Hello all, this is my first post. I've browsed this forum many times in the past and always found something useful for issues I've been having, so I figured this would be a good place to go for a very unusual problem I've been having.

I don't have all the specs handy, and I know I'll probably be chastised for not posting them, but for the intent of at least getting the post started, I just wanted to ask. I honestly don't know how much the specs will matter with the situation anyway.

TL;DR version: Has anyone ever seen hardware go bad and not work at all on one OS, but work consistently in another? Read below for the full story.

I have a Dell Vostro 230 Windows 7 computer I'm having NIC problems with. The card is an INTEGRATED Broadcom Netlink Gigabit Ethernet card. No matter what mode it's started in, it always gives a device manager Code 10 error (cannot start device), yet the card gets a flawless connection using a Kaspersky Rescue Disk to boot. Here's what I've done so far (may not be in order):

1) REINSTALLED driver
2) Clean driver install
3) Clean updated driver install
4) Clean original driver driver install
5) Let Windows reinstall driver on reboot: With this option, the only difference was instead of listing the actual ethernet card, it just said "ethernet Controller," but still gave the code 10
6) Checked system policies/startup items/system SERVICES - All good
7) Ruled out changes to the system
8 ) Passes all hardware tests I can think of (RAM, HDD, MoBo, Dell Diags), and no visibly bad components on the motherboard
9) Reset BIOS
10) Startup repair
11) Repair install from OEM Windows disk
12) Factory restore from recovery partition
13) Factory restore from recovery media made with Dell's utility
14) Clean install from Windows 7 disk
15) Nuclear option: Complete wipe of hard drive with Darik's Boot and Nuke, then clean install from previously made recovery media

At this point, the only thing I can think of that I haven't tried is the last option with a Windows 7 disk, but something tells me it wouldn't matter. I normally would just chock this up to faulty hardware back a few steps, but then it doesn't make sense to me that it would work using the Kaspersky boot disk. Has anyone seen hardware work in one OS, but not another like this?Kaspersky boot disk is not  like Windows. It is based on a GPL system. (Linux.)

In short, windows installed the wrong drivers. Or else the chip is not really what the software developer vendor THOUGHT it was. Does not happen OFTEN. But it does.

At this point do you want to:
1.) Find out what rally went wrong.
OR
2. )  Come up with a quick answer.

We suppose you have a laptop. Right? This is a quick
fix to do Laptop to Ethernet.
USB  to LAN  adapter. (Amazon.)

Less that $20 US.
Thanks for the reply. It's actually a desktop. I have no problem replacing the card, but since it's integrated on the MoBo, I'm worried about sinking anything into it if it is just the first noticeable symptom. It was very sudden that it started.

I know about the Kaspersky disk being linux. My main point with that was if it were hardware, it SHOULDN'T work in any OS right?

Also, with the card, I double checked the driver 3 ways:
1) Verified model in specs/Dell's driver downloads
2) Verified Same driver was already on identical working model (I got multiple of these from a business auction)
2) Used vendor/device ID on www.pcidatabase.com

I should also note, I did already try extracting the driver from the known working model.Having two NICs in one computer does not present a conflict.  The software and hardware deal with this automatically.

If you  need and answer, there are anecdotal examples of this  sort of thing documented elsewhere.  Because it is rare, many deny that it happens.  Notwithstanding, there is documented examples of a driver not working on a peculiar  motherboard with a certain OS. Such a thing is labeled d  "Esoteric Abnormality" and subsequently ignored.

Some will call this "pseudo science" , but in reality is is based on physical laws. Too often many superpose because s something has worked before in almost identical environments, it must always be that way. In other words, computer hardware is much, much more complicated than  even well-educated engineers think.  The fact is that some components used in a motherboard do not stay inside a 1 % Torrence. Some components may vary as much as 20% and still work most of the time. I will stop here. The long story is much  too long.