"Cable is disconnected" not.

Nahuel · 11-14-2008, 03:00 PM

This a very frustrating thing that happened to me.

All I wanted to do was connect two computers in a LAN. I have some experience, so I had no problems making the wire and stuff. The thing is, that one of the computers seems to be broken. When I plug the wire in the lan card, nothing happens...
The lan card is onboard, I tested the cable with another computer and it works fine. It keeps saying that the cable is disconnected. I came to the conclusion that the onboard lan card was broken, so I bought a new PCI network Card. But to my huge surprise, the same thing happens. Windows installs the new card perfectly, a new lan icon appears on the tray (with a red cross of course), but when I connect the cable nothing happens. I mean NOTHING, the "link" LED on the card doesn't light up either!

How can it be that none of the cards work? Is this a hardware problem? Where??? I really don't want to buy a new mother board just because of this.

I tried disabling and enabling the cards from the device manager, re-installing drivers, updating drivers, clearing CMOS (in case it's a wrong BIOS configuration) and using working network cards. Nothing has worked.

The thing I haven't tried yet, is disabling DisableDHCPMediaSense. But I thoght it wasn't a Windows problem, since the link LED doesn't work. I always thought that this light should work no matter what configurations you have on your OS since it's a hardware thing...

Any help you can give me will be appretiated.

**johnwill** · 11-15-2008, 10:09 AM

It could be the drivers, if the NIC isn't initialized, the lights may not light.

TCP/IP stack repair options for use with Windows XP with SP2/SP3.

Start, Run, CMD to open a command prompt:

In the command prompt window that opens, type type the following commands:

Note: Type only the text in bold for the following commands.

Reset TCP/IP stack to installation defaults, type: netsh int ip reset reset.log

Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults, type: netsh winsock reset catalog

Reboot the machine.

Nahuel · 11-17-2008, 11:29 AM

Thank you for your reply and sorry for the late response.

I had already tried re-installing drivers with no results. I tried your method and it didn't work either. The device seems to be initialized correctly. It shows in the device manager and places the network icon on the tray (both onboard and PCI cards).

I tried using DisableDHCPMediaSense and it didn't work either. I even tried buying another cable and testing it with other computers. The cable works fine.

I found a forum with a lot of people who had had this same problem with a Sony Vaio pc. One of them said he fixed it disabling a PCI device that had the same IRQ as the network adapter. I checked on this computer and both cards have the same number (05) and also the USB controllers. Is this normal? It says somewhere in the Windows help file that this number is unique to each device.

I disabled the onboard card and the usb controllers, rebooted and all but nothing changed.

I guess I'll have to give up and assume it's a motherboard problem.

**johnwill** · 11-17-2008, 04:41 PM

Try booting in Safe Mode with Networking and see if you can get a wired connection working that way.

Nahuel · 11-18-2008, 09:54 AM

Thanks again, but I tried that already. Someone told me to disable autonegotiation on both cards and set them to 100 half duplex. Tried that too with no results.

Thank you for your help.

11-14-2008, 03:00 PM	#1 (permalink)
Nahuel Registered User Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 3 OS: WinXP SP3	"Cable is disconnected" not. This a very frustrating thing that happened to me. All I wanted to do was connect two computers in a LAN. I have some experience, so I had no problems making the wire and stuff. The thing is, that one of the computers seems to be broken. When I plug the wire in the lan card, nothing happens... The lan card is onboard, I tested the cable with another computer and it works fine. It keeps saying that the cable is disconnected. I came to the conclusion that the onboard lan card was broken, so I bought a new PCI network Card. But to my huge surprise, the same thing happens. Windows installs the new card perfectly, a new lan icon appears on the tray (with a red cross of course), but when I connect the cable nothing happens. I mean NOTHING, the "link" LED on the card doesn't light up either! How can it be that none of the cards work? Is this a hardware problem? Where??? I really don't want to buy a new mother board just because of this. I tried disabling and enabling the cards from the device manager, re-installing drivers, updating drivers, clearing CMOS (in case it's a wrong BIOS configuration) and using working network cards. Nothing has worked. The thing I haven't tried yet, is disabling DisableDHCPMediaSense. But I thoght it wasn't a Windows problem, since the link LED doesn't work. I always thought that this light should work no matter what configurations you have on your OS since it's a hardware thing... Any help you can give me will be appretiated.

11-15-2008, 10:09 AM	#2 (permalink)
johnwill Manager, Networking Forums Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania, US Posts: 41,885 OS: Windows 7, XP-Pro, Vista, Linux Blog Entries: 1	Re: "Cable is disconnected" not. It could be the drivers, if the NIC isn't initialized, the lights may not light. TCP/IP stack repair options for use with Windows XP with SP2/SP3. Start, Run, CMD to open a command prompt: In the command prompt window that opens, type type the following commands: Note: Type only the text in bold for the following commands. Reset TCP/IP stack to installation defaults, type: netsh int ip reset reset.log Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults, type: netsh winsock reset catalog Reboot the machine. __________________ If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

11-17-2008, 11:29 AM	#3 (permalink)
Nahuel Registered User Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 3 OS: WinXP SP3	Re: "Cable is disconnected" not. Thank you for your reply and sorry for the late response. I had already tried re-installing drivers with no results. I tried your method and it didn't work either. The device seems to be initialized correctly. It shows in the device manager and places the network icon on the tray (both onboard and PCI cards). I tried using DisableDHCPMediaSense and it didn't work either. I even tried buying another cable and testing it with other computers. The cable works fine. I found a forum with a lot of people who had had this same problem with a Sony Vaio pc. One of them said he fixed it disabling a PCI device that had the same IRQ as the network adapter. I checked on this computer and both cards have the same number (05) and also the USB controllers. Is this normal? It says somewhere in the Windows help file that this number is unique to each device. I disabled the onboard card and the usb controllers, rebooted and all but nothing changed. I guess I'll have to give up and assume it's a motherboard problem.

11-17-2008, 04:41 PM	#4 (permalink)
johnwill Manager, Networking Forums Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania, US Posts: 41,885 OS: Windows 7, XP-Pro, Vista, Linux Blog Entries: 1	Re: "Cable is disconnected" not. Try booting in Safe Mode with Networking and see if you can get a wired connection working that way. __________________ If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

11-18-2008, 09:54 AM	#5 (permalink)
Nahuel Registered User Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 3 OS: WinXP SP3	Re: "Cable is disconnected" not. Thanks again, but I tried that already. Someone told me to disable autonegotiation on both cards and set them to 100 half duplex. Tried that too with no results. Thank you for your help.