2 things i can think off the top of my head that MAY be causing this..

1. drivers - install the latest ones from the company that manufactured your ethernet chip.
2. have a look at what services are running, and see if any that relate to the internet, or networks

Enzo.

Yeah I thought it might be driver related which is why I updated them.
They were direct from the Nvidia website - latest drivers I downloaded.
Can't see any services running that would interfere with the network.

I know 2 others that run this same board, the drivers that came with Windows 7 worked straight out of the box for them?
Could it not like my router - could I have to upgrade that?

Not sure mate, im not very experienced with networking really, maybe someone can help you?

Enzo.

1. hey...
   This is actually a common problem w/ boards that are using nvidia nforce chipsets. I have an MSI K8N SLI motherboard, and the network adapter will work when I install an OS, however at a random time later on, it will stop working and display "network cable unplugged". It is SOOOO frustrating, because there is nothing to troubleshoot when it simple thinks the cable is unplugged. Sometimes you can still see the network activity light blink trying to autonegotiate...
   
   when you ask for help, people tell you to try another cable, make sure the cable has 8 wires not 4 (cause it is a gig ethernet), reinstall drivers, then when all that is fine, we move down the line assuming the problem may be the router, etc...
   
   most people typically conclude the onboard ethernet (nVidia nforce networking controller) is corrupt or physically damaged...
   I figured that was the issue, and installed a 3rd party pci network card.... a week later, same issue happened.
   
   The first time my board starting doing this, I simply got a replacement... same thing happened a month later. For almost 3 years I've been using linksys wireless N so that I can still connect at 200 mps... now I want to use this computer for torrent seeding/dl and a media server.... and with other wireless devices connected to my router, I NEED my gig ethernet to work again!
   
   here is what I have found out so far:
   
   -It ONLY effects boards that use the nvidia nforce networking controller / gigabit-ethernet connetion.... It seems the issue effects boards that use nvidia nforce (3 and 4) chipsets, however the manufacturer varies (MSI K8N Neo is KNOWN for sure to have this issue, however I have also seen reports from people with nforce network controller on Asus, Abit, Evga, etc) ALSO owners of hp notebooks/laptops with the nvidia gigabit ethernet connection have reported a similar issue, but I am not sure if it is caused by the same problem.
   
   -The connection WILL typically work fine after reinstalling the OS
   
   -When it fails, windows will almost always say network cable unplugged... even if the activity light is still blinking or there are very small numbers of packets being transfered.
   
   -Uninstalling the device and restarting windows works, but only less than 10% of the time... and it just regains connectivity, not a solution. If you uninstall / reinstall, regardless of using windows or Nvidia drivers, you will notice the IRQ # associated with the device and memory range is different each time.
   
   POSSIBLE similarities (if you have this problem and you relate to one of these, post it so we can narrow down the issue!))
   -nvidia nforce 3 or 4 chipset based board
   -AMD 939 socket
   -AMD 64 bit processor (32 or 64 bit OS)
   -SLI capable board (I have 2 geforce cards running in SLI mode)
   -4 gig of memory installed.
   
   POSSIBLE causes/solutions:
   I have found some people mention these which seem like it could possibly be the problem
   note- if using a diff. lan cable, router, updating drivers, etc, solves the issue FOR GOOD, then you do not have this same problem.... you are lucky and your issue was something else =)
   
   -Using sata with gigabit nforce network controller: A forum user stated they had read that the onboard nvidia ethernet port and onboard Sata (if you are using devices connected w/ sata) will sometimes change the IRQ # being used causing both to use the same IRQ and causing issues....
   
   -Using more than 3 gig of memory: Another forum user stated that the problem occured for them only after upgrading to 4 gig of memory (4 x 1 gig). When they down graded to 3 Gig (2x 1gig + 2 x 512mb), the issue with the network controller was solved
   
   -Conflict of resources with graphics: Another user recalled hearing about the issue (or a similar one) and it turned out the source of the problem was the resources for graphics would (unexpectedly or randomly) cause a conflict with the network controller resources.
   
   -The most recent I have heard is that the network controller shows this symptom when playing certain games, and that while rebooting or uninstalling/reinstalling the driver is ineffective, unplugging the power supply for approx 10 sec and then rebooting somehow reset the controller and it would work again (they did not specify if they uninstall the driver prior to shutting down)
   
   MY THOUGHTS
   not a hardware issue, not a driver issue, etc....
   hopefully, HOPEFULLY, this can be resolved with advanced settings in bios.
   
   I believe the issue is caused by a conflict in resources, obviously by the network controller, not sure what device it conflicts with. Also, the problem seems to lie in one or more of the following areas:
   -IRQ # assigned to nVidia network controller
   -PCI bus location/device settings assigned to nVidia network controller
   -Driver rank (i believe stored in memory?)
   -Memory Range used by the nVidia network controller
   
   Obviously all of these settings are typically assigned automatically. I am knowledgable enough to mess around in bios, but not when it comes to assigning IRQ numbers, PCI info, and other manual bus settings. BUT I do think that by isolating the network controller on its on (reserved) IRQ, or other setting mentioned, this may prevent future conflicts with resources that cause the 'network cable unplugged' issue.
   
