NIC stopped working after virus scan

[amberlynn]

Hello,
I ran Avast AV this morning - it found 1 infection and suggested a boot scan. This also found 1 infection and removed it.
After rebooting, the network card completely stopped working.
No lights show on the card - I've uninstalled/reinstalled the driver.
I'm not sure that the virus issue is related to the NIC - but it was working fine yesterday...
Thanks!
Amber

 

[NESWalt]

Try reinstalling the driver for the card, or removing it completely from the Device Manager and letting Windows re-identify it. It's possible the driver got corrupted when the AV software cleaned it.

Walt
Ciber/NES

http://nespower.com

 

[NESWalt]

Sorry, I read that you retried the driver... just got interrupted mid stream and didn't finish sending when I was first on it...

Remove from Device Mgr and let Windows Re-Id it if it can...
Try it in a different machine if possible to see if it lights up there...
Try another NIC in this machine if you have one...
Try the NIC in a different slot...

Walt
Ciber/NES

http://nespower.com

 

[amberlynn]

Thanks Walt,
I did try removing it from device manager and let Windows find it and install drivers.
It is an onboard NIC so moving it isn't an option.
Any other suggestions?
Thanks,
Amber

 

[NESWalt]

A couple of other possibilities...

Can you boot into Safemode w/ Networking to see if it works?

Do you have access to a bootable recovery CD (particularly something like Knoppix or another live OS CD? I'm wondering if you run one of these, and the NIC works, then we know the issue is software on your box.

Just for the sake of covering it, have you tried a different known good network cable? It really would be a coincidence, but it just rules that part out. It wouldn't be first time I have seen something coincidental like this.

Walt
Ciber/NES

http://nespower.com

 

[amberlynn]

I'm baffled!
Booting into safe mode - still no network connectivity.
Same when I boot to Knoppix.
The cable I'm using works fine with another machine.
Maybe - coincidentally - the NIC did go???!!??

Amber

 

[NESWalt]

It is possible, usually doesn't happen. Considering the recent past, were you experiencing any network issues at all over the last bit?

Walt
Ciber/NES

http://nespower.com

 

[kjv1611]

If it's OS-independent, then it's highly unlikely the virus caused it, and more likely that it coincidentally died at the same/similar time as the virus infection.

If you live close enough to an electronics store that'd sell a network adapter, I'd say bite the bullet, go pick up a card, and try that out. I'd first look up the specs for your system and/or open it up to see what's available internally. You'll need to get a PCI or PCI Express x1 card for the network adapter. A PCI card should be a safe bet, assuming you've not customized anything hardware-wise, and assuming the original configuration wasn't full-out upgraded to the potential of that system. Sometimes when you add upgrades from an OEM, that means adding another PCI or PCI Express card.

 

[JimInKS]

It's probably a goner, but I would also reset the BIOS to factory defaults and make sure the onboard NIC is enabled.

 

[kjv1611]

True, wouldn't hurt to try that...

Also, not bad idea to try, I suppose:
1. In BIOS, disable network adapter...
2. go into Windows...
3. Reboot
4. Go to BIOS again, and enable the network adapter..

The only other possibility is that your network adapter just doesn't have a good driver (or at least not on default install) of Ubuntu. I'd also wonder what version/build of Ubuntu you used... the later ones will have the best driver support built in without separate downloads.