I've been using Windows XP on my desktop for years now, and out of the blue the other day, I started up my COMPUTER and got a message from microsoft saying that since I first activated Windows XP, my hardware has significantly changed and that I must re-activate within 3 days. I tried the online activation and then noticed that I didn't have the networking icon in the system tray. I then opened up Networking properties and didn't see anything but my VPN, which couldn't connect. Device MANAGER showed only the VPN for network ADAPTERS, and didn't show any dreaded "Unknown Devices" nor any devices with the yellow ?. Hitting scan for new hardware didn't do anything. I CHECKED in my bios, but the onboard NIC is still enabled and just to be safe, I loaded the default setting and then double checked that the onboard NIC was still enabled. That didn't help anything in windows. I did a clean WIPE and reinstall of Windows XP and still didn't see my NIC listed in device manager. I wiped that XP as well and tried installing Windows Server 2003 (been wanting to try it for a while to act as NAS) but no luck there. Not really sure what to do now since my computer acts like the NIC has just grown legs and run off. I also did check to make sure the ethernet port on it is still seated tight (and still physically there) and it seems just fine. Oh, and also there are no flashing lights on the NIC or the router and I tried 2 different ethernet cables that I confirmed worked on my laptop.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I created an account on here just to post and ask about this since I've found some helpful answers on other people's posts throughout the years.Unfortunately it sounds to me like the NIC is completely dead.  No lights to even indicate it's recognising the cable is a bad sign, as that'll happen with or without the correct drivers, before an OS even loads.  I think your best bet is to get a separate NIC, they're cheap enough.

Edit: also, welcome to the forum!Crap, that's what I was afraid of. No chance it could be a bios glitch and an update could help? I'm not sure myself if the bios can control whether or not the lights come on... If the NIC did die, do I need to worry about anything else on the mobo dying? And what could cause it to die? It's unlikely to help, but a BIOS update could be worth a try before buying a new NIC.
As for what could cause it to die, there are many things.  One of my friends had his NIC taken out by lightning, but his board is still working fine apart from that to this day.  It could also have "just died" - maybe a hairline crack in a solder joint, or some other fault which is basically invisible.A new NIC card will cost you 15 Bucks tops...25 to 70 for wireless...
Go shopping. Quote from: patio on July 21, 2013, 06:40:31 PM

A new NIC card will cost you 15 Bucks tops...25 to 70 for wireless...
Go shopping.