AR1082 ethernet driver

[pimpom]

I've been searching for a driver for an Atheros AR8012 ethernet
controller, without much success. It's for a friend who no longer
has the driver disc of his motherboard. The chip is not mentioned
on the Atheros website and when I went to the motherboard maker's
site, I was surprised to see that the download size of the LAN
driver alone is 360 MB.

Google found plenty of hits for AR8012, but the few sites that
appeared to actually have the driver are all membership sites. I
registered at one site, but never received the activation mail.
One site allows single download for unregistered users and asked
for my email address, but again, I never received the promised
notification mail.

I did a torrent search and was again surprised to see that the
file size of drivers for this chip are all in hundreds of MBs.
That's a hefty download for a one-time installation in someone
else's standalone desktop whose ethernet port is likely to be
rarely used, especially when my monthly cap is 2.5GB.

Is there any way to get a lightweight driver for this chip?
Something like the sub-MB drivers for Realtek controllers ( a few
MBs at most). Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[pimpom]

I've been searching for a driver for an Atheros AR8012 ethernet
controller, without much success.................

Oops. Wrong chip number in the subject line. It's AR8012.

 

[Paul]

I've been searching for a driver for an Atheros AR8012 ethernet
controller, without much success. It's for a friend who no longer
has the driver disc of his motherboard. The chip is not mentioned
on the Atheros website and when I went to the motherboard maker's
site, I was surprised to see that the download size of the LAN
driver alone is 360 MB.

Google found plenty of hits for AR8012, but the few sites that
appeared to actually have the driver are all membership sites. I
registered at one site, but never received the activation mail.
One site allows single download for unregistered users and asked
for my email address, but again, I never received the promised
notification mail.

I did a torrent search and was again surprised to see that the
file size of drivers for this chip are all in hundreds of MBs.
That's a hefty download for a one-time installation in someone
else's standalone desktop whose ethernet port is likely to be
rarely used, especially when my monthly cap is 2.5GB.

Is there any way to get a lightweight driver for this chip?
Something like the sub-MB drivers for Realtek controllers ( a few
MBs at most). Thanks in advance for any help.

If it is an Ethernet chip, that could be a PHY and not a MAC/PHY
or a MAC chip. You may in fact, be looking for a different driver
entirely.

The MAC is what typically has the driver. And if the MAC
is integrated into the Southbridge, the driver may come
from the chipset maker (or the motherboard maker).

Please quote the make and exact model number of the motherboard.
That is going to make it easier to find.

Paul

 

[pimpom]

If it is an Ethernet chip, that could be a PHY and not a
MAC/PHY
or a MAC chip. You may in fact, be looking for a different
driver
entirely.

The MAC is what typically has the driver. And if the MAC
is integrated into the Southbridge, the driver may come
from the chipset maker (or the motherboard maker).

Please quote the make and exact model number of the
motherboard.
That is going to make it easier to find.

Paul

Thanks for the reply. The motherboard is a Simmtronics GF7050VT
for Intel CPUs. It appears to use the NVidia 7050/610i chipset.
http://www.simmtronicssemi.com/motherboard.php I've come across
their RAM sticks, but I didn't even know that they make
motherboards. They seem to have only a very few models.

The site says that it uses a Realtek RTL8100C controller, but
none of my Realtek drivers, including the all-in-one driver from
Realtek, worked. Then I looked closely at the motherboard, saw
the tiny AR8012 chip with the Atheros logo and assumed that it
must be the ethernet controller.

 

[Grinder]

Thanks for the reply. The motherboard is a Simmtronics GF7050VT
for Intel CPUs. It appears to use the NVidia 7050/610i chipset.
http://www.simmtronicssemi.com/motherboard.php I've come across
their RAM sticks, but I didn't even know that they make
motherboards. They seem to have only a very few models.

The site says that it uses a Realtek RTL8100C controller, but
none of my Realtek drivers, including the all-in-one driver from
Realtek, worked. Then I looked closely at the motherboard, saw
the tiny AR8012 chip with the Atheros logo and assumed that it
must be the ethernet controller.

