K8N-E Deluxe Network Problem

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bobgcampbell

I can't get the embedded gigabit network interface to recognize that
attachement of my CAT5 cable. No lights at the RJ45 connector and
windows claims no cable connected in the network connections window.

No errors are shown in device manager, I have tried with and without
the firewall software. I have tried all combinations of autonegotiate,
10, 100, half, full duplex. I've disbled the NIC in BIOS, removed the
drivers, enabled and reinstalled everything several times.

The exact same cable and switch works when plugged into a gigabit port
on my portable, it autonegotiates to 1G. The cable and switch also
work fine plugged into a Broadcom gigabit in a PCI slot on the K8N-E
Deluxe, so I don't think there is anything butched up in the windows
installation. This is a fresh install of XP Pro SP2.

My switch is a 5 port gigabit from SMC, model 8505T. I've tried
several different cables.

Help!

Bob
 
I can't get the embedded gigabit network interface to recognize that
attachement of my CAT5 cable. No lights at the RJ45 connector and
windows claims no cable connected in the network connections window.

No errors are shown in device manager, I have tried with and without
the firewall software. I have tried all combinations of autonegotiate,
10, 100, half, full duplex. I've disbled the NIC in BIOS, removed the
drivers, enabled and reinstalled everything several times.

The exact same cable and switch works when plugged into a gigabit port
on my portable, it autonegotiates to 1G. The cable and switch also
work fine plugged into a Broadcom gigabit in a PCI slot on the K8N-E
Deluxe, so I don't think there is anything butched up in the windows
installation. This is a fresh install of XP Pro SP2.

My switch is a 5 port gigabit from SMC, model 8505T. I've tried
several different cables.

Help!

Bob
Click to expand...

There is a thread here, where someone had a problem with your board.
I'm not really sure what the problem was, or what actually fixed it.

http://groups.google.ca/[email protected]

I had a problem with a Gigabit Ethernet port on an Asus motherboard,
and when I tested with Marvell Virtual Cable Tester, one pin was
showing as open circuit. Unplugging and replugging my cable repeatedly,
until the VCT showed a good connection, finally resulted in the LEDs
lighting on the device at the other end of the cable.

I cannot be certain this will work with your board, but this
feature (VCT) seems to be shared by a number of Marvell chips.
It is a PHY level feature, so might work with a Marvell GbE PHY.

ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/lan/marvell/Marvell_v628.zip

HTH,
Paul
 
Hi,

I neglected to mention I had already run the VCT. When I run the tool
it claims that it can't find a supported network interface, so it
refuses to check the cable. I verified one more time that the NIC
shows up in device manager without any errors.

Does the K8N-E Deluxe gigabit implement the full Marvell phy? Or did
they remove some of the functionality?

Thanks,

Bob
 
Hi,

I neglected to mention I had already run the VCT. When I run the tool
it claims that it can't find a supported network interface, so it
refuses to check the cable. I verified one more time that the NIC
shows up in device manager without any errors.

Does the K8N-E Deluxe gigabit implement the full Marvell phy? Or did
they remove some of the functionality?

Thanks,

Bob
Click to expand...

The PHY is a separate chip, and I had hoped that the VCT function
would detect that chip.

http://marvell.com/products/transceivers/singleport/88e1111.jsp
http://marvell.com/products/transceivers/singleport/Alaska_SinglePort_88E1111.pdf

Generally, the autonegotiation function of a PHY is independent of
the rest of the motherboard. I've worked on some pretty busted
hardware, where you could still plug a network cable into the
RJ-45 connector, and the PHY would still autonegotiate the rate,
even if the MAC and processor were dead to the world.

Reasons a PHY won't negotiate:

1) Power to the chip is missing.
2) Reset signal stays asserted after power is applied
3) Open connection in RJ-45 connector, or in the cable
connected to another networking device.

I don't really know of a good way to debug the state of
the MAC and PHY in this case. About the only other thing I
can suggest, is try the "cardboard test", on the off-chance
that something is shorting to the bottom of the board, and
has disabled some of the hardware on the board. (For the
cardboard test, remove the PSU and motherboard and assemble
them on top of an insulating surface, such as a large book
and a piece of cardboard. I've assembled entire systems on
cardboard this way, and the only thing to watch, is be
careful every time before applying power, that all plugin
cards are seated properly in their slots.)

Sometimes Linux makes a better environment, to use for
debugging problems, but if a motherboard is pretty new,
sometimes there isn't enough device support to make
that a viable option.

HTH,
Paul
 
Thanks for the tips. I have the board on top of the box which is
covered with the anti-static bag. I never put a new board in a chassis
until I have verified that it works.

I'm going to get a 100 ft. cable so I can connect it to a different
switch, this one is 10/100. I want to see if there is any interaction
between the NIC and the SMC switch.

Bob
 
I ran a long cable to my DSL router and it won't show a cable
connection on the embedded NIC, but the broadcom NIC works.

This is the second K8N-E Deluxe that has had a bad NIC. The first one
worked for a few days before going bad. I'm going to try to get a
refund.

Bob
 
I have this same board and have this problem as well. Not so sure the
problem is with the onboard NIC tho rather than the Nvidia firewall
crap andsome kind of incompatibility in the Nvidia drivers and the
Asus board itself.
If anyone EVER figures out how to get the thing configured and STAY
configured for this board here, PLEASE do a How-To for some of us, it
is a royal pain and just will not stay configured, routers are cherry
compared to this thing :roll: Easier for now to stick an onboard
NIC card in and forget about it. Both Nvidia and Asus's help sites
are non existent regarding this.
 
I pulled the battery and set the clear CMOS jumper, left it for several
minutes, moved the jumper back and insterted the battry. Now the NIC
works. This typically means that the default CMOS image loaded in the
factory has an error.

Bob
 
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