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Alienware X51s network card not working.
Hello,
Last night everything was fine, this morning my system froze and I had to restart. Now my network adapter doesn't work anymore and it doesn't show up in my device manager. The only thing that shows is my wireless, not the hard wired which I'd prefer to use. There is one solid red light and the yellow flashes every so often. I tried another cable but no luck. I ran the Support Assist program and it ran a test but then closed without any report. I ran a hardware scan in Device Manager but nothing comes up. Any ideas?
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
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17K Posts
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September 21st, 2019 12:00
I assume this is an x51-R1 ?
Anyway, it is not completely un-common for the on-board ethernet-card (circuit) to eventually die or go flakey on old machines and motherboards. Especially, if this machine have been run for long periods of time without proper AC-power and Lightning protection. They just get "hammered down" and eventually fail.
If Windows can not detect it, and you have no Devices in Error ... then, 99% of the time ... you have a hardware failure or malfunction.
On a normally-sized desktop ... you can just pop-in a spare $20 PCIe wired NIC-card.
In your case ... I bet your existing WiFi is faster than a possible USB-2.0-Dongle.
And yeah, wired-ethernet is way-faster than WiFi ... especially if you are downloading anything or online-gaming.