network adapter no longer works?

wonderings

Baseband Member
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I have a Dell XPS 8300 with an i7 chip. Running Windows 7 home premium I believe. This computer has been running for a year or so now with no issues until yesterday night. I had not used the computer in a week or 2. Turned it on, tried to go online, but I get this message:

"Windows did not detect a properly installed network adapter. If you have a network adapter, you will to need to re-install the driver."

This happened out of the blue, and I am still online at home, have a few iPads, iPhone, iMacs and Retina MacBook Pros that all work fine.

I was able to get online with the pc by resetting my router (Airport Express) and my cable modem. With a restart of the Dell I was online. I left last night, and this morning, woke the computer from sleep and back to square one with no network.

Do I need to find the drivers again to reinstall or is there something else I need to do to fix this problem?
 
Is this over wired or wireless?

Try going into Device Manager and under Network Adapters category, expand it > find your network connection > right click > properties > power management > uncheck "allow windows to turn this device off to save power" or something along those lines.
 
Is this over wired or wireless?

Try going into Device Manager and under Network Adapters category, expand it > find your network connection > right click > properties > power management > uncheck "allow windows to turn this device off to save power" or something along those lines.

It is wired.

I will give that a try when I get home from work.
 
When at home for lunch I took a quick look in device manager. Seems there is nothing there for my network
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Guessing the only thing left to do is find a driver and install that? Are there generic drivers or do I need to figure out exactly what I have in my dell cps 8300?
 
You'll need to find out what you have. The drivers should be on Dell's website as well (or at least the ethernet chipset brand / model so you can go directly to their webpage as well).

Do this for me as well: the SMBus Controller unknown device listed there.. Right click > Properties > Details tab > under 'Property' select Hardware IDs.

It should show PCI\VEN_####&DEV_#### ...

Post the part with VEN_####&DEV_#### (where the #### is some alphanumeric combination).
 
You'll need to find out what you have. The drivers should be on Dell's website as well (or at least the ethernet chipset brand / model so you can go directly to their webpage as well).

Do this for me as well: the SMBus Controller unknown device listed there.. Right click > Properties > Details tab > under 'Property' select Hardware IDs.

It should show PCI\VEN_####&DEV_#### ...

Post the part with VEN_####&DEV_#### (where the #### is some alphanumeric combination).

Not sure. Could that having something to do with my network issues? Will have to check that when I am back home again.
 
Well either the driver for the card needs updating, or the onboard card is dead and you'll need to install a PCI ethernet card.
 
Well either the driver for the card needs updating, or the onboard card is dead and you'll need to install a PCI ethernet card.

Found the disks that came with the computer. It had the drivers I needed. After installing, everything works fine again. Oh the joys of Windows!

Thanks for your help!
 
Glad you got it working.

I would still recommend updating to the latest drivers, in case any bugs are fixed.
 
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