A7V8X-X LAN Problem

I can't get the damn thing to work and I've run out of ideas. Any help would be seriously appreciated. Info first:

Win2k pro - sp4, all updates
A&V8X-X w/ Realtek 8201 BL LAN PHY
1700+ (266)
512 mb pc2700
creative soundblaster! 5.1 mp3+
hitachi 60gb hard drive
VIA 4in1 4.52

What I have done:

1. Initially, after putting the system together, installing windows, etc., I got the drivers I needed for the LAN from ASUS (vialan8201.zip) and installed them. Device manager seemed to think everything was cool, so I tried it. No connection.

2. Tried another ethernet cable, same result.

3. I tried a Netgear network card and it was imediately detected and I had a connection.

4. Saw Windows update had a newer driver available for the LAN. I installed this and tried with no result.

5. As was suggested to me by ASUS tech support on another mobo, I rebooted, disable the LAN in BIOS, then rebooted again and re-enabled it. No result.

6. Local tech suggested that I have the latest BIOS available, so I flashed that from 1011 to the most current, 1013. Still nothing.

I'm getting pretty frustrated, so any suggestions are welcome. If you need more information on this, I'll try to provided it, just ask.

 

y cant you use the netgear card? or is this a problem with a built in NIC?

i would try the default windows drivers for the LAN ... ive never used anything else

 

I can use the netgear card, which I pulled from system number one, but I'd rather have the onboard functioning. It has to do with my obsessive personality, I think.

Neither the drivers provided by asus nor the ones from windows update worked.

 

Have you tried disabling the onboard modem in your bios while leaving the onboard lan enabled?

 

I just tried that per your suggestion and the result was the same. In my BIOS, the options that seem relevant are:

1. Onboard AC97 Modem Controller - I've tried both disabled and auto
2. Onboard LAN - enabled, obviously
3. Onboard LAN Boot ROM - I don't have any idea what the hell this is, but I've
tried with it enabled and disabled and still no connection.

Any other ideas? I'm fresh out.

 

hmm are you sure u dont have to set the ip addresess and such manually?

 

Window's connection wizard had no problem with the netgear card using "automatically detect my IP....". So, I don't think so.

 

I have the A7N8X and configured the network manually how far can u get is one of them 3com

 

How would I go about configuring the network manually? What about the 3com? I didn't understand the second part of that sentence.

 

3com (NIC) used to be one of the 2 NIC's that came with that board. I looked it up yours doesn't. Control Panel - Network connections right click NIC -Properties of NIC - General - Internet protocol - properties...

 

I looked where you suggested, and set the ip address, subnet mask and default gateway the same as ipconfig told me the values were for the network card, but this did not work. Was there something else I was to do?