NIC has disappeared? No wired internet connection...

[adambravo]

About a month ago, my internet connection stopped working on my main PC--an HP Pavilion A450n. Did the usual--rebooted the PC, rebooted the router, rebooted the modem. Still nothing. Other wireless connections in the house were working fine. Bypassed the router and plugged directly into the modem. No change. Tried a different cable. No change.
Went into device manager, and discovered my adapter--Realtek 8187--was not even listed. Then I saw an icon in system tray indicating driver installation had failed; went to the Realtek site, got the latest driver package. Still no change. Went and bought a new NIC (the name escapes me, as I'm at work now). Also not recognized by my PC. And, by the way, the green light at the ethernet port (for the new card) is a steady green glow.
Am now using a Belkin wireless-G adapter, which seems to work most of the time. However--and this may be related to the above issue--it's not uncommon for me to come home at the end of the day and see that my internet connection has disappeared. I either have to reinstall the driver software or reboot the PC.
WTF? Bad motherboard? Any suggestions welcome...

 

[zigzag3143]

About a month ago, my internet connection stopped working on my main PC--an HP Pavilion A450n. Did the usual--rebooted the PC, rebooted the router, rebooted the modem. Still nothing. Other wireless connections in the house were working fine. Bypassed the router and plugged directly into the modem. No change. Tried a different cable. No change.
Went into device manager, and discovered my adapter--Realtek 8187--was not even listed. Then I saw an icon in system tray indicating driver installation had failed; went to the Realtek site, got the latest driver package. Still no change. Went and bought a new NIC (the name escapes me, as I'm at work now). Also not recognized by my PC. And, by the way, the green light at the ethernet port (for the new card) is a steady green glow.
Am now using a Belkin wireless-G adapter, which seems to work most of the time. However--and this may be related to the above issue--it's not uncommon for me to come home at the end of the day and see that my internet connection has disappeared. I either have to reinstall the driver software or reboot the PC.
WTF? Bad motherboard? Any suggestions welcome...

Does it have this problem when booted into safe mode (F8) with networking?

Are you using "homegroup" for networking?

Ken

 

[DocBrown]

Have you checked for virus & spyware causing any problems ?

 

[belikexp]

Did you install iTunes? Try uninstalling Bonjour.

 

[YakSipper]

Perhaps firewall on the machine acting up or strangely? Try uninstalling it.

 

[adambravo]

Wow! Quick responses. In order...
1. No change in safe mode.
2. Yes, I believe I am using Homegroup for Networking (although the issue here is with my PC alone, as the other devices in the house--Dell PC, older iMac, and Tivo--all connect fine).
3. I've got Windows Essentials running with nightly checks, so I assume I'm clean.
4. Yes, but I've had iTunes running for years. I will note that my most recent attempt to have Apple Software Update bring iTunes to v9.1 failed, so I did that manually. Can I uninstall Bonjour using the Windows Remove Programs setup, or should I use ccleaner?
5. Uninstall the firewall? Can I do that?

 

[YakSipper]

Wow! Quick responses. In order...
1. No change in safe mode.
2. Yes, I believe I am using Homegroup for Networking (although the issue here is with my PC alone, as the other devices in the house--Dell PC, older iMac, and Tivo--all connect fine).
3. I've got Windows Essentials running with nightly checks, so I assume I'm clean.
4. Yes, but I've had iTunes running for years. I will note that my most recent attempt to have Apple Software Update bring iTunes to v9.1 failed, so I did that manually. Can I uninstall Bonjour using the Windows Remove Programs setup, or should I use ccleaner?
5. Uninstall the firewall? Can I do that?

-5 Well, if you're only using the Win7 built-in firewall as assumed by me from your question, then no. Leave the firewall alone. If you have a 3rd party firewall, then uninstall to test.

 

[adambravo]

@Yaksipper: Windows firewall only. One is plenty...