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I'm starting to think that my network adapter has died.

I connect to the internet through ethernet to a router, it was woking fine and suddenly stopped one day.

I now get a 169.254.xxx.xxx IP - no Default Gateway - Vista is saying 'unidentified network' and can not repair.

DCHP is enabled both on the computer and on the router.

I've tred ipconfig /release /renew - I've tried using fixing the winsox and tcp/ip - I've tried reinstalling vista. I've reset / reinstalled / swtiched off and switched on my router. I've tried installing new drivers but I think Vista holds the latest drivers for the motherboard, which is a p5n-e sli.

The weird thing is when I try to uninstall the network adapter, device manager hangs and doesn't do anything, which leads me to think the adapter is borked. Although, the the adapter is recognised, drivers are fine and there are no !'s in device manager.

Any ideas?

Hello Deletebeepbeep Welcome to PCHF

You have good details on your symptoms. According to all that you've tried, I'd be inclined to agree with you.

Rather than going further with all kinds of diagnostics, it really probably is your best bet to just pick up a cheap NIC card at a local retailer. If you go to a Best Buy or something like that, they have a 30 day return policy. Just try plugging in a cheap NIC and see what happens. Worst case is no help and you just get your money back.

If it is a laptop, do the same thing in a PCMCIA version. That will be the quickest way to tell what the problem is.

The thing that makes me wonder is that you're getting an autoconfiguration address. That says to me that your NIC can't connect to a DHCP server to get an IP address. So there is a chance the problem lies in your router. But you do have the hangup in device manager so... Again, the quickest/simplest way to figure it out is try a new card.

Hope that helps!

Thank you Mr Green, I'll buy another NIC and get back to you if the problem continues to occur!

I don't think it's DHCP as I have another computer on the same network which works fine and I've checked the DHCP settings in Vista and on the Router itself. Strange.