PowerSpec B686 ethernet adapter not working (on four units)

JHamilton

Hello,

I just got off the phone with tech support (who was very friendly and helpful) - we went through updating drivers for the ethernet adapter and the motherboard LAN adapter(s), with no joy. In short, I bought four B686 Powerspec units in the middle of last year, and all four of them have non-functioning ethernet adapters. In device manager, the adapter is show as being installed but not able to start. After discussing with the tech support rep, we agree it must be a hardware issue after exhausting driver updates / reinstallations and clearing various network settings, but I'm serendipitously out of warranty by a few days.

Anyone else have this issue, or have any suggestions? I get a yellow blinking light on the LAN card, and I've tried multiple new CAT5 cables to test the router (of which other devices are running off of successfully). Seems weird for it to be truly a hardware issue vs some kind of software glitch. It's not a huge deal as the wireless cards work great, we're just trying to reduce latency in the office and I don't want to buy PCI LAN adapters unnecessarily.

Thoughts?

PowerSpec_MikeW

@JHamilton

Four systems seems like more than a coincidence. Let me grab one of ours and I'll check it out. Please get me your OS version.

1. Windows +R
2. Type: winver
3. Post the OS build here.

JHamilton

Mike,

Windows 11 version 23H2, build 22631.3527

PowerSpec_MikeW

@JHamilton

Thanks, I'm updating ours to that version from the factory image. I'll see if I can replicate any type of similar failure. We certainly haven't during our upgrade testing for 23H2.

That many NIC failures is extremely unusual. Has anything else failed in that area? Is there any chance your plugging these units into a passive PoE switch?

JHamilton

No other failures or problems with the 686's (we were expanding our network switches when we realized that none of the desktops were active on the LAN), which is why it took a year for us to notice. :D

I am just using a TP Link gigabit switch, there are no PoE devices at all. We're a small healthcare office so mostly desktops, laptops and some imaging equipment that all have wifi or LAN, all running through the same network. The general setup is our provider (cable modem) → TP Link ethernet switch → wifi router and all LAN devices. Pretty basic.

Most of our other LAN devices are working with the existing setup. I've used two different switches to test, I've tested the cables and used new cables to verify there are no bad ports or wires. The ethernet adapter in each computer does light up, it just never turns "green." We have one other LAN device that is conspicuously not working (a specialty imaging device), but I haven't figured that one out yet. I suppose it could be some other piece of hardware, I'm just having a hard time thinking which one it could be, as our system is so basic.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@JHamilton

Just finished updating the system, no issues. I'll let it sleep overnight and see if anything happens.

You're still getting Code 10 in device manager on the NIC, correct?

JHamilton

Okay so I got LAN to work on two of the machines - I think we were having some some conflicts with the router and switch; I'm not sure how… because I swapped so many things - but problem is SOLVED. So there was something with our network that I jiggled enough to fix. :D

Thank you for your help!

PowerSpec_MikeW

@JHamilton

That's good to hear. Odd that you saw the code 10's though. In the future if you're having problems with something like this, just taking a machine on WIFI and connect the non-working machine direct to it via ethernet. You should be able to get out via ICS. That'll let you know if it's a compatibility issue with a certain network interface.