On-board NIC Not Automatically Found Anymore (TA690G AM2)

I'm not sure what's going on with my onboard nic, but none of the operating systems I run can find the NIC automatically (like it did before). I have a Biostar TA690G AM2 5.x motherboard and the NIC uses Realtec drivers. I've had this board for over a year and I've gone through Windows {Vista,7}, Fedora {8,9,10,11,12} without any NIC issues.

I'm dual-booting Windows 7 and Linux (Fedora 12). Before I ran a crack program for Windows 7 (product activation) both systems were able to identify the NIC and pull the proper drivers. I ran the crack program, rebooted my machine and from that point on I've had to manually find the device and the drivers.

I did some research and it looks like I might have blown some sort of memory that's on the NIC, which is used for identifying it. Does an onboard NIC have such a feature? I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to hardware.

Originally Posted by Fergatron I'm not sure what's going on with my onboard nic, but none of the operating systems I run can find the NIC automatically (like it did before). I have a Biostar TA690G AM2 5.x motherboard and the NIC uses Realtec drivers. I've had this board for over a year and I've gone through Windows {Vista,7}, Fedora {8,9,10,11,12} without any NIC issues. I'm dual-booting Windows 7 and Linux (Fedora 12). Before I ran a crack program for Windows 7 (product activation) both systems were able to identify the NIC and pull the proper drivers. I ran the crack program, rebooted my machine and from that point on I've had to manually find the device and the drivers. I did some research and it looks like I might have blown some sort of memory that's on the NIC, which is used for identifying it. Does an onboard NIC have such a feature? I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to hardware.

Yes, it does. And common sense says that if you ran program X, and then your NIC died, it would point obviously to program X. If it doesn't work in Windows or Linux, the problem isn't OS related, but hardware related.

You MIGHT be able to do a BIOS update on your Mobo, and get it going again...but maybe not. Could be that 'crack' program you used to steal your copy of Windows, was nasty on purpose, too.

Hi,

Another reason for 'user beware'.

Piracy is not supported here on LQ!

No way to see if the 'crack' program would cause the problem. I will not support any such action anyway. You got what is deserved. M$ may be a corporation that deserves shunning but to pirate makes you just as bad. Wrong!