Installing PCI Ethernet over Missing Onboard Ethernet

[Rick Nebiolo]

I'll keep this post "relatively" short [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

When troubleshooting recent and unexpected shutdown and startup problems I flashed the BIOS on my Asus P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard with the latest (not the beta) from the Asus web site. This was my first BIOS flash and the flash seemed to work (the screen said "BIOS update success" or something similar). The computer didn't reboot automatically (the instructions said this might happen) after the flash so I restarted my machine.

I had the same hangup on startup I was often having before (bootup sequence stops, the screen says "Overclocking Failed" (despite the fact I don't overclock) and asks me to "press F1 to enter the BIOS setup utility" (which I normally do, check out settings, then exit) or "F2 to load default settings and continue".

I had a brainfart and pressed F2.

Besides not fixing the starup problem the default settings of the new BIOS made my onboard Ethernet disappear (an Intel 100/1000 Pro). I couldn't get my DSL connection.

For you techies I confirmed this by going to the Device Manager (right click My Computer > select Properties> select Hardware> select Device Manager> select Network Settings). The "Win WAN Miniport PPPOE" device (I knew this was somehow part of Ethernet) needed for DSL wouldn't enable (when I tried I got the message "Windows can't load the device driver").

I went back to a slightly earlier BIOS. I'm still not sure I have anything close to the the compuuter factory BIOS settings (as opposed to the default BIOS settings set by ASUS) stored in CMOS. I tried sensible resets of BIOS settings (one says "Enable Onboard LAN" and attempted to load the device software and find a driver. Still no luck. I even replaced the CMOS battery just in case it wasn't holding my settings (a search on Google suggested this). This took me the better part of a day.

I finally decided to drive to Fry's and buy a $20 PCI Ethernet card and install it over the missing onboard device. After some minor tweaks I got it working and am now writing posts such as this (after trying to catch up with the rest of the fourm).

Question: Is it OK to install a cheap PCI Ethernet card when the onboard Ethernet device on your expensive motherboard is MIA?

Also, has anyone had experience with startup problems that I *partially* described here? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

~ Rick

PS After spending 50 hours during the past ten days fixing computer problems this is sort of a rant so please forgive me.