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November 1st, 2022 00:00
Network adapter working, ethernet controller isn't (Hiren's Bootcd PE)
My Dell Optiplex 960 (DDO9XL) is a dual boot, and an important partition on one of the boots disappeared when I was adding a new partition. I've been using Hiren's BootCD PE to access and run some diagnositic utilities trying to find a solution to the problem. This new versions of Hiren's is based on Windows 10, and I haven't been able to access the internet using it's included browsers. The PE Network Manager identifies my network adapter card but lists it as disconnected. I looked in Device Manager and the Network Adapter card is shown as working properly, but the Ethernet Controller is shown as not working.
When I boot the computer using the older Hiren's Boot CD 15.2, or the Ultimate Boot CD...the included browsers are able to connect to the internet. Unfortunately, these browsers are so old that 90% of the websites reject the connection for security reasons. And the Device Manager in the older Hiren's doesn't even show the Ethernet Controller. Which leaves me puzzled about it's function and if the Ethernet Controller has a different name or identification in the older Device Manager (based on the mini WinXP that comes with Hiren's BootCD 15.2) .
I need some help trying to figure out why the newer Hiren's BootCD PE isn't making the network connection, and if the Ethernet Controller is something required with Windows 10 but not with Windows XP?
jbclem
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112 Posts
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November 2nd, 2022 23:00
Fixed the problem...I discovered that the ethernet cable was plugged into an old network adapter card... which worked fine with the older OSes used on the older Boot CDs. The newer Hirens BootCD PE based on Windows 10 wasn't connecting to the network and fooled me by recognizing the onboard Dell network adapter, so I assumed the ethernet cable was plugged into to the onboard adapter. When I saw that it wasn't, I moved the cable to the onboard adapter and immediately there was a network connection and the included browser (FF 78) also connected when I started it.
So, this is good to know if you ever have to use Hiren's BootCD PE to work on a computer problem. Having access to the internet on the problem computer makes things much much easier, and you won't get that using the older Hiren's 15.2 BootCD(Firefox 20 or so) or the Ultimate BootCD (Opera 12).