Two week old onboard NIC croaked !

[many a good man]

My brand new motherboard came with an onboard Nvidia Nforce gigabyte network card. Everything was cruising fine for two weeks until last night when I lost connectivity. I isolated the problem to the NIC.

Everything I tried to do to the drivers hung up the machine. Network properties said it was "connected" and everything good. But I couldn't even ping my router (and DHCP host). Something gave me the weird IP address of 169.254.209.154 with a mask of 255.255.0.0, which is not even on my network. Pinging the loopback address was OK.

I tried to manually assign IP etc., but the dialog box just hung. Then it hung XP trying to shut down. It came back up with the new settings but still couldn't connect to anything. Repairing drivers hung. Uninstalling drivers hung. Installing new drivers hung.

I removed the registry entries for the network card and manually deleted the drivers. I was able to reinstall the drivers this time, but with the exact same results. sfc /scannow found nothing. Running Windows XP repair did nothing.

I wound up just removing it from the BIOS and bought a new card for $14. The Mom&Pop shop I bought it from said they'd look at it and replace the MB if the card's defective, but I'd have to remove the MB and leave it at their shop for a week. I said fuggeditaboutit. What would you do? Could it be a virus or trojan horse? AVG says I'm clean.
:argh:

[GoodSpud]

1. Dunno, if the new one works just go with that but...

Usually a 169.xxx.xxx.xxx address means that you have a DHCP problem.

But, I suppose, it could also be a hardware problem. I would guess that it is not a trojan or virus because they specifically would NOT want to mess up the net connection.


Stupid questions and some ideas...

1. Did you swap out the patch cable? If not try that.

2. Try connecting to a different port on the router too.

3. Reboot the router

4. Reboot the cable/DSL/whatever modem.

5. look for new drivers on the MB site too. Sometimes the drivers you get from windows update just won't work for onboard stuff.

6. Also see if there is anything on the nVidia site that deals with the issue (i.e. BIOS update that says something like 'Fixes random DHCP failures for the onboard NIC').


If that doesn't work just use the one you bought. For what it is worth a week to test a motherboard seems a bit extreme. I suspect they are just doing an RMA to the maker. You could do that yourself.


Hope this helps,

T.D.P.

[many a good man]

2. DHCP

The answer is yes to all questions, but I didn't think of defining the problem as a DHCP one. I didn't know Windows assigns an IP from 169.*.*.* when you're set up for dynamic IP but can't get one from a server. I added "DHCP" to my queries and got a few more hits, including this one.

rk, I've had a similar problem on my motherboard the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum the cause or so I've seen and been lead to believe is that the motherboard due to heating and cooling shifts the board slightly in the case some how shorting out the LAN, my recommendation and fix is to remove all add in PCI/AGP cards loosen all the screws holding the motherboard to the case and slide it further towards the front of the case then tighten the screws back down a little tighter than normal so it doesnt move again and re-insert all your PCI/AGP cards. good luck

My Neo3 MB comes with a monitor that screams when the heat or fan speed passes a threshold. And it has gone off a couple times (even though it didn't right before the initial failure). Maybe I'll re-open the case if the alarm goes off again.

Question: Since I have a new network card, can I reenable the old one in the BIOS? How do I keep two active NICs, using the good one for surfing and the bad one when I want to test?

[democracyindanger]

3. I'd demand a replacement, and I wouldn't wait a week for it

Look at it this way: If the onboard NIC fails after 2 weeks, it's reasonable to assume that it's a manufacturing defect, and it may only be a matter of time and use before some other problem is revealed. If that problem arises after the warranty expires, then you're going to have to shell out more money for a new MB.

I can understand why the local shop would want to test it: If they gave you a new MB, that affects their cash flow and inventory, and they'd have to deal with returning the MB. More work for them. Understandable, but from the consumer's perspective, unacceptable. I'd even go as far to say that it's a stalling tactic--make it a hassle for you, and maybe you just give up altogether. Given the fact that they want you to remove the MB (you can't even drop off your whole machine), it's probably pretty likely that that's the case.

I'd check the warranty and contact the manufacturer directly. If the manufacturer is reputable, they'll send you a replacement MB first and give you a return authorization to send the faulty MB back. That way, the only downtime you'll experience is the time it takes to install the new one. And I wouldn't buy stuff from that shop anymore. newegg.com is the way to go.

[WhollyHeretic]

4. Is there another computer hooked up to the router?