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    Anyone else having trouble with their network driver on the m17x?

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by fc2462, Nov 7, 2009.

  1. fc2462

    fc2462 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi all . . .

    I've got this strange new issue where about 90% of the time, when I boot my m17x the network adapter does not work.

    I have the Nvidia MCP79 chipset driver. I think it may be something I installed but I can't seem to figure it out. I have some software that messes with the networking such as Cisco Anyconnect VPN client, NCP Secure Entry VPN Client, VMware Workstation (recently upgraded to version 7). Unfortunately, I need all of these softwares.

    The problem seemed to get worse after some windows updates but I backed them out with a restore point and that did not fix it.

    What's really strange is about 1 out of 6 or 7 reboots, the darn thing will come up normally. The rest of the time, the system tray network icon is the yellow triangle (no internet.) If I look at the properties, the driver says its running fine. I've tried 3 different versions of the Nvidia chipset driver now (the one that came on the resource DVD, the latest Vista 64 version and the Win 7 version from Dell's website) with no luck.

    The link light on the adapter is on but I'm just not getting an IP address. Again, if I reboot the PC 5 times, it might come up but that is no good.

    Anybody have a similar issue or have any ideas of what to try next?

    I also tried searching for a driver on the Windows Vista disk with no luck. Does anyone know of a generic ethernet driver that will work for this chipset?

    I'm running out of ideas. Any help or suggestions are very much appreciated.

    Frank
     
    fc2462, Nov 7, 2009
    #1
  2. coldcase

    coldcase Notebook Consultant

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    Check this thread. Last post on the first page: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=428533
     
    coldcase, Nov 8, 2009
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  3. fc2462

    fc2462 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks, but that thread appeared to be about wireless problems. I'm having trouble with the 10/100/1000 base T ethernet adapter. Also, my problem is that it's not working even on fresh boot not after coming out of sleep or anything.

    Thanks,
    Frank
     
    fc2462, Nov 8, 2009
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  4. fc2462

    fc2462 Notebook Enthusiast

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    It seemed to be Vista service pack 2 causing all my issues. I don't know why I installed it in the first place. From now on, if the computer is working good and my anti-virus/firewall software is up to date, I'm going to take "a less is more" approach to freaking Windows updates.

    I just wanted to update the thread in case anyone searching for m17x Nvidia Ethernet problem would know what caused my issue.
     
    fc2462, Nov 10, 2009
    #4