GA-EP35-DS3R Onboard LAN disappeared

[XchristopherX]

I have a GA-EP35-DS3R that I purchased just over a month ago, that I had flashed to the F3b BIOS. I recently opened up my box to reseat the heatsink. When I booted up I noticed a message that said something about invalid checksum, then rebooted. Now, the onboard LAN no longer works.

The LEDs on the onboard LAN light up when I plug in a cable, however the H/W LAN enable/disable BIOS option NO LONGER EXISTS! Also, under SMART LAN, it only lists a greyed out "Virtual Cable Test" that can not be selected.

I've cleared the CMOS, flashed down to F2, flashed back to F3b, nothing seems to bring back the onboard LAN. I know if its not being loaded by the BIOS there's no chance of getting it detected by Windows.

Besides the onboard LAN, everything works. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

-Chris

[Lsdmeasap]

When you did go back to F2, did you load then save and apply optimized defaults? If not, you must do this each time you change the BIOS, then go in after a save/reboot and make your changes from the default settings.

If you did do this, have you looked closely to see if when reseating that you didnt bump or bend/break anything? Might want to open er up and take a close look again. If you didnt do the BIOS thing I suggested I would try that first, as you should always load and save, then apply and reboot when loading a new BIOS

[XchristopherX]

yeah I did load and save optimized defaults, and i didn't loose any surface mounted componets or bend any caps, my guess is that it reverted to the backup bios somehow and for some reason it doesn't support the onboard LAN.

[Lsdmeasap]

Hmmm, well you can check the bios version in the bios by hitting F1 I believe on the main page, or you should see it at post.

If you cant see it that way, download CPU-z in the motherboard tab it will show you bios revision

[XchristopherX]

it shows the right BIOS revision for the one i flash, which is currently f3b. By thw way, if you hit F9 in the bios it lists the MAC Address as "N/A"

[Lsdmeasap]

Hmm, well the best thing I can suggest then is for you to call Gigabyte and speak with their support about that, as I am not sure what else to suggest. Maybe Janus here can help, but If I was you I would call if you have not already

[GIGABYTE - Janus Yeh]

This motherboard incorporates cable diagnostic feature designed to detect the status of the attached LAN
cable. This feature will detect cabling issue and report the approximate distance to the fault or short.
Refer to the following information for diagnosing your LAN cable:
When No LAN Cable Is Attached...
If no LAN cable is attached to the motherboard, the Status fields of all four pairs of wires will show
Open and the Length fields show 0m, as shown in the figure above.
When LAN Cable Is Functioning Normally...
If no cable problem is detected on the LAN cable connected to a Gigabit hub or a 10/100 Mbps hub,
the following message will appear:

Start detecting at Port.....
Link Detected --> 100Mbps
Cable Length= 30m
Link Detected Displays transmission speed
Cable Length Displays the approximate length of the attached LAN cable.
Note: The Gigabit hub will only operate at a speed of 10/100 Mbps in MS-DOS mode; it will operate
at a normal speed of 10/100/1000 Mbps in Windows mode or when the LAN Boot ROM is
activated.
When a Cable Problem Occurs...
If a cable problem occurs on a specified pair of wires, the Status field will show Short and then
length shown will be the approximate distance to the fault or short.
Example: Part1-2 Status = Short / Length = 2m
Explanation: A fault or short might occur at about 2m on Part 1-2.
Note: Part 4-5 and Part 7-8 are not used in a 10/100 Mbps environment, so their Status fields will
show Open, and the length shown is the approximate length of the attached LAN cable.