Why does BIOS re-flashing fix my network issue?

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marcobr

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Mar 23, 2017
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Hey everyone,

I have an issue with my Ethernet connectivity which I know how to fix ... but I don't understand why both a) the issue occures and b) the fix actually works. :)

I'm running W10 x64 and I got an Asus H87 PRO motherboard with the newest BIOS version 2104. In the last 6 months, it happened to me twice that when I turned on the computer in the morning, suddenly my Ethernet connectivity was lost (red cross). Of course I did all the usual stuff, like restarting my router, enabling/disabling/re-installing network drivers, looking for some recent Windows Update activities etc. - nothing.

Now here is the clue: Once I simply re-flash the exact same BIOS version 2104 on my mainboard - Ethernet connectivity is back up again. Has anyone an idea what could be the cause of the issue and why re-flashing the exact same BIOS can help here?

 
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n0ns3ns3
Since the ethernet is onboard, it is affected by BIOS. BIOS is just a software and as such has bugs. Reseting and reflashing BIOS can solve many issues.
I had memory slots issue that was resolved this way.
Just to minimize the chance for such issues, disable additional LAN features in bios like wake on lan, lan guard or whatever they put into your BIOS :)
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n0ns3ns3

n0ns3ns3

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Since the ethernet is onboard, it is affected by BIOS. BIOS is just a software and as such has bugs. Reseting and reflashing BIOS can solve many issues.
I had memory slots issue that was resolved this way.
Just to minimize the chance for such issues, disable additional LAN features in bios like wake on lan, lan guard or whatever they put into your BIOS :)
 
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SinxarKnights

SinxarKnights

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Jan 3, 2007
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That is strange but as n0ns3ns3 said, it happens.

Could have also been coincidence, drivers and cables are the main culprits of that problem. A poorly built cable could have intermittent connection issues by an open in the connecter (most common failure point), simply jiggling it in the right way when moving the cable around could have fixed it for a while. Its hard to say for sure.

I have suffered from strange BIOS issues myself where a reflash fixed the problem, again just like n0ns3ns3 mine are normally memory issues though. Although I did service a PC once that the BIOS seemed to have magically got partially corrupted that caused all kinds of errors in Windows, specifically the network card. No idea how it happened but it did, it needed a newer BIOS to fix it though as the old one didn't work anymore (this was an old HP desktop in the XP era).
 
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marcobr

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Sounds reasonable.. could indeed simply be a bug in the BIOS firmware. The only awkward thing here would be the fact that a friend of mine (who sold me the machine) used the mainboard/CPU/RAM for ~2 years without any issues running the same BIOS version and also Windows 10.
 
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marcobr

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I also thought about an cable issue, since even the status LEDs on the Ethernet port didn't blink anymore. So I tried moving the cable around a bit and even replaced it with a different one without any success. Therefore it will most likely not be a cable/connector issue (and as said, without touching the cable/connector it immediately starts working again as I flash BIOS version 2104 over the same BIOS version 2104).
 
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n0ns3ns3

n0ns3ns3

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but it was not connected to the same router with the same cable.
Stranger things can happen. For example, after some FW update on my TV, my router was refusing to boot while TV was connected to it until next TV update :)
 
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