   I am hopin someone with more knowledge can recognize these symptoms and point us in the right direction or even better, someone who has had this problem with a nvidia network controller in the past and found a way to solve the issue... as this is NOT a typical ethnet issue that can be fixed with firmware, new cords, or new drivers... and because it is not a typical issue, finding help for it is extremely frustrating, trying to troubleshoot the issue is frustrating, and using wireless when the router is sitting on top of my case is frustrating.... this gets exponentially worse when randomly uninstalling the device and rebooting works, or reinstalling the OS fixes the internet connection and then a few days later you are told the cable is unplugged....... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
   
   please... help??? Thanks

wow that is a huge post!

well, i did finally manage to sort out what the problem was. after other issues i had with the board, i got a replacement. that also had the same networking issue. I knew it wasnt the cables as they were brand new and gigabit compatable.

it came down to the networking chip & my 'old' router. I had a D-Link DSL-G604T - while other computers with gigabit (realtek controllers) worked fine on the router - it appears these newer nvidia controllers don't. I upgraded to a Belkin Wireless-N router and all is working perfectly now. have had no issues since replacing the router - it's not an ideal fix, as obviously it costs - but it fixed the issue for me.

since yours connects sometimes but not all the time, then obviously this may not be the solution for you. it would be kind of strange being a conflict issue though. given modern computers do not really have IRQ conflicts anymore (or is very rare) and that you're having the same problem with both onboard & pci cards, i would assume it's not an IRQ/PCI conflict

Jarsky, thanks for the reply.... IF your issue is similar, then switching hardware, like your new router, or even getting lucky during one of the driver reinstallations can fix the issue... unfortunately, it may happen again within a few weeks.... it seems that whatever conflict is causing this does not happen each time you boot or run the computer. Many times I have been relieved to fix my internet connection, only for the problem to come back a few days later.

Also, the newer nvidia gig-ethernet port, when it is working, works perfectly fine in 100MB mode, or 10 MB, half duplex, full duplex... In fact, the date that I got my motherboard I don't think any company was making n routers yet, and most people were hesitant to get them if they did come out since it was still a 'draft'. If it was having issues with an older router, I am *fairly* certain that you would have an error relating to tcp/ip or ip address resolution.... basically your network icon would have that little yellow !, instead of the red X saying 'network cable unplugged'. If you were to plug the cat5 cable into almost anything (a switch connected to nothing, the back of an Xbox 360, a cable box - basically anything that would not provide the correct information or even attempt to) with a power source, usually the device doesn't even have to be turned on, the "unplugged" message will almost always go away and you will get an error instead.

The onboard nvidia network controller has **successfully** connected (wired) to all of the following for at least some period of time, long enough to access the internet: non-wireless linksys router, linksys G router, linksys N wrt150n router, belkin wireless N router w/ network storage, and a netgear G access point WPN180N ...

the problem isn't in the drivers, the cord, the external hardware, etc... And when searching the internet for nVidia nforce "network cable unplugged" I find many posts where people are told to go through almost all trouble shooting scenarios and nothing works.... and in some they report back that after uninstalling and restarting the machine so many times, it finally started working again (as if some sort of luck is involved, perhaps the computer finally providing PCI bus/IRQ/memory resource information that is no longer conflicting while the driver is installed)

In my bios there is a place to set the COM location... Although I have tried changing this to fix the problem without success...
It leads me to believe that a possibility for the reason it also occurs with a PCI card as well may be the fact that I disable the onboard adapter when I use it, and because the computer recognizes it as the same type of device (wired network adapter), it uses the similar resources/IRQ or something of the sort, which allows the problem to occur again. However, my wireless N pci card had never had an issue.... ?

I think I need to learn more about IRQ and Com location settings so I can set it manually PRIOR to installing the drivers for the device, rather than after the problem has happened.


Anyways... I *DO* hope that your problem is fixed ;-) but even if your router was having problems with the network controller, I still think you would get something other than 'network cable unplugged'.... so don't be TOO surprised if that little message pops up yet again.

Originally Posted by Jarsky

it came down to the networking chip & my 'old' router. I had a D-Link DSL-G604T - while other computers with gigabit (realtek controllers) worked fine on the router - it appears these newer nvidia controllers don't. I upgraded to a Belkin Wireless-N router and all is working perfectly now. have had no issues since replacing the router - it's not an ideal fix, as obviously it costs - but it fixed the issue for me.

I had quite a lot of problems with a DLink DI524 RevC router. I was using XP x64 Edition at the time. I switched to a Belkin N Wireless Router and have had no problems since. The only time I ever lose my internet is when Comcast goes down.

stueycaster,
thanks for the info...
I was wondering,
do you have a nvidia network controller for your ethernet connection??
and if so, when you were having issues with the router did you specifically get the "network cable unplugged" error... not simply like the connection not sending packets or the internet connection being down, but windows actually reporting the cable as not being plugged in??

These are the problems I am trying to narrow down the cause of...
Thanks for any help,
Ben