Network Disappears after SP2 installed

[Charles Norwood]

I have a USB cable modem installed, which is currently
working fine, and until I installed SP2, I also had a LAN
connection using a standard 10/100 NIC to my home
network. Now that I've installed SP2, the NIC and the LAN
connection have disappeared. I can't find any mention of
the NIC in device manager or anywhere else, and I can't
reinstall it. It's as if SP2 magically removed my NIC,
but it's still properly connected to the motherboard, and
lights are flashing like normal. The weird thing is, I
can still access shared folders on another computer, but
the other computer can't see this computer at all. When I
attempt to create a new LAN connection, windows complains
because it can't find the NIC anymore and tells me I need
to have a network before I can set one up. Anyone got any
ideas about this ?

Thanks

 

[David Dickinson]

I actually saw this symptom on XP1, too.

1. Get an updated driver for your NIC if one is available, then

2. In Device Manager, uninstall the NIC. If Device Manager freezes, you may
have to do it in Safe Mode. Then,

3. Reinstall the NIC.

 

[Charles Norwood]

I tried that, but there was no mention of the NIC in
device manager at all, even in safe mode. The device
still showed up when ipconfig /all was run, but it didn't
show up anywhere else. I've fixed it now by just System
Restoring to before SP2 was installed. Don't know whether
it was a random bug or some issue with SP2 and this
computer.

Thanks for replying anyway

 

[David Dickinson]

In Safe Mode, in Device Manager, View Hidden Devices. It might be hidden.

The only other way is to manually remove the registry entries for your NIC
using regedt32.exe; you'll have to change the permissions on the registry
keys to inherit from the parent. When I've seen this problem occur, those
permissions get screwed up. Of course, it might be that simply fixing those
permissions fixes the problem, but I haven't tested that.

 

[Guest]

The NIC is indeed hidden, but SP2 has also renamed it so it does not appear
to exist. Network diagnostics show it as 'FAILED' when scanned. Network
connections only shows the internet gateway. I cannot uninstall the NIC
from device manager as it says it may be needed to boot the system. I am
completely at a loss. If no immediate solution can be found I will have to
remove SP2 and wait for an update.