The network adapter installer from your motherboard manufacturer is so
massive because it has 4 seperate installers, one for XP32, XP64,
Vista32 and Vista64. Each those are infact 6-in-1 installers for video,
audio, display and other chipset bits that includes a full-blown
installation program.

So, you could probably just pick out the Ethernet folder and "Update
Driver" or point your "Found New Hardware" dialog to the *.inf files it
contains. The Ethernet folder is about 2MB.

 

[pimpom]

The network adapter installer from your motherboard
manufacturer is so massive because it has 4 seperate
installers, one for XP32, XP64, Vista32 and Vista64. Each
those are infact 6-in-1 installers for video, audio, display
and other chipset bits that includes a full-blown installation
program.

I guessed it might be something like that. Thanks for confirming
it. But they have separate links for audio and video. The audio
driver, already downloaded, is about 63MB, and I don't need the
video driver as I have several recent versions of NVidia's
driver.

Now why do they bundle drivers for all those other devices under
the heading of LAN driver? At first it would appear to be a case
of clumsiness, but as I said in my opening post, the other
drivers I found on the net all range in size from 226MB to more
than 600MB, all tagged as being drivers for the AR8012 chip.

So, you could probably just pick out the Ethernet folder and
"Update Driver" or point your "Found New Hardware" dialog to
the *.inf files it contains. The Ethernet folder is about 2MB.

No problem there. The problem is that I'll have to download that
relatively huge file first in order to access the 2MB LAN
driver - for a one-off installation that will seldom be put to
use. In fact, I'm downloading it right now, but it goes against
my sense of appropriateness.

 

[Paul]

Thanks for the reply. The motherboard is a Simmtronics GF7050VT
for Intel CPUs. It appears to use the NVidia 7050/610i chipset.
http://www.simmtronicssemi.com/motherboard.php I've come across
their RAM sticks, but I didn't even know that they make
motherboards. They seem to have only a very few models.

The site says that it uses a Realtek RTL8100C controller, but
none of my Realtek drivers, including the all-in-one driver from
Realtek, worked. Then I looked closely at the motherboard, saw
the tiny AR8012 chip with the Atheros logo and assumed that it
must be the ethernet controller.

Simmtronics offer a rather large chipset driver package. I checked
the Asus site, and Asus is doing the same thing for their 7050/610i
motherboard.

http://www.simmtronicssemi.com/simm-nv-gf7050vt.php

*******
You can get a jumbo driver from Nvidia. This is a slightly older
one, and maybe a bit smaller to download.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_630i_610i_winxp_16.08.html

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/nForce/16.08/nforce_winxp_16.08_english_whql.exe
*******

The Simmtronics board visually resembles the PCChips P55G a lot.
There are some slight differences, so it isn't the exact same board.
But visually, some of the similarities are striking.

http://www.pc-infinity.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=MB-P55G&Store_Code=P

http://www.pcchips.com.tw/PCCWebSit...New&DetailDesc=&CategoryID=1&MenuID=6&LanID=2

The smallest download is 92,967KB for WinXP. This is a chipset driver
for the P55G board.

http://www.pcchips.com.tw/PCCWebSit...ver&DetailDesc=&CategoryID=1&MenuID=6&LanID=2

P55G user manual 20MB
http://download.ecs.com.cn/dlfilepcc/menu/P55G_10.pdf

P55G WinXP Chipset Driver (includes Ethernet).

http://eudownload.ecs.com.tw/dlfilepcc/ide/mcp73/XP.zip

The chipset driver concept seems to be how these are
packaged. None of them I've located so far, are broken
into pieces.

Paul

 

[Grinder]

I guessed it might be something like that. Thanks for confirming
it. But they have separate links for audio and video. The audio
driver, already downloaded, is about 63MB, and I don't need the
video driver as I have several recent versions of NVidia's
driver.

Now why do they bundle drivers for all those other devices under
the heading of LAN driver? At first it would appear to be a case
of clumsiness, but as I said in my opening post, the other
drivers I found on the net all range in size from 226MB to more
than 600MB, all tagged as being drivers for the AR8012 chip.

