Windows 10: Realtek Ethernet not showing in adapter settings. And more.

Hi, people.

Edit: In post #16, you'll find that the solution is to do a re-install of Windows. Feel free to try all the other methods we've tried. Best of luck.

TL;DR Messed around with the drivers, now the ethernet device doesn't show up in the network adapter settings, although it shows up in the Device Manager. It is also apparently in sleep mode.

So after formatting and installing Windows 10 x64 on my Dell Inspiron 3542, I decided to update/re-install the drivers from the official Dell download page. Windows Update had taken care of the hardware but the versions were outdated, so I set to work. After successfully installing almost all the drivers, I ran the Ethernet Controller Driver and after installing it, the ethernet device was disabled. BTW, the device shows up as "Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller".

I enabled it but it still remained disabled. In the Properties dialog box it gave me the option to disable it, which means that it thinks that the device is enabled, which it is not. It is visible in the Device Manager, so it is being recognized. After restarting to come to the same result, I deleted the driver from Device Manager and re-installed it, which didn't work. (I don't remember if I attempted a roll-back, although if I did then it obviously didn't work either.)

Then I went to the Realtek official website and downloaded the Win10 Auto-installation Program. It asked me to remove the previous installation from Dell, and near the end, it gave me the error, "The Realtek Network Controller was not found. If Deep Sleep Mode is enabled, Please Plug the Cable". And after this, or after deleting and re-installing the Dell driver (I unfortunately don't remember when), the ethernet device disappeared from the adapter settings. Now there's only Wi-fi there.



I searched online for the problem, and the solution seems to be in the Power Management tab of the device's Properties. Unfortunately, mine doesn't have that.




I really want my ethernet back, even though I have wi-fi to connect to the internet. The only solutions I can see are to either get the Dell driver working or to remove the device from sleep mode. I'm sure you guys can come with a better solution, which is why I came here. I hope this info is enough, although if not, feel free to ask for more.

Thanks in advance.

:)

 

which of these is the network adapter?

Both of the lines that say Realtek are network adapters. The top one is an Ethernet adapter, and the other is for WiFi. I suggest you go into the View menu and de-select Show hidden devices.

 

the new build 14951 has the same problems  as 14942/14946

Network Adapter Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller

Realtek RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Adapter PCI

 

Your screen shot looks like you went to adapter properties from the network and sharing center. Go to control panel, device manager, choose your nic, right click and choose properties. It should show there. It should have the tab where you went but this is worth a try.

 

Believe me, tried and tested that option. Thanks for replying so soon!

 

Did you try a manual install, instead of running the driver? Like shown here

[youtube]4GQoYaMsOn4[/youtube]

 

Thanks for the video, but I had already tried that option. For the sake of our sanity, I'll try it again.

I uninstalled whatever driver was there in the first place (did not delete it). Then I pointed DM to the inf file of the Dell drivers.



In an instant, this window appeared.



After restarting, the situation remained the same.



I then tried the drivers from Realtek's website.



Literally the same things happened again. The situation remains the same.

One thing I noted, was that the version of the driver did not change in DM, no matter which one I installed. The Dell drivers are ver. 10.1.505.2015 with release date 2015/7/30, and the one from Realtek is ver. 10.003 with release date 2015/8/24. But the drivers installed...



I thought that was noteworthy.

I also tried a system restore before initiating this thread, but any of those ended with 0x80070057 errors. So I gave up on that.

Thanks again for the vid.

 

Okay, a few more things to check. Make sure you are signed in as an administrator. Also look in your bios settings for power management settings. Maybe also look for a BIOS update.

 

I'm definitely administrator. I updated the BIOS a few hours after I ran into this problem first. In the BIOS, there aren't many options available, this being a laptop and all. There was an option to disable Integrated NIC. I tried disabling and enabling that with reboots but that did not help.

I also tried to delete the driver from my system. I ended up with an earlier version of the driver, but nothing else had changed. Then I tried "Search automatically...", manual install of Dell driver and a manual install of Realtek driver. All yielded nothing but this:




BTW, here are the options present under Advanced tab. Thought they might be useful:






Personally, I still think that the sleep mode is the only thing we need to fix. How, is what I'm not able to answer. I'll try to contact the Dell and Realtek Support Centers tomorrow. I also apologize for these late replies. Hope they don't discourage you. Thanks for the help!

Edit: BTW, the LAN light on the router/modem turns on when connected. (The laptop doesn't have any lights on the exterior except for charging light.) I'll also try to find a live CD or pendrive to boot from to check if this problem persists elsewhere too.

 

It does seem as sleep mode is a problem, but the driver removal is an issue too. I'm going to look around. There is a tool to boot in safe mode and remove drivers but I'm having a brain cramp and don't remember it right now.

Going to call for help on this.

 

More help is better, thanks. I'm gonna try draining the battery completely of power and leaving it like that for a few hours to suffocate the motherboard. Heard it could reset the NIC, but I don't know for sure. Will report back.

 

I'm reaching out to a friend at Dell (I live in Round Rock, and know lots of people there) who has worked in 3rd level tech support, special focus on networking, for 7 years or so. If I can get any insight from him on this problem, I'll report back later...
--Ed--

 

Thanks, Ed! That makes me so glad! By all means, take your time.

I also tried booting into another OS. The adapter worked just fine.



The battery is also almost drained. I'll remove it after completely draining it and leave it overnight, see if anything changes tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

 

Dear THD:
Late yesterday afternoon, I got a call back from my Dell contact. He said the first thing to do is to find and run the Dell Diagnostics for your laptop (apparently, they now make a bootable image of same available for installation on a USB Flash Drive, so you can download them, build the drive, and then boot from that drive to run them, should your Dell diagnostic partition no longer be available to you; if it does remain available, you can launch diagnostics by using Del during boot to launch them). His opinion is that it sounds like something at the BIOS Level may need to be reset, or that completely uninstalling the drivers (using Device Manager to uninstall, then invoking the "completely remove driver software" option to get everything out of the driver store), then installling a known good copy from Dell Downloads might also do the trick.
Do please let us know how your diagnostics run turns out, and what it has to say about the built-in Ethernet port. This could provide some valuable information about what to do next.
HTH,
--Ed--

 

Thanks, Ed! I'm very much thankful for your help. (I apologize for the delay again. Our ISP is acting up.)

I'm fairly sure that your contact is referring to the Dell Diagnostics option under Boot Options. I ran the test, which I unfortunately could not document, and all the components seem to be working fine (although I did note that there was no mention of a network card). I haven't found the time to do a thorough test yet, but I will get back to it.

As for the deleting of the driver, you'll find from the previously uploaded pictures that I have done it several times to no effect. I did forget to upload the picture of the status of the controller's Properties, so I deleted the driver again to show you:




I hope your contact finds the solution easily.