"RealTek Network Controller was not found" - Various steps taken

RW191812

Honorable
Aug 1, 2014
5
0
10,520
Hello,

GA B75M-D3H Mobo rev 1.1

Windows 7 Home Premium SP1

Intel Core i5-3570k CPU @ 3.40GHZ.

16gb of GSkill ram

There is no "Network Adapter" listed in Device Manager any more. I turned it on and it was gone and could not connect to anything. No other hardware changes, no software changes, no damage.

I selected "Show Hidden Devices", it showed "Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller". Disable was greyed out and under properties it said this device is not working properly because it not connected.

I read online and decided to uninstall the driver with the hope that restarting the computer would work. It did not. I reinstalled the driver, it says

The RealTek Network Adapter/Controller was not found.
If Deep Sleep Mode enabled Please Plug the Cable

I was initially having it tell me "Findfile failed" but I fixed that by using seperate drivers instead of the ones on my Mobo driver CD.

I have :

Attempted to reinstall the drivers.

"The RealTek Network Controller was not found.
If Deep Sleep Mode enabled Please Plug the Cable"

Powered down the PC, remove CMOS battery and RAM, unplugged power cord and waited 45mins, pushed the power button, replaced the RAM, Cmos battery and power cord and turned the computer back on.

Used the BIOS to set to default optimised settings.

Updated the Bios from Gigabytes website using @Bios. This was successful but did not fix the issue.

Checked the BIOS for the controller. Under Peripherals it lists "Lan Controller #1". It was enabled. I have disabled and booted, then shut down and enabled and booted. Neither did anything.

I have installed the Realtek Ethernet Diagnostic Utility - it shows nothing exists for it to diagnose.

I have updated the chipset drivers provided by Gigabyte and I have updated the Intel Management Engine Interface. These were both successful but did not fix the issue.

Note : I do not have anything listed under "Network Adapters" in Device Manager. Showing hidden devices shows a variety of things listed here such as "WAN Miniport" and "Microsoft 6to4 Adapter" but none of these are an actual network adapter.

System restore is not an option. Thanks for your help.