Internet not connecting after working fine, Network Driver Issues?

[mcmurraym]

So I reformatted and installed XP Pro 32bit going from Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit. Everything worked flawlessly for 2 days, I woke up in the morning went to check my downloads and I was disconnected from the net. I tried everything, obviously restarting modem, router, computer.. Nothing.. So I reformatted and now every time I install my Mobo Driver disc it says to plug in the Realtek pci card or ethernet cable and restart my computer, despite everything I try I dont connect to the net, it doesnt even try and find a connection or anything it just instantly tells me there is nothing, i dont see any of the other comps on my network either almost like my eternet cable isnt at all connected but that isnt the case..

Keep in mind when i first re-installed XP Pro the net didnt work so i used my driver disc for the lan network adapter and bam worked perfectly for 2 days straight and i woke up and now everything i have tried wont work, i have reformatted and reinstalled xp and win7 probably a dozen times trying different variations of stuff to fix it and absolutely nothing, in win 7 IE tells me i have no network adapter installed which is true seeing as how the asus driver disc doesnt work for win7, ive tried downloading all the other network drivers from the asus support website and nothing is working at all, the atheros ones dont work either because it says i need a network controller or something, would that work?

What confuses me is 2 days of perfect working then nothing for no reason and no sign of any connection no matter what i do, almost like a check box is clicked somewhere that says i cant connect..

Any help is appreciated thx..

Asus M4A78 Plus - Mobo

 

[eibgrad]

Sound like this may be a case of the ethernet port just dying. It happens. When electronics go, they tend to go earlier, esp. if placed under stress. Works fine for a couple days, you run your torrents overnight, boom, in the morning it's dead. Or maybe you had a power surge and it happened to effect the ethernet.

Just to be sure, I would try booting a live Linux CD (e.g., Ubuntu) and see if it works. Obviously if it’s fried, nothing else will work.

 

[Guest]

Hardly worth worrying about -- PCI ethernet adapters are very cheap retail and turn up secondhand for nearly nothing. Even if the original turns out to be okay the computer will be quite happy with a second adapter installed.