ethernet drivers missing

[vbchick]

My HP was working perfectly until a windows file became corrupt and I had to reinstall Windows.  Now none of my networking adaptors are present, not the drivers and I am now unable to connect to the internet even just using the ethernet cable.

I have tried several different drivers from the website and cannot seem to find the correct one.  Where can I locate the correct driver?

Thanks

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

See if the W7 Nvidia chipset driver installs the ethenet driver.

Try manually installing the driver if the auto install doesn't work.

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/30520/en-us

[vbchick]

Those drivers installed, but still do not work.  It gives an error saying it can not find the specified file and to contact the manufacturer.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Go to the device manager.

If the ethernet driver installed, there should be a Network Adapters device manager category.

Click to expand the Network Adapters device manager category, and you should be seeing a Realtek FE Family adapter listed there (or some model Realtek ethernet adapter).

If you do not see this, or there is no Network Adapters device manager category listed, then the ethernet driver did not install the ethernet device.

There should then be an Other Devices category and under that category, there should be a device labeled as an Ethernet Controller with a little ! mark next to it.

If you see that, then try this...

Install this free file utility.  The 2nd file at the top of the page is for 64 bit.

https://www.7-zip.org/

After you install 7-Zip, re-download and save the nVidia chipset driver I posted yesterday.   Do not run the file this time.

After you save the file, right click on it, and select 7-Zip from the list of items on the menu.

Have 7-Zip Extract to:   and let it extract the driver file into its folder name.

Once that is done, go to the device manager, click on the ethernet controller device needing the driver.

Click on the driver tab.  Click on Update Driver.

Select the Browse my computer for driver software option and browse to the driver folder that 7-Zip created.

Make sure the Include subfolders box is checked, and see if the driver installs that way.

If you don't see either the Reatek ethernet adapter, or a plain ethernet controller device, then some kind of hardware failure has probably occured, and the ethernet port is no longer operational.

[vbchick]

Thanks so much for the detailed instructions.  I did all that and got the same error.  Is will give a message saying "Windows found a driver for your device but encountered an error when trying to install them."  Then it lists the nVidia Nforce Netwroking Controller and says "The system cannot find the file specified"

In the device manager, I do not have the Network Adaptors Tab, but under the Other Device tab, it lists bot an Ethernet Controller and an Unknown Device, they have Yellow exclamation point triangles next to them not checkmarks.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

OK, so the hardware is OK, but the drivers won't install.

There are no W10 drivers for your model PC and the newest ones that were available were for W7.

I do believe in my reply above, that under the Other Devices category, there would be devices listed with ! (exclamation) marks next to them, but that is neither here nor there.

Please post the hardware ID's for both the ethernet controller and unknown device.

Use this guide for how to find the hardware ID for a device.

https://www.howtogeek.com/193798/how-to-find-drivers-for-unknown-devices-in-the-device-manager/

[vbchick]

Ethernet controller IDs:

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0760&SUBSYS_2A9E103C&REV_A2

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0760&SUBSYS_2A9E103C

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0760&CC_020000

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0760&CC_0200

Other device does not have an hardware ids.  If I try to update that driver it throws the same error, but list WPD Filesystem Volume Driver as the device.

I know there aren't any drivers for W10; hence my difficulty finding them 🙂

I was trying to read your reply on my phone and misread that exclamation point as a check- sorry.

Thanks again for your help, I appreciate it

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Glad to try to be of assistance.

OK, with the WPD Filesystem Volume Driver, that appears to be some external USB card reader device (or internal SD card reader) connected to your PC.

If you google the error, you will find several references to that issue, such as this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba5ZNGWTnOE

The ethernet controller I'm afraid is going to be an unsolvable issue.

You can try this last resort and if it doesn't work, if you want to connect via ethernet, just purchase an external USB to RJ-45 ethernet adapter that works with W10.  They are cheap and plentiful.

That will allow you to continue to use an otherwise perfectly good PC on W10.

Something like this...

https://www.amazon.com/USB-3-0-Ethernet-Adapter-Syncwire/dp/B074CDL78M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=153287...

OK...On to the last resort...

Go to the device manager, click on the ethernet controller needing the driver.  Click on the driver tab, click on Update driver.

Select the Browse my computer for driver software but this time, at the bottom of that window, select the Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.

Click on Have Disk, and browse to the driver folder 7-Zip created>Ethernet>nvfd6x64 (Setup Information File), and see if the driver installs that way.

This driver file does have support for the hardware ID you posted, but it probably isn't working because the W10 code is too different for the W7 code to work.  Sometimes older drivers work, and sometimes they don't.

Here is a partial copy and paste of that nvfd6x64 setup information file that does show driver support for the hardware ID you posted.

[Nvidia.NTamd64.6.1]
%NVENETFD.DeviceDesc%  =  NVENET51_WIN7.NDI,          PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0269
%NVENETFD.DeviceDesc%  =  NVENET51_WIN7.NDI,          PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0268
%NVENETFD.DeviceDesc%  =  NVENET55_WIN7.NDI,          PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0373
%NVENETFD.DeviceDesc%  =  NVENET55_WIN7.NDI,          PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0372
%NVENETFD.DeviceDesc%  =  NVENET61_WIN7.NDI,          PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_03EF
%NVENETFD.DeviceDesc%  =  NVENET61_WIN7.NDI,          PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_03EE
%NVENETFD.DeviceDesc%  =  NVENET73_WIN7.NDI,          PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_07DC
%NVENETFD.DeviceDesc%  =  NVENET77_WIN7.NDI,          PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0760
%NVENETFD.DeviceDesc%  =  NVENET79_WIN7.NDI,          PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0AB0