nvidia 10/100/1000 onboard card problem

hi there... newbie here :)

i have a HP CQ-420SA latop with the following spec
amd Athlon X2 QL65 PROCESSOR
nVidia Geforce 8200m chipset (wistron 303c mobo)
nVidia 10/100/1000 Mbps onboard ethernet card
atheros ar5007 onboard wifi

ok, my problem is that until yesterday i never used the wired ethernet, but i now that i come to use it, it says network cable unplugged.

i tested the external parts on other PC's, all worked fine (cable,router etc)
tried reinstalling so many times...
now, if i flip the duplex from auto to 100 full or 100 half, the light comes onon the router for about 10 seconds then goes off, so i'm guessing the hardware is also fine... so now i'm stuck.. all windows tells me on diagnose is the nic has a hardware or driver issue

please help!!!

thanks for the reply... device manager shows all fine, tried uninstalling the proprietary HP/Compaq drivers and putting in the New nVidia ones, but it says on their site that some laptop mfr's require their own software/drivers.. and it does work better on other areas with the HP set in. NIC doesnt work under either.

did a NIC uninstall and reboot and windows update didnt install the driver properly (although it did recognise the card) and yet when i go to device manager, its all in there and looking well (no warning mark at all!)

kinda stumped now... i would think due to the fact as i said in my earlier post that i can get a light on the router briefly and the fact that it shows up in windows, that the actual hardware is ok, and i know the hardware after the port is fine..

doh... lol

Modem is part of the router, and is proven to be good as my desktop is wired Ethernet and all wireless products work fine. Have also used the patch cables on each other machine and on my other (Toshiba, and older) laptop, it just worked straight away, so I also know the cable is fine that way. It really just seems like windows is saying it doesn't know there's a cable in there, but that's why I find it strange that when I change the duplex from auto to either full or half 100 it lights the port light on the router for about 10 seconds... I know not a lot about networking but I presume that's when it's negotiating, so there's obviously something bring sent, which means by all accounts it should just work!!! Lol

Also the modem/routers tried and known to be working are my netgear DG834gt with latest firmware and a sagem F@ST2504n also up to date

further to this, i have now done a fresh install with windows 7 home premium 64bit... still no dice!!

shoddy bloody HP Laptop i reckon :/

Wireless does, and always has, worked fine. It's the wired Ethernet that's not happening

Only want it to work as I am in the belief that I should get a better data transfer rate between machines as transferring to a USB external drive and hot swapping typically sees around 2.5mbps so if I want to move 7 or 8 gigs of stuff it can take some time

Currently, unless I get the Ethernet working, I see no other option than to sell the laptop and go mac (as primary use is DJing now)