This device cannot start. (Code 10)

evanmaclean · Apr 3, 2009

I recently bought a new desktop computer with a 108Mb/s wireless card which is pretty sweet but I only have a router that supports 54Mb/s. Because I want to have the higher speed, I'd prefer to connect to the internet using and ethernet cable.
My new wireless card does not have a port for the cable but there is another port on my Realtek RTL8168/8111 Family PCI Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.0) card. I have plug the cable from the router into the port and the modem is recognizing the connection. However, my computer does not recognize it and I cannot connect through it.
When I check the card's status in the device manager I get this error "This device cannot start. (Code 10)". At first I just thought I just need to update the driver so I did with the newest driver available but apparently I already have it installed.
At this point I'm not too sure what I have to do to get this card working properly. I am using Vista with Service Pack 1. My router is a Netcomm NB5plus4W. Does anyone have any ideas?

johnwill · Apr 5, 2009

Is this a network adapter that's internal to the motherboard? If so, you need to download and install the drivers from the board manufacturer.

Hold the Windows key and press R, then type devmgmt.msc

Please respond to all the following steps.

Under Network adapters, please tell me all the devices listed.
Are there any devices under Network adapters that have a red x displayed?
Also, are there any devices anywhere in the Device Manager display with yellow ? or ! displayed?

evanmaclean · Apr 6, 2009

I think it is internal.

1. - Realtek RTL8168/8111 Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.0)
- TP-LINK 11b/g Wireless Adapter
2. There aren't any red X's in the device manager at all.
3. There are 2 !'s in the following places
- Network adapters
- Realtek RTL8168/8111 Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.0)
- Other devices
- SM Bus Controller

Thanks for your help John

johnwill · Apr 7, 2009

I think you need to download and install the drivers for your motherboard chipset and network adapters from the manufacturer's support site.

4everdesign · Sep 1, 2009

One solution is posted here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090320174222AAaV1Or

This worked for me (and highlighted a few other out of date drivers)

buckman341 · Sep 30, 2010

Just wanted to chime in here. I've had the same issue and I've been troubleshooting it for about 3 hours now. Tried everything I've read here and on other sites; safe mode uninstalls, reinstalls, different versions, enabling/disabling, resetting bios to defaults etc.

Eventually I got desperate and just flashed my bios for kicks, well it worked :O It may just be my motherboard, I've heard there are issues with it, Gigabyte ep45-ud3p. I had the 2nd most recent version of bios from 11/24/2009 and updated to the most recent 3/12/2010. As far as I know the newest version didn't address anything related to the NIC but maybe my bios was just bad, who knows.

Anyways, just FYI for anyone with Code 10s on their GBE family card.

johnwill · Sep 30, 2010

Closing old thread, I sure hope the OP solved it by now.

This device cannot start. (Code 10)

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