Constant disconnect on windows 7 (wired)

Welcome to the club! Ry4nchu

I've been lately with both 7 and mostly with it's predacessor Vista. Vista introduced the TCP Auto Tuning carried over to 7 which is accompanied by the TCP Offload you can disable. The guide at the link here may be a help. SpeedGuide.net :: Windows 7, Vista, 2008 Tweaks

Another resource for this is a TechNet blog seen at The effect of TCP Chimney offload on viewing network traffic

Hopefully that will go well for you there since the issue seen on 7 here was a quick glitch someone had seen and simply applied to prevent the problems you are running into.

The Vista laptop worked on lately was a different story having been hit with a malware that eventually trashed any efforts to reconnect at all requiring a full fresh install of Windows.

The inability to connect to DNS server type headache is one you may be able to avoid. But keep on top of it to avoid a need for a wipe and clean start if you can avoid that. Run some good security sweeps just the same.

So as it turns out after all that it was a simple 3rd party compatibility issue by your description causing all the headaches not 7 or any hardware like your adapter. It fits!

At least you were able to find the source while the expense on a new board and router must be frustrating.

(I know that one from replacing the first board here when a bad supply ended up cooking the board as it went when first getting this one together. some choice words heard in the background. ggrrr...)

Another trick I found for solving temporary dropoffs if you should see any more is simply going into the Control Panel>Network & Sharing Center to click on the link right under the Network icon. When the screen comes up you simply select "Home". When adding on and later removing a router here or swapping cases to work on another I often need to refresh that option.

Give it a try to see how things go. I generally don't use that one or similar programs here but occasionally hear they can be a problem at times.

You might want to run some security sweeps as well in case a malware got on. Recently I had to wipe a laptop after one was already cleaned off since the registry had been effected more then first realized preventing a normal connection. The working connection simply stopped working one day forcing a clean install.

Glad to hear you are making some progress with this. Sometimes it pays to go the manufacturer's own support sites for certain types of problems that can't be solved with the usual network troubleshooting methods.

That by the way is the same brand of router and likely the same model I had added on here for a period of time when trying to add another case on using a pci type WiFi card on a few old cases to get a shared connection going. If yours has the RJ-45 plugins there's a trick for getting that going when first going to add it on.