# Dell 560's Ethernet Controller Gone



## joh06937

my sister has a dell inspiron 560 desktop. recently her internet connection stopped (it had been working for a month or two already). i tried looking around and found that sometimes the ethernet controller will stay in a deep sleep mode after the computer wakes up from sleep mode. however, i have tried every solution to no avail. i have tried removing the ram, taking out the battery, clearing the cmos (both with jumpers and by removing the battery), and turning off the ethernet in the bios and turning it back on. 

i cannot find the network adapters category in device manager unless i select "show hidden items". and even when it does show up, i can't find anything related to the ethernet (only things like WAN). i am about a minute away from just suggesting buying a new ethernet adapter. any ideas? i might try flashing the bios as well but i don't know if that'll work either.

also, this happened after a thunder/lightning storm. i believe the power went out there though i am not entirely sure. could that have possibly done damage to the motherboard?

sorry for the long thread but i figured i'd answer all possible questions now


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## joh06937

bios update didn't work. anyone got any ideas?!?


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## johnb35

Yes, a power outage (power surge) can cause motherboard problems.  Buy a dedicated lan pci card and install it and providing the pci slots are good, everything should work ok then.


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## joh06937

it is still under warranty so i had them contact dell to see what they say. if they can't get an rma or can't get it resolved then i'll definitely just do that.


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## BlownFiveLiter

One of my two onboard LAN adapters is dead after a lightning strike took out my DSL modem, router, and luckily only the LAN adapter that was attached to the router.  It doesn't matter if everything is plugged into surge protectors when the phone line isn't.


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## johnb35

BlownFiveLiter said:


> One of my two onboard LAN adapters is dead after a lightning strike took out my DSL modem, router, and luckily only the LAN adapter that was attached to the router.  It doesn't matter if everything is plugged into surge protectors when the phone line isn't.



Thats why they have phone line protection in most of them and have for the longest time.  Most people don't realize how easily a surge can come through the phone line though.


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