wifi connected; ethernet card will no longer connect

[Ztruker]

Try the uninstall of the Realtek NIC from Device Manager again only this time, if offered, let it delete the drivers to.

Reboot and let windows rediscover the NIC and find and install the drive again.

Question, why are you still on 8.0 rather than 8.1?

If nothing else works, download 8.1 using the MS Media Creation Tool and create a UEFI/GPT install flash drive then try upgrading to 8.1.

See here: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/18309-windows-8-windows-8-1-iso-download-create.html

If that doesn't help save your data then do a Clean Install of 8.1 using the flash drive created above.

See here: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2299-clean-install-windows-8-a.html

Edit: For both of these, Windows 8.1 will use the Windows 8.1 key embedded in UEFI.

 

[fotyc]

Thanks, I may try the full delete.
I'm not on Windows 8.1 because about 18 months ago, half a year after getting this computer, I accepted Windows 8.1 and it was such a complete disaster that I had to do a clean reinstall of Windows 8 from a recovery disk to get the computer to even boot again, and I completely lost any recovery partition so I'm glad that I have the disk. I then read that Samsung laptops were just not ready to handle Windows 8.1, and I've been wary ever since of taking it again. You can't fall back from it, you have to do a clean reinstall of Windows 8.

I think I'm going to give Verizon tech support a whack at solving why my ethernet card can't identify the network - they sometimes seem to have manuals or whatever that tell them things I can't figure out on my own, when it comes to the router - I'll let them approach this as an issue with the router and see what they can offer.

Why do you think a clean OS install will help? I really hate to do that if I don't have to, as it means I have hundreds of Windows updates I have to install plus all my software. Last time I did it, I did it over New Year's weekend and basically spent a day on it, so I consider it the nuclear option...

I went back to setting it to get an IP address automatically because this morning when I turned on the computer it went into a loop of trying to identify, failing, trying again, failing... that was making the computer unhappy. At least now, it has a live connection even if it has no IP address....

Oh and PS I'm not on UEFI boot, I'm on legacy. That was one thing I had to do after my Windows 8.1 fiasco in order to even boot, is use legacy. I have no idea why... There IS a BIOS update pending for this computer, maybe I will try that too and see if it helps. Converting to UEFI should be on my list, I found this which makes it seem possible - if it worked in Windows 7 there must be a way to do it in Windows 8! Part of me is thinking that I ought to just make a clean sweep, do a new installation of Windows 8.1 in UEFI and maybe everything will get a new lease on life here...

 

[fotyc]

Just found someone right here on this forum with the same exact ethernet adaptor I have, on Windows 8.1, having the same problem. What is going on????

 

[fotyc]

In the log on my router I see this over and over and over and over and over... I don't know what it means... maybe nothing except that the behavior I'm observing is in fact occurring...

06/27/2015	12:44:57 PM	kernel	eth1 Link UP 10 mbps full duplex
06/27/2015	12:44:57 PM	kernel	br0: topology change detected, propagating
06/27/2015	12:44:57 PM	kernel	br0: port 2(eth1) entering forwarding state
06/27/2015	12:44:58 PM	kernel	eth1 Link DOWN.
06/27/2015	12:44:58 PM	kernel	br0: port 2(eth1) entering disabled state
06/27/2015	12:45:03 PM	kernel	eth1 Link UP 10 mbps full duplex
06/27/2015	12:45:03 PM	kernel	br0: topology change detected, propagating
06/27/2015	12:45:03 PM	kernel	br0: port 2(eth1) entering forwarding state
06/27/2015	12:45:04 PM	kernel	eth1 Link DOWN.
06/27/2015	12:45:04 PM	kernel	br0: port 2(eth1) entering disabled state
06/27/2015	12:45:12 PM	kernel	eth1 Link UP 10 mbps full duplex
06/27/2015	12:45:12 PM	kernel	br0: topology change detected, propagating
06/27/2015	12:45:12 PM	kernel	br0: port 2(eth1) entering forwarding state
06/27/2015	12:45:14 PM	kernel	eth1 Link DOWN.
06/27/2015	12:45:14 PM	kernel	br0: port 2(eth1) entering disabled state

 

[Ztruker]

I'm not on Windows 8.1 because about 18 months ago, half a year after getting this computer, I accepted Windows 8.1 and it was such a complete disaster that I had to do a clean reinstall of Windows 8 from a recovery disk to get the computer to even boot again, and I completely lost any recovery partition so I'm glad that I have the disk. I then read that Samsung laptops were just not ready to handle Windows 8.1, and I've been wary ever since of taking it again. You can't fall back from it, you have to do a clean reinstall of Windows 8.

You should be doing image backups so if a problem occurs, you restore the image and your back to exactly where you were when the image was created. Much better than doing a reinstall from scratch.

Buy an external USB hard drive, 1TB or more (around $50).
Use Macrium Reflect Free to do the imaging.

