PC can't detect Ethernet cable after blackout.

if it runs fine just buy a $10 network card and use that instead

A network card is just that, an Ethernet adapter, unless it's a wireless network card.

You don't need the Boot ROM option. This just tells BIOS to attempt booting from the Ethernet device and may actually cause a longer boot up time.

Since you have a Gigabyte motherboard, do you happen to have their network cable measuring tool in your BIOS? It may be able to detect whether you have a cable attached or not, or may give you a clearer indication that the jack is no longer functioning.

Yes, Smart LAN is the option I was talking about. Just couldn't remember the name off-hand. After a few seconds, it should flash and tell you a cable length.

No, well, sorta, on your link. That's by no means a cheap network card.

Something like one of these would qualify more as a cheap networking device:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA5H61PT3719
-- or --
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4GW1F23883

Well, just do the best you can. Your selection was perfectly fine, even if it seems like overkill.

Sorry, was out all day. Yes, the network card you have linked to should work fine in the bottom most PCI slot, since as you mention the other PCI slot is being covered by the graphics card. The other option would be the PCI-e x1 slot above the graphics card, but you aren't going to see significant performance benefits unless you routinely use the gigabit connection near it's maximum throughput.

Learn why this damage happened and how to avert future damage. A blackout (near zero voltage) does not damage hardware. Power restoration does not create a surge. A surge may occur before and cause the blackout. Same AC electric surge was incoming to every household appliance. Not only fix (replace) an ethernet connection. Also address the reason for that damage.

A surge is an electrical current that was incoming to every household appliance. Are every one damage? Of course not. It is electricity. It only flows though items that have both an incoming port and another outgoing port to earth ground. In your case, incomng on AC mains. Outgoing via the ethernet connection. Damage is often on the outgoing port - as you have seen.

Now, ethernet connections typically have lights that report cable properly connected between two Ethernet devices. That light says an Ethernet computer in your computer's Ethernet card (or motherboard chip) is talking to a computer in an Ethernet router. If that wire connection and associated hardware is working, then a light glows on both Ethernet connected devices.

Device manager and diagnostics can still report a computer's ethernet computer is OK. But not that an "Ethernet's computer to Ethernet cable" hardware has failed. That is what fails on a surge, incoming on AC mains, that finds earth ground via the Ethernet port.

That would be damage because protection, required where AC wires enter the building, was not properly earthed. Do not just fix an Ethernet port. Also fix the reason for that and other future damage. Even smoke detectors, furnace, CFL bulbs, and dishwasher need that protection.

International design standards (long before PCs existed) required no damage by any blackout. You have confused a near zero voltage with thousands of volts. If a blackout (near zero volts) causes damage, then normal power off also damages that appliance. Is a computer damaged every time you power it off? To hardware, a blackout and any other power off are electrically equivalent.

Appaently you obtained protectors that do not claim to protect from typically destructive surges. Did you pay more than $1 per appliance? A proven solution, so that even direct lighting strikes cause no damage, costs about $1 per.

Two anomalies have no relationship.
1) Blackouts and brownouts never cause electronics damage. Are made hardware irrelevant by what exists inside each appliance. Blackouts are a threat to unsaved data; not hardware. Blackouts are completely ignored by protectors.
2) Surge damage is sometimes easier if using an adjacent (ie power strip) protector Ineffective protection (defined by manufacturer specifications) would have done nothing for an anomaly that caused Ethernet damage. That should be obvious from the previous post.

Cause of damage was defined previously. A surge (long before that blackout) that was incoming on AC mains would be outgoing destructively via an Ethernet card. Ethernet damage created before power was lost. Protection is strongly recommended for Ethernet cards, all other household appliances, and those recently purchased protectors.

Plug-in protectors would have done nothing to avert that Ethernet damage. In some cases, can make that damage easier. Especially if the 'whole house' recommendation is ignored.

Not all power supplies handle low voltage or brown-out situations well. Damage does not necessitate an over voltage condition existed external to the PC. The good part is that a low cost network card cured the symptoms of whatever it was that actually happened. I'm happy to leave it at that as this is actually cheaper than any of the possible alternatives.

Stated were facts proven by over 100 years of science and experience. That explains why your computer and router were damaged. And says how to avert damage for the next 20+ years. Not knowing this, then you apparently misdirected funds into protectors that are not helpful.

Plug-in protector implies knowledge from wild speculation and advertising myths. For example, a blackout does not cause hardware damage. Protectors do nothing for blackouts. Why is that confusing? You don't ask questions. So I must assume you remain attached to those myths. How do you expect anyone to know which sentence confuses you when you refuse to state what detail is confusing.

Repeated because I can only assume you did not read it. A destructive transient was incoming to every AC applaince Even powered off appliances. Why are all not damaged? Damage can only exist when an outgoing path also exists. We know what that outgoing path was. You had Ethernet port and router damage. - the outgoing path. You did not spend $1 per appliance to avert that damage using a solution that was bluntly recommended in both previous posts. Worse, future damage may be easier if plug-in protectors are used.

Define which sentence is confusing. Blackouts do not cause hardware damage. Ethernet and router damage existed because you all but invited that transient to do damage. The proven solution that averts such damage is detailed in previous posts. How can this be any simpler?

Good. 1) Name that supply.

2) Name the specific part damaged by low voltage. Show me. An honest claim will also say why with numbers. Show me numbers for any transistor, resistor, inductor, etc damaged by low voltage.

3) Low voltage also exists when a PSU is powered off. If low voltage is destructive, then power off is also destructive. Since power off is always a slowly dropping voltage.

