Ethernet Cable not detected. Local Area Connection not visible.

DrewO said:

Left, right, up, down and enter don't register for me on this screen :/

Is a LAN cable plugged in by the way? Must be plugged in or it won't work.

It is plugged in, yes. This is kind of back to the root problem, that my PC isn't registering an ethernet cable.

DrewO said:

It is plugged in, yes.

I have a feeling that the power cut/surge may have fried the NIC on your motherboard .

SMARTLAN isn't picking it up, neither is windows, there's no lights... I think its dead.

Last thing you could try:

1. Go to BIOS
2. Set Onboard H/W LAN to DISABLED
3. Load into windows
4. Turn Off PC
5. Go to BIOS
6. Re-enable the LAN, then load into windows again

DrewO said:

Well ... I tried it. Still no luck. I guess my denial that something's gone belly up can fade away now.
I suppose I should invest in a better surge protector. Haha.

Thank you very much, MistUnleashed for sticking with me through all this. Time to go buy some things. Lol.

It's alright, always happy to help!

I suggest not spending much on a PCI NIC, you simply don't need to.

Get something similar to this: TP-LINK TG-3269 32-bit Gigabit PCI Network Interface Card: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Should work fine, but make sure it fits your Motherboard!

Also if you get a PCI NIC then you HAVE TO disable the onboard LAN - even if its dead. Just disable it from the BIOS as I mentioned in my last post.

I hope you manage to get your internet up and running on the PC soon!

Good Luck! :)

GokAy said:

Did you go into BIOS and check if Ethernet port is enabled in there? It shouldn't have been disabled but you never know.

When he went into the BIOS, the Onboard H/W LAN was already enabled, this is what has helped me conclude that the actual port is dead. We've tried disabling and re-enabling it but it still doesn't power up. Do you know of any other way to check?