Onboard LAN loses static IP on reboot

Got a bit of a weird problem, mobo is a P965-DS3P, since the last few days the onboard NIC loses it's static IP address and tries to get 1 via DHCP. If I then go into the LANs properties and give it the same IP address as before it then tells me it's already in use and that if I really want to use it I should hit No and reboot. If I do this then the PC boots up fine with the address I want but after a cold I have to do the above all over.

I've had a look in the BIOS but can't see anything, I've deleted the NIC from device manager and I've got the latest drivers from Marvell but nadda.

Anybody have any words of wisdom?

What OS? It does seem a strange problem - what happens if you just use the drivers from Windows Update? I'm assuming IPv4?

How about reserving the IP on your router using the NIC's MAC address and allowing the OS to use DHCP. You should then have the static address you desire; that's how I do it anyway :)

Sorry should have put the OS, it's XP SP2 with the latest updates using IPv4.

Systems been fine with the static IP addy for the last year, pauldarkside was going to revert to DHCP if I had to.

My latest thought is that it maybe the BIOS battery needs replacing as the kids are saying that yesterday in the DOS boot up stage they saw a message along the lines of 'BIOS scan' followed by 'Backup required' but they aren't too sure. Going to replace the battery and see it fixes the problem.

I've also had a look in the registry and there is a reference to a device which is assigned the static IP address that I want to use hence the message about it's already in use in my first post. So it looks like on boot XP detects a new LAN/NIC, installs it and then attempts to get an IP addy via the default DHCP. But as I have my router configured to assign based on MAC the PC never gets an address.

Ah, well I hope the replacement battery resolves it then - I've never had a motherboard long enough for the battery to fail.

I have to ask though. Why assign an IP from both the router and the OS? Only the router one would be required in the first place as the OS would be given the designated IP via DHCP. Just seems a bit odd to me. Again, hope the new battery sorts it.

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Originally Posted by pauldarkside

Ah, well I hope the replacement battery resolves it then - I've never had a motherboard long enough for the battery to fail.

I have to ask though. Why assign an IP from both the router and the OS? Only the router one would be required in the first place as the OS would be given the designated IP via DHCP. Just seems a bit odd to me. Again, hope the new battery sorts it.

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I'm not assigning it from both. When this problem occurs if I set a static IP addy then XP complains that the IP addy is already in use by another adaptor. This adaptor isn't listed in Network connections but if I do a search in the registry I can see a device that the IP addy is assigned to but it's not the LAN/NIC device as listed within device manager.

My other thought is that I've always removed this hidden device in the registry and XP has always recreated it so this time I've left it there in the hope that it doesn't then decide to install a new device and therefore doesn't try and get the IP addy via DHCP on this newly discovered/installed device.

EDIT: Forgot to wish everybody here a Merry Xmas and New Year :) So HO-HO-HO! :)

Try using a different static IP address and see if the computer can manage to retain this. If it can retain it, then its a case of either
a) changing everything from pointing to the old IP to the new one
b) rummaging around till you find out what is causing the conflict with the old address

Cheers guys, I think the problem is that on reboot if I've deleted this phantom NIC from the registry XP then dectects and installs the real NIC again, the current real NIC then becomes the phantom NIC which according to XP is what's using the IP addy.

I've left the phantom NIC in place and the system seems to be fine and retains the IP addy on the real NIC.

Confused, I bloody am and I thought I was quite au-fait with XP :)

Typed to soon, the systems now just randomly rebooting. Reset the BIOS to default and it's now complaining about an error on the D: drive. Did a scan of the drive on boot and it's now up and running doing a virus scan.

Have you done a full clear of the CMOS? One of the first things I try when I get 'quirks.'