4) Job of every supply is to provide rock solid and stable DC voltages as AC mains vary widely. If AC mains drop too low, all supplies simply power off. How much variation? Technical honesty includes numbers.

5) Voltage can drop so low that incandescent bulbs dim to 50% intensity. An industry standard that existed before PCs existed. Voltage that low is normal for all electronic power supplies. Computers are required to operate normally at even lower voltages. When voltage drops too low, electronics simply power off. No damage. That also happens when electronics are switched off.

6) If low voltage caused damage, that product could not be marketed. So we test every design from overvoltage down to zero - without damage. Tom MacIntyre demonstrates how electronics are tested:

We operate everything on an isolated variac, which means that I can control the voltage going into the unit I am working on from about 150 volts down to zero. This enables us to verify power regulation for over and under-voltage situations. A linear supply (many TV's) will start to lose its regulation from 100 volts down to maybe 90, and the set will shut off by 75 volts AC or so.

Switching supplies, on the other hand, are different. ... the best I've seen was a TV which didn't die until I turned the variac down to 37 VAC! A brownout wouldn't have even affected the picture on that set.

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Not die as in damage. Die as in it simply powered off when 120 VAC drops below 37 VAC.

Six reasons exposing speculation and hearsay as if fact. Making claims without any facts or numbers is disingenuous. Irresponsible "destructive low voltage" claims exist a) because basic electronic concepts were not learned, and b) those claims were assumed without first learning supporting facts and numbers. Not even one datasheet number was provided. That, by itself, says to all that the claim was bogus.

Low voltage is potentially harmful to electric motors. But 7) low voltage is so routine for electronics that we sometimes reduce voltages to even prolong life expectancy. Just another reason why we know brownouts and blackouts do not cause hardware damage. That myth is viciously condemned as an example of how to identify any technical lie: no supporting facts and no numbers. Wild speculation was justified only by observation. That is why junk science exists.

Show me. Quote a datasheet for the electronics part damaged by low voltage. And good luck. So let us move on to what really causes hardware damage. Including spec numbers and other facts that say why we know that.

Please read what was posted. Quote a sentence as written to appreciate what it said. Many blame grammar rather than a concept so difficult because it is so new and because it contradicts long held beliefs.

Post said nothing about $1 devices at or in each appliance.

Appaently you obtained protectors that do not claim to protect from typically destructive surges. Did you pay more than $1 per appliance? A proven solution, so that even direct lighting strikes cause no damage, costs about $1 per.

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It says "a" solution. Not somethings in each appliance. One item protects everything even from direct lightning strikes. Described is where this one item must be located.

That would be damage because protection, required where AC wires enter the building, was not properly earthed.

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Grammar is difficult if trying to make sentences agree with plug-in protector myths. That sentence also says recently purchased protectors cannot protect from transients that cause Ethernet port and router damage.

Are recently purchased protectors connected low impedance (ie 'less than 10 feet') to single point earth ground? Obviously each has no earth ground connection. And will not discuss it. Read its specifications.

Destructive surges can be hundreds of thousands of joules. How many joules does a newly purchased protector claim to absorb? Hundreds? A thousand? Near zero protection. But just enough above zero so that advertising can call it 100% protection.

A 'whole house' solution works because hundreds of thousands of joules are harmlessly absorbed outside; never enter the building.

A surge is an electrical current that was incoming to every household appliance. Are every one damage? Of course not. It is electricity. It only flows though items that have both an incoming port and another outgoing port to earth ground. In your case, incomng on AC mains. Outgoing via the ethernet connection. Damage is often on the outgoing port - as you have seen.

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Why did it have an incoming and outgoing path? You all but invited it to go hunting for earth destructively via every household appliance. Because a surge was not connected to earth BEFORE entering.

This time, a surge choose a path destructively via the Ethernet port and router. Which appliance is choosen next time. It chooses. Surge current hunts for and finds a best path to earth. It need not blow through other appliances. A computer and router were protecting other appliances. As noted previously:

A destructive transient was incoming to every AC applaince. Even powered off appliances. Why are all not damaged? Damage can only exist when an outgoing path also exists. We know what that outgoing path was. You had Ethernet port and router damage. - the outgoing path.

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A transient was so powerful as to even blow through 2000 volts protection inside each Ethernet port. An Ethernet port has protection better than a new protector.

Plug-in protectors would have done nothing to avert that Ethernet damage. In some cases, can make that damage easier. Especially if the 'whole house' recommendation is ignored.

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Those new protectors, if adjacent to appliances 1) do not claim to protect from destructive surges, 2) can sometimes make adjacent electronic damage easier, and 3) in rare cases cause house fires.

Same problems do not exist with the superior solution that costs about $1 per protected appliance, that connects low impedance to earth, and that is located where? Again, where AC wires enter the building and properly earthed.

Nobody said anything about ground wire damage. Protection is about connecting every incoming wire inside every utility cable low impedance (ie' less than 10 feet') to the same earth ground. That is an earth ground wire; not a wall receptacle safety ground wire. Every effective protector connect hundreds of thousands of joules harmlessly to earth on a path that remains outside.

Blackout occurred long after damage was created by a transient. And probably because of that transient surge. Observation without basic electrical knowledge explains many who assume a blackout causes damage. Does not matter if an appliance is on or off. A surge will easily blow through a millimeters gap in a switch. Computer or router damaged long before a blackout occurred. Blackouts do not damage electronics. A surge that damaged a computer could also create a blackout.