No problem there. The problem is that I'll have to download that
relatively huge file first in order to access the 2MB LAN
driver - for a one-off installation that will seldom be put to
use. In fact, I'm downloading it right now, but it goes against
my sense of appropriateness.

It looks like more than half the pile is the video chipset drivers, and
probably a giant pile of applications.

Good luck in getting your problem sorted.

 

[pimpom]

It looks like more than half the pile is the video chipset
drivers, and probably a giant pile of applications.

Good luck in getting your problem sorted.

Success. I installed the small LAN driver from the compilation
and it works. But it's for an NVidia controller! Now why the hell
do those people state on their website that the motherboard uses
a Realtek chip, put in an Atheros chip on the board and actually
use an Nvidia?

The thing I'm not sure about is whether the Atheros AR8012 chip
is actually an ethernet controller, but what I see on the
internet seems to indicate that it's a 10/100 Mbps ethernet chip.

 

[Paul]

Success. I installed the small LAN driver from the compilation
and it works. But it's for an NVidia controller! Now why the hell
do those people state on their website that the motherboard uses
a Realtek chip, put in an Atheros chip on the board and actually
use an Nvidia?

The thing I'm not sure about is whether the Atheros AR8012 chip
is actually an ethernet controller, but what I see on the
internet seems to indicate that it's a 10/100 Mbps ethernet chip.

I see references to AR8012, as being a 10/100 PHY chip.
I cannot find a datasheet for it.

The MAC is inside the Nvidia Southbridge section.

Not all the 7050/610i boards do that. Some motherboards use
a separate Ethernet chip, a self-contained MAC/PHY chip.

There is a possibility, that some PHY chips are footprint
compatible. For example, if they're both PLCC 48 packages,
they could be using the same pinout. Which allows a different
PHY chip to be used. So they could change a RealTek PHY to
Atheros PHY, if they run out of parts, or if the
Atheros is cheaper.

But the MAC is the part that needs the driver.

Normally, you'd use the motherboard CD that came in the
motherboard box, and there would be plenty of room for
a 360MB chipset package including LAN driver.

Paul

 

[pimpom]

I see references to AR8012, as being a 10/100 PHY chip.
I cannot find a datasheet for it.

Same here. And, as I said before, I couldn't find any reference
to it on the Atheros website.

The MAC is inside the Nvidia Southbridge section.

Not all the 7050/610i boards do that. Some motherboards use
a separate Ethernet chip, a self-contained MAC/PHY chip.

There is a possibility, that some PHY chips are footprint
compatible. For example, if they're both PLCC 48 packages,
they could be using the same pinout. Which allows a different
PHY chip to be used. So they could change a RealTek PHY to
Atheros PHY, if they run out of parts, or if the
Atheros is cheaper.

That could be it. I have the datasheet for a Realtek RTL8201 and
they do have the same footprint - PLCC48.

I remember the Realtek chip well because of an incident a few
years ago. A young friend of mine had one literally blown apart
when lightning struck their neighbourhood gaming LAN in his
absence. Poor fellow, I'd finished assembling that rig for him
only two days earlier.

I replaced the motherboard at cost and kept it in my junk pile
for two years. Then I had an inspiration. I downloaded the
datasheet for the chip and identified the power supply pin. I
desoldered the pin and sure enough, the short on the power supply
line disappeared. I hooked it up to a PSU with a discarded Athlon
XP CPU and it booted up right away. My daughter is still using it
with a discrete NIC and she says it's perfectly adequate for her
needs.

But the MAC is the part that needs the driver.

Thanks for that piece of enlightenment.

Normally, you'd use the motherboard CD that came in the
motherboard box, and there would be plenty of room for
a 360MB chipset package including LAN driver.

What I found inappropriate and misleading is that they lumped the
whole driver package under 'LAN driver'. The file is even named
lan_simm_nv_gf7050vt.zip. What makes it even more misleading is
that, while the package includes drivers for display and audio,
these are available separately. Ah well, I'm beginning to repeat
myself.