Sudden Broadcom Ethernet disconnect

sadly nothing after checking all that.. it just stopped, no installation of anything, then it came back, then no connection since.

I even reformatted at this point...

Be sure it's still turned on via BIOS option.

Be sure no USB wireless WiFi dongles are connected (they will over-ride wired connection).

Check or temporarily disable any firewalls.

Uninstall the Dell supplied driver suite, reboot, and let Windows load it's generic Broadcom driver from local Win-7 driver cache.

Try turning it off in BIOS, reboot, and then turn it back on.

Does the little light on the port itself come on when you plug in the cable, and go off when the cable it un-plugged? The router's port light should do the same thing.

I meant to include that I did reboot then re enable as you meant.

When I ping my router I get "transmit failed. General failure.

Despite the NIC passing tests and lighting up when told to, I am thinking that is dysfunctional

.

I disabled the NIC via the BIOS and after the reboot the blue windows swirl appeared on the network icon as if identifying the network, then it reverts back to the red X.

I just ran the Broadcom Diagnostic suite and the NIC appears to be fine, it passes all the tests without a hitch. The NIC lights work when polled by the Broadcom diagnostic program, but when connected to a working source (cable modem) no lights activate.

I will turn the card off in the BIOS as per your instruction and report back. Thanks in advance.

Read my instructions carefully... it was

Disable, reboot, Enable, and then try.

If you can PING your router, then try

IPCONFIG /release

IPCONFIG /renew

... in a command prompt window

There are 2 tiny lights on the port itself (on the back of the machine). What ends up being the top one ... should be on steady if connected (with a good cable) to a good port on a modem or router. The bottom one lights up on activity (so it ends up flashing randomly).

If you can get that working, try to PING the private IP address of your router.

Broadcom 5784

Thanks for the help, I am attaching a USB adapter to bypass the MOBO NIC.

Maybe I'll figure something out tomorrow.

Thanks for the help, I am attaching a USB adapter to bypass the MOBO NIC.   Maybe I'll figure something out tomorrow.

When I use the Windows broadcom driver for mine it will only work once. Soon as I reboot I get the same issue as you. This is the Area 51 but the issue sounds the same as yours.

My fix was going to Broadcom and using their driver. Follow the directions on finding the correct driver for your motherboard and see if it helps.  http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/determine_driver.php

Hey

Have you tried using a new network cable?  or at least a known good one,all that stuff you have done so far is useless if the cable is buggered....

How old is your router and more important, how old is the driver on your router? I had the same thing happen to my brand new Aurora R3 last month. Turns out it was my router.

Or it could be the network port on your cable router, you would have to test it with another PC or laptop to see if you get the same problem.

If you got no lights on the NIC when you attached the network cable it's never going to work, try a new cable, or try connecting to another PC or laptop with the same cable, if it works ok then your NIC is faulty, if not its more likely to be the cable.