How do I verify that my ethernet card is fried?

I have not been able to connect via ethernet for the past week; the settings that worked earlier (and those that my coworkers use) do not work.
Same on windows; the device manager now only shows the wireless card under network adapters.

How can I confirm that the ethernet card is fried on linux? This is on Ubuntu 10.10.

 

Do you have a dual boot with Windows? Can another operating system verify your claims? You could boot Windows 7 off a USB and see if your ethernet card is indeed dead.

Takes a bit of trouble but it's one way you could go about it. Usb to Ethernet ports are very... very cheap these days. $5 on Ebay.

 

Yes, as I mentioned, on windows 7; the device manager now only shows the wireless card under network adapters.

 

The following should show if there is any Ethernet hardware visible to the OS although it doesn't mean that a linux driver is loaded.

Code:

lspci | grep -i ethernet

You could also look in the output of dmesg.

Code:

dmesg | grep -i eth

Are there any BIOS setting to disable the Ethernet hardware?

Any LED glowing next to the Ethernet port when a cable is plugged in?

 

the two commands both came up empty.
There used to be a green LED blinking at 1 sec intervals last week, today there is no light.

Bios has no disabling option

 

Looks like you may have just killed your Ethernet port.. Like I said they don't cost anything these days. In an electronics store near here that is usually overpriced they're only 10€ and on Ebay they're around $5... I'm talking about USB to Ethernet. It's still got a transfer cap of 25MB/s I'm pretty sure. (USB 2.0 Max). If you need faster you might be able to find a USB 3.0 to Ethernet if they exist.

Orrrrr... if you have an expansion slot you could just pop an ethernet port in that way. Up to you.

Other than that, try reinstalling the driver on Windows 7. Do a scan for new devices and see if that shows up with something. Also connect the ethernet cord to another computer/device with an ethernet slot, see if the lights start flashing then.

If not then you probably have busted your port somehow.. :/

 

While we are at it, I hate you for you awesome internet connection...

 

That area of europe has always had much better internet speeds then us. The best we have in maryland is fios and thats almost half what those speeds are.

 

Can you attempt to reset the EC by pressing and holding the power button for 30 sec WITH NO POWER supplied (AC and Battery disconnected).

 

What is EC?

Today, surprisingly it is working!!!!!
Yesterday, the wireless kept shutting itslef off.
And today, the ethernet works. So wierd.

The week before last (last week was when the problems started), I was travelling to a different voltage zone --- maybe that did something?

 

EC = embedded controller. The doohickey that manages some power states and low-level functions of your notebook. A common troubleshooting step is to remove AC power and the battery and let the thing sit for a minute to lose all the residual power so that the EC resets itself.

 

THANKS! The problem again appeared. I tried the reset thing, and it seems to have worked!!