AN-M2HD Ethernet problem with Vista

[danpep]

After being stuck in a reboot loop for about a week because USB mouse support was set to BIOS, I have now got Vista Home Premium 32 bit installed and running.

The problem now is that the ethernet controller driver is not working. I have downloaded the latest nforce pack for the 630a chipset but Vista complains that the onboard LAN driver is "missing a required line from the .INF file". This happens whether I search for a driver automatically or manually specify the driver file location.

There are 2 orange lights permanently on next to the RJ45 plug.

Neither the drivers that came with the mobo, the Vista DVD nor the latest downloaded from nvidia.com will work. Anyone else had this or a similar issue with the onboard LAN in Vista?

Onboard ethernet has been enabled in the BIOS.

I have removed nforce drivers with delete and reinstalled them. Also completely powered off the PC before attempting to install the drivers.

Other relevant specs:
Current BIOS version: 12 (I'll try the newly released 14 tonight)
CPU: AMD 64 X2 3800+
RAM 2 x 1 GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800
Disk: SATA HDD
OS: Vista Home Premium 32 bit

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Daniel

[danpep]

Got it working.

I updated the BIOS but this had no immediate effect.

I removed all traces of the dirvers, completely powered off the PC for a minute or so, reinstalled the 630a chipset driver pack from the NVIDIA website and it started working. I won't be too surprised to power the PC up tonight to find the ethernet not working again. If this is the case I'm ditching abit and NVidia. I get the feeling too many people are experiencing strange intermittent problems with these boards.

[BUFF]

If this is the case I'm ditching abit and NVidia. I get the feeling too many people are experiencing strange intermittent problems with these boards.

You can literally count on the fingers of 1 hand threads with AN-M2 problems on the abit USA forum which is the main English language forum for abit mobos - it seems to be a very solid series of boards.
That's not to say that there may not be any defective boards but if only Windows was as reliable ...
(the most common problem is probably trouble installing the Realtek HD drivers due to the MS UAA HD audio bus driver)

[usxhe190]

i also think this ABIT board should be fine

[danpep]

I updated the BIOS to revision 14 and I overcame the ethernet problem by again:

Removing all chipset drivers
Leaving the board powered off for a minute
Clearing the CMOS
Reapplying the chipset drivers from the NVidia site

So far Vista MCE is playing back recorded TV and DVD nicely and the passively cooled AMD X2 64 3800+ is staying cool enough. I am using a mCubed HFX mini case with heatpipe coolers. I'll let you all know how I get on with HD playback once I've had a chance to test it properly. If it all works as it should then I will highly recommend this board to builders looking for a silent HTPC solution.