LAN fried

[Andrew]

EDIT:rebooted back into windows and it recognized the LAN card aka internet is working normal. No idea why. Also working fine in ubuntu now. LED light in front of computer works as well. Maybe it is like my stupid multi card reader on the front, that in windows it randomly recognizes it and has them all mounted when windows starts. Other times it doesn't mount any of them.

/edit

It appears my LAN is not working.

I was messing around inside my tower, cleaned the CPU heatsink of dust to see if it would help with temps (was bored). Everything worked fine after I plugged tower back in and stuff. Then later I opened tower back up and plugged in my extra fan I bought back in 2007 to see how it affected temps (it sucks so I never have it running, unless very hot summer day). I'm not sure if the lan was working after I plugged it in, as I was more interested in temps and wasn't browsing web. I unplugged fan, started computer back up and now my LAN does not work. I've tried different ethernet cables to make sure it wasn't that. On the front of my computer when ethernet is plugged in there would be an ethernet LED light that would blink on/off (even when computer is shut off), but it is not lit up any at all (not even when wireless usb working). Ubuntu and windows do not recognize any LAN at all (in windows it is not shown in network connections, which means it doesn't see a LAN card at all). So is it possible I accidentally moved a wire which unplugged it? The ethernet and 4 USB are all together on the back and plug directly into motherboard (no wires, and has small metal covering for protection). I wonder how the LED on front for LAN worked, maybe that got jolted and stopped making it work (LED on front not working = no LAN possible?).

Any suggestions to get it working? I assume if it is fried, I can simply get/buy a cheap LAN card and plug that into motherboard, LAN should work again? I'm gonna go find my very old computer that I know had an ethernet card in it. Or go to the neighbours and raid their old broken computer.

[Dragoon Knight]

If you were blowing about inside your PC to shift dust (especially if you were using canned air), it's possible that a mote or two got inside the metal casing and either blocked a signal or shorted a connection temporarily.

Only speculation, mind you, but I fucking swear that dust has caused more problems with PCs I build than anything else.  This is likely because I deal with refurbishing about 90% of the time, and people have no idea that PCs should be vacuumed / dusted every now and then.

If it gives you any further problems, just pick up a cheap PCI Ethernet Card and whap that in one of your spare slots.  I despise using on-board anything nowadays. :P

EDIT: An XP machine will likely have firmware already onboard for whatever PCI Ethernet card you end up getting, but just in case, you might want to make sure it comes with a driver disc, especially if you want to use Linux.

[Andrew]

Now same problem again:

So I took my PC apart to make sure I had SATA available (for SSD), and of course the LAN ethernet stopped working. Windows XP device manager says the device could not be started. Couldn't get it working, so I found a 1998 computer with D-Link ethernet card, and installed it on one of my available slots. It works fine on ubuntu.

On windows it now shows "lan connection 2" but will not connect. It detected the LAN hardware and is using 2001 winxp drivers. No idea why it is not running. On ubuntu the lan light on my router is on and blinking (active). With winxp, the router lan light is on when booting but when winxp progress bar is showing the light goes off and doesn't come on again. So my guess is I need better drivers in winxp for it to work. I tried new connection, but those were useless. I couldn't even get winxp to detect and use my wireless usb stick. Ubuntu detected it fine and auto connected.

Guess I'll go hunt down drivers for the new ethernet card for winxp.

EDIT:

aw crap, the dlink support website winxp has drivers already for them and will install them automatically. Well that is no help.. Maybe I'll tell winxp to reinstall the drivers then. Hmm, that didn't work.

Searchign internet the drivers are from 1997 or so, so I guess winxp would have last driver. Dunno why it won't run though. It knows of the land 2 connection, the hardware/driver, but for whatever reason doesn't work. Maybe conflict with router, I'll try bypassing it.

[Andrew]

So something is seriously wrong with my computer.

I tried updating drivers in winxp. Tried 2 different ones. They both failed to install (not surprising since drivers are pre winxp). I then tried to connect directly to the internet bypassing my router. Still nothing.

Then I reconnect ethernet cord back to my router and now ubuntu will not connect by ethernet to the router! I tried liveusb of 9.04, nothing. When starting 8.10 ubuntu computer the LAN light on router where ethernet cord hooked up is lit up. Then when ubuntu starts to boot (progress bar) the light disappears! The lights on ethernet card stay lit up when computer is off, and stay lit until starting OS. Then they blink on and off slowly. It notices autoeth1 connection that was working, but fails to connect. When attempting to connect the ethernet light on router does blink a couple times very short, but goes back to no light. Seems like same symptoms of winxp. Ok, let's assume the ethernet card is old and damaged and doesn't work properly (but lights on ethernet card are working, and it was working fine in ubuntu). Maybe that is the problem. But why would it show as connected to router when computer is first starting, then once I get past GRUB and it starts loading winxp (and now ubuntu) the light goes off and fails to connect?

The only thing that currently works is my wireless usb (otherwise I'd have no internet). I've tried using different ethernet cord slot on router to make sure not faulty connection.

What is wrong?

D-Link DFE-500TX PCI fast ethernet adapter REV B/C

Trendnet TEW-432BRP

EDIT:

I guess I could hook old computer up to router with ethernet cord to rule out router and ethernet cable. Most likely something damaged on motherboard that hates onboard LAN and PCI LAN? But usb wireless works fine?

EDIT:

Hooked up my old computer that uses ubuntu 9.04 to ethernet cord. It worked fine. So I guess that narrows it down to something on my motherboard on new computer. :(

New info: With my TV on, the static on it gets bad, then ok, synchronized with new dlink ethernet lights blinking on/off. So d-link card is trying to do something. Static was fine on tv last night with d-link working fine.

EDIT:

Good and bad news.

Bad news: computer would not start for some reason. everything was plugged in and I was pressing power (on) button and nothing happened. I unplugged power cord and plugged back in, and nothing. This normally only happens when there is a power outage, and it seems to take several minutes for it to start again (power safety?). After several minutes of fiddling with cords, it started.

Good news: d-link ethernet started working when computer finally would start. onboard ethernet still not working.

Guess I should do a backup of important data since the computer is acting weird.

[Andrew]

So remember Broken USB with keyboard thread I made a long time ago?

While testing moblin I was inserting usb drives quite often and accidentally had a usb stick touch the broken usb slot (I didn't force it in or anything), and the computer powered off. Computer would not start, so I unplugged everything for a couple minutes, plugged everything back in, and once again onboard lan does not work.

So the broken usb could be causing problems with onboard lan, or anytime I unplug computer (or ethernet wire) it gets killed.

Thankfully I still have old pci ethernet hooked up. Although moblin could not connect (not detected?), and windows xp can not connect. At least ubuntu works with it.