How do I know I have an Ethernet Problem?

- Should the light on the back of my computer be red? If not, what should I be looking for as the reason?

Where is the red light that you speak of? The NIC port should only contain a total of 2 LED lights, and you mention a total of 3 in your post. A solid amber LED indicates a 100mbit network connection link, and a blinking amber LED to the right of that indicates passing traffic. If either of these two lights are red, you should check your network cable and/or your hub/switch/router device you are connecting the machine to.


- Since my Ethernet Card is integrated into my motherboard... can that cause memory problems?

This is unlikely. The onboard NIC is designed to share resources with other devices on the system board.

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DELL-Cody wrote:
- Should the light on the back of my computer be red? If not, what should I be looking for as the reason?

Where is the red light that you speak of? The NIC port should only contain a total of 2 LED lights, and you mention a total of 3 in your post. A solid amber LED indicates a 100mbit network connection link, and a blinking amber LED to the right of that indicates passing traffic. If either of these two lights are red, you should check your network cable and/or your hub/switch/router device you are connecting the machine to.

Thank you, Cody, for responding!!!!   It is much appreciated!

When I look at the back of my case at the Data port...  You are correct there.... is one occasional blinking  amber light.  The reflection of the light made it appear as two lights.  They are vertical... with the solid red light on top.

I spoke to Verizon twice about this and both times the tech told me that they believed the red light should be green and I was told to go back to Dell about this as they considered this something possibly wrong with my ethernet.    The first time I went through Dell's email tech support as I have a difficult time understanding the English of the phone techs.   After 5 emails of simply asking what about the red light... I finally received this as a response-

 " having understood the issue correctly, I would like to tell you that Red light with blinking yellow light indcates that the power supply is workling properly and it is supplying proper and proportionate amount of the current to the Motherboard. I make you sure that there is nothing to worry about those lights it indicates proper functioning of the Power Supply. "

I went back to Verizon with this information and they got Dell's tech on the phone so we could have a 3-way conversation.  The tech's name from Dell was Chris.                         

Chris stated that the RED LIGHT indicated "no data transfer... cannot get connected to the Internet...and that my transfer rate is a bit lower ".   Chris then directed me to the- Device Manager > Network Adapters >
+ 1394 Net Adapter
+ Intel (R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection
Right Clicked > Properties > Both said this device working properly.

Chris said the problem was that there was a conflict between both adapters and the computer didn't know which one to read. He then had me put in my Dell Diagnostic CD. I went to NIC Diagnostics, etc. A HUGE RED screen appeared with this message-

! No 3C90X NICS are installed on this computer

Chris told me I had to uninstall the integrated NIC Card and reinstall it. (Device Manager > Network Adapters > INTEL PRO 100 > Delete )
*I cannot remember the steps taken to reinstall from the CD

But, when he had me restart my computer, it took a very looooooong time for my desktop to appear. My TASKBAR was missing. I then had to do a Hard Boot to restart my computer. My computer then crashed!

The system has recovered from a serious error.  Please tell Microsoft about this problem.
BC Code:  7f  
BCP1 - 00000000
BCP2 - 00000000
BCP3 - 00000000
BCP4 - 00000000
 C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini 020804-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1ROSEMAR~1\Temp\WER9.tmp.dir001\sysdata.xml
 Microsoft Online Crash Analysis: Error caused by a Device Driver.
Analysis: A device driver installed on your system caused the problem, but we cannot determine the precise cause.

Chris then had me do a System Restore to March 1. A message came back stating it coudn't do a System Restore. Then rebooted, and my Task Bar appeared with message of new device. Another Error Message occurred!

The system has recovered from a serious error.  Please tell Microsoft about this problem.
BC Code:  a
BCP1 - 00000000
BCP2 - 0000001c
BCP3 - 00000001
BCP4 - 804F64c2
Error caused by a Device Driver.

***** I then SENT the report to Microsoft....and another Error Message popped up!! I did miss one Error Message because Chris had me closing these out... while I was trying to jot down these error messages. I was more concerned what they said vs. Chris! As fast as I closed out an Error Message... another popped up!