Good tutorial here: Imaging with free Macrium

Windows 8.0 is a dead end. All support will be dropped soon, no more updates or security fixes. You must move to 8.1.
You will not be able to upgrade to Windows 10 unless you are at 8.1.

Once you have a image backup, try what I suggested in my previous post to clean install 8.1, not do an upgrade.

 

[fotyc]

Thanks... I'm thinking to do that. Should I also try what you advised the Windows 8.1 guy on the other thread with the Dism commands? Will I be able to go to UEFI at the same time as I do the clean install?

 

[Ztruker]

Yes, give DISM and SFC a try as this could be a file corruption problem as one thread I found indicated.

 

[fotyc]

I am downloading the Win 8.1 ISO now. I have what I believe is a UEFI capable bios (AMI Bios P09ABI) and a Samsung NP550P5C. The computer was originally sold with Windows 7 but came to me with Windows 8 on it from Best Buy, put on by (ick) the Geek Squad refurbishers. Since I got a Win 8 recovery disk from Samsung and had no trouble with the reinstall, I'm assuming the product key I have is going to be valid for an 8.1 clean install. Some day when I have lots of time and have had a good sleep the night before :shock: I will attempt a totally clean install and conversion to UEFI boot at the same time... Do you think I'm being realistic? Going to get a 1TB USB drive soon for my image.

 

[Ztruker]

You should have no problem going with a UEFI/GPT install. They key is to create UEFI/GPT install media. The best bet is to use the 8..1 iso you are currently downloading to create a UEFI/GPT flash drive to install from.

Delete all partitions on the drive you will install to and let the installer create and format what it needs.

 

[fotyc]

I had a very smooth clean install, so now I have a nice laptop booting UEFI and running Windows 8.1. The ethernet card didn't come back to life, so I'm assuming at this point I have a hardware failure and will try a USB ethernet adapter just so I have a wired connection available when necessary or if I'm downloading something large.
Thank you for your assistance, EightForums is 100% better than Microsoft for Windows knowledge!

 

[Ztruker]

Try creating a Linux Live CD or flash drive to boot from. See if the Ethernet connection works there. If not then definitely hardware.

 

[fotyc]

Do you mind my asking one last question about this? I ran across a few places online where people said they had to go into the BIOS and disable the onboard LAN to get their PCI adapter to work. Now, I used to have a computer with a bona fide PCI LAN card I plugged into the slot; I know that isn't this, but it is still called Realtek PCIe GBIE family controller for some reason... Would this be a setting in the BIOS I ought to look at? Thank you again...

 

[Ztruker]

Your LAN is on the motherboard, not an add-in card, correct?

On my Lenovo K450 the NIC shows in Device Manager as Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller too.

 

[fotyc]

Yes I believe so, but since it has PCI in the name I thought I should verify that this wouldn't be an issue... I suppose onboard lan could have gotten disabled somehow and I'd need to re-enable. There was a thing with the touchpad on my daughter's old Toshiba that kept getting disabled and we'd have to re-enable it, never did figure out why.

 

[fotyc]

Just an update to this...I plugged the cable into my work laptop and it fired right up and made a connection...
I played a lot with my settings and with assigning some things manually instead of being detected automatically, and ended up with an ipconfig that looks like this between my two devices, but the ethernet card still can't get past Unidentified Network status. I tried a couple of things I found online (a PowerShell script and a registry tweak that was supposed to change unidentified networks to Private or Public) but they got me nowhere and I had to restart to avoid losing my wifi. The ipconfig looks good but this still doesn't work...the light (on the router) is literally on but nobody is home... I have not tried the Linux approach but I don't think it'll tell us anything we don't know. The stuff at the top of the ipconfig output is unfamiliar to me, I don't know if those things are right or how to set them at the host level.

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : CarolineSamsung
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : domain.actdsltmp

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : domain.actdsltmp
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 50-B7-C3-81-2C-AA
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::9478:d758:242c:2d4e%11(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.13(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 340834243
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1D-2A-E5-2B-C4-85-08-E0-C0-E5

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : domain.actdsltmp
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6235
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : C4-85-08-E0-C0-E5
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::9585:d3c0:ae50:ecb5%3(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.3(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, July 5, 2015 12:21:27 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, July 12, 2015 12:21:32 PM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 63210760
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1D-2A-E5-2B-C4-85-08-E0-C0-E5

 

[Ztruker]

I think a Linux Live CD is still a good test as you have yet to make the onboard NIC work under Windows.
If it works there then it's a Windows problem. If it doesn't then it's a hardware problem and the only fix is to replace the motherboard, use a USB connected NIC or add a PCMCIA NIC.

 

[fotyc]

The rest of my computer is working really well and I don't want to mess it up, booting from a Linux CD won't do anything to my Windows setup, right?

Edited to add - I came up and woke up the computer and saw that it was connected via the Ethernet cable! So it kind of woke up and worked, but in a half-assed manner; sometimes quite normal, sometimes very slow, sometimes just hanging. So weird. I ended up disabling the adapter so I could go back to the wifi which is reliable.