Windows 7: Win 7 NIC card support lacking

Basic question: Does Windows 7 have built in drivers for NIC cards? I am trying to install Win 7 to a barebones Shuttle K45 system. Win 7 installs seamlessly, but cannot connect to the internet. NIC card light is flashing but no driver. When I try to load drivers from the CD that came with the MB, it complains that it does not know the Win 7 OS so no drivers are installed.
Without internet access I can not send MS feedback or get updates.
I installed XP, but Win 7 will not do an upgrade to XP. XP works fine. Installed Vista Ultimate and it works fine, NIC and hardware is all OK with these two OS systems. It is just a problem with getting driver into WIN 7 that will allow a Generic Marvell Yukon Chipset based Ethernet Controller to communicate with Router.

Any ideas on how I can proceed so I can test Win 7 on this new machine?

Hi Reggie and welcome to the forum!

I had the same experience when I installed Windows 7 on my machine.

The solution: Download all your essential drivers from your manufacturer's web for the latest ones.

After installing Windows 7, if it wont accept the installation automatically, extract the drivers off of the installer, of if applicable, download the zip version of it and then install the driver manually by going to device manager, right-clicking on your NIC and choose update driver and point to your extracted folder.

Hope it helps