BC Code:  7f  
BCP1 - 00000000
BCP2 - 00000000
BCP3 - 00000000
BCP4 - 00000000
  ******I sent this error report and a new error report popped up! I did miss these codes. I was starting to panic. But, when I closed that error report.... another error report popped up!!!

BC Code:  10000050
BCP1 - E56C6946
BCP2 - 00000001
BCP3 - 8059F59A
BCP4 - 00000002
C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini 03074-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1ROSEMAR~1\Temp\WER17.tmp.dir001\sysdata.xml
Microsoft Online Crash Analysis: Error caused by a Device Driver.

**************************************************

At this point, Chris tells me he was "going to leave me now!!!" I told him he can't, etc..... He assured me over and over again he was going to call me back... he promised me! He said he wanted to research what was going on and check error messages. I asked him - didn't he want the error messages???? He told me that he knew they were all BC's. We agreed he would call me at 700 PM EST... with whatever information he had learned. This was on Tues.. 3/09. He never called!! Are you surprised???  After crashing my computer 7 times in 2 hours he leaves me with error messages on my screen!!!   GRRRRR!!

Fortunately, after just letting my computer rest.... I then tried to close out the final Error Message and I was able to. I did go back and check -
Device Manager > Network Adapters >
+ 1394 Net Adapter
+ Intel (R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection
Right Clicked > Properties > Both said this device working properly.

**********************************

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- Since my Ethernet Card is integrated into my motherboard... can that cause memory problems?

This is unlikely. The onboard NIC is designed to share resources with other devices on the system board.

The reason I asked this question was because right from the beginning of starting up my computer, every 7 days... then it became 5 days... I was getting STOP ERROR MESSAGES of  -   

***STOP: 0x0000007F
(0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

Again, any thoughts will be very much appreciated!!!!

Enter the Device Manager again, right-click the 1394 Net Adapter, and select Properties. Disable this device, as it is not needed for your ethernet connection. Once this is disabled, close this window, close the Device Manager, and restart the machine.

If you receive another blue screen at any point, please also post the next couple of sentences of text underneath the STOP error -- the sentence that might help determine what the problem is will likely contain a filename ending in .sys or .exe.

I did as you recommended, Cody.   Nothing crashed.... yet!  :-) 

The steady Red Light is still there. 

If you receive another blue screen at any point, please also post the next couple of sentences of text underneath the STOP error -- the sentence that might help determine what the problem is will likely contain a filename ending in .sys or .exe.

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Most of the STOP error messages I have received were the STOP  7F and they did not include a filename.

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this STOP ERROR Screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps.

Run a system diagnostic utility supplied by your hardware manufacturer. In particular, run a memory check, and check for faulty or mismatched memory. Try changing video adapters.

Disable or remove any newly installed hardware and drivers.   Disable or remove any newly installed software.   If you need to use Safe Mode........

Technical Information:

***STOP: 0x0000007F
(0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

Beginning dump of physical memory.
Physical memory dump complete.
Contact your system administrator or technical support for further assistance.

On 2/8/4, I received this message:

Verizon Online Alert:   MotiveSB.exe   Application Error

The instruction at 0x00430c29 referenced memory at 0x00009a93.   

The memory could not be written.

I don't know what I was doing at the time that it appeared.

 

However, I did receive the exact same message on 3/10/4. I was in the Device Manager and had checked to see what would appear if I clicked on Update Drivers.   The Hardware Upgrade Wizard appeared.   I then cancelled it and the above message appeared again.

Late tonight, 3/11/4, I was closing out an email... and I received the exact same message again... except this time " the referenced memory was  0x00009aa1".

Does anyone know what those numbers represent???

Thanks!

I just wanted to report back.... that MotiveSB was related to Verizon.  I called Verizon and it is now removed from my computer. 

If anyone should encounter the same problem, you can read about it here under this Tasks Lists link.

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist_m.htm

Maybe this will help someone else.