There is an issue with it losing the nic when its got a vPro cpu. There's a fix but, I'm finding that its not easy to find again myself. One way you may be able to get it to see the ethernet port again is to shut it down, unplug it for an hour, then start it up again. Oddly enough, I've had this work to get it recognized again. But, it can happen again (and has). If/when I find the answer I'll post it up in here. Hopefully someone will see this who's already got that answer and get it posted though. They're really good systems for win7 (the "convertible" minitower) sff, I dunno about.
There is an issue with windows 7 lan drivers when a vPro cpu is in the system. One thing that may work, as odd as this sounds (to get it to recognize and install the drivers) .. turn it off & unplug the power cable from it for an hour. I've had a couple of times that this has worked. Incidentally, during normal use the system can occasionally lose the LAN too. There is a work-around that fixes it. I'll post it here if I can locate it again.