Nasty problem with nVidia onboard NICs in Vista x64

[Scott]

Hi all.

For 9 months at least I've been happily running Vista x64 on an ASUS P5N32-E
SLI motherboard with nVidia nForce 680i SLI chipset, with dual onboard NICs.
I keep current with the MS patches (Vista is currently SP1).

Following a reboot, and I believe some auto-installed MS patches, my NICs
have stopped working. After the reboot, what appears to have happened is
Vista has installed two new NIC entries, and hidden/deactivated my old ones
(the names incremented to "nvidia nforce networking controller #3" and "#4",
and then later 5 and 6, 7 and 8, etc. (following subsequent reboots and
repair attempts).

I wondered if an MS-supplied driver for my NICs had been installed. Nope,
still the same old MS-supplied one (from 2006 - I'd never updated that
driver). The drivers appear to load correctly, the NICs correctly detect
cable status, but are unable to successfully get DHCP leases either from my
router or my ISP directly if the router is bypassed (always a 169.x.x.x
address).

I uninstalled all Windows updates from the last couple of rounds of them. No
help.

Nothing in the environment has changed - same router, same ISP, same Windows
Firewall settings (on). In troubleshooting I've disabled the firewall,
directly connected my PC to my ISP's cable modem, tried the static IP for my
router-bound NIC that I know the router assigns to it - still can't get out.

I've removed the MS drivers, added new nVidia ones, older nVidia ones,
removed them via device manager after setting it to show nonpresent devices
and hidden devices, still no luck. I think it's continuing to keep entries
for these NICs in the registry because even after all these removals
(including checking the box for "remove drivers"), new driver installs get
this incrementing number (adapter #9, adapter #10, etc.). I think there's a
way to remove these from the registry but I can't remember where.

Anyone have any ideas? This is really baffling...


Thanks
Scott.

 

[Jack \(MVP-Networking\).]

Hi
If you installed the nVidia Firewall that comes with the drivers then get
rid of it.
The so called Hidden old entries are Not really a viable installs and the
number of the new NICs are not an indication of the number of NICs. It is
just a name. I.e instead of a number it could be "Jack, Tom, or Gill".
Otherwise you should know that onboard NIC do tend to get Trashed (Do a live
search for the term "bad nic asus board" and you will see that you are in a
"good company").
Get at least one PCI NIC (100Mb/sec. are less than $10, and some Giga NIC
are less than $20), and take it from there.
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking)

 

[Scott]

Hi.

I didn't install that "nvidia firewall", just drivers.

The hidden/old nic entries in the registry I was thinking to remove just for
cleanup purposes - clearly they are the reason for the incrementing #9, #10
business - I know the older entries aren't "live" but I can't see them
having any productive purpose.

I don't understand why I suddenly have this problem after almost a year with
no problems.

Scott.

 

[Jack \(MVP-Networking\).]

Hi
Quote: "I don't understand why I suddenly have this problem after almost a
year with
no problems".
I can make a very long list of speculative reasons.
However right Not it is Not working, and the next logical step would be to
try a PCI network card.
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking)