Hello all!
 
Just recently ''upgraded''' my dinosaur PC with a new (to me) ''used'' EVGA 680i mobo I bought off of evilBay. So far.. almost everything is performing correctly save for one problem. I can't get either of the LAN ports to work on it. I have a dual-boot system (XP Home x86 and XP HP x64) and although the drivers WILL install in both OS's and they both do show up in the device manager.. I can't connect to the internet in either of them. I bought an add-on NIC card and it's performing fine; plus my old ECS mobo worked just fine with it's onboard NIC hooked up to directly to my cable modem.
 
When I enable the two ports in BIOS and install an OS.. the drivers for them install just fine whereafter they also show up in the Device Manager and ''appear'' to be functioning correctly, but when I plug the active network cable into either one of them.. they appear to sense that as well.. then go through their ''searching'' routine.. and eventually come up with a ''NO internet connection found'' type of dialog/error.
 
I've tried MANY things to diagnose this:
1. Changing out for another cable.
2. Tried both ports, and finagling with various settings in the Nvidia NAM utility.
3. Tried disabling IVP6.
4. Cleared CMOS.
5. Clicking ''repair'' and letting it go through it's thing.. whereupon it usually ends up saying some kind of problem detecting the default gateway of the modem.
6. Resetting the modem and renewing a new IP address (which is successful on the modem's end).
 
The list goes on and on..
 
I HAVE scoured the forum here, and the ''net'' for a solution. Keep in mind this is happening in BOTH operating systems with the SAME kind of end result (although some of the dialogs and messages differ). One thing I can't do is try the ports for other functionality. Actually.. I suppose I could try hooking up my XBox 360 directly to my PC and see if they could communicate through Media Center or something.. but my 360 isn't hooked up to the internet and I wouldn't have a clue as to what to set up or look for.
 
I guess most indications point to a hardware failure of the controller itself since neither port works. Are both of them controlled by the same chip? Probably so.
 
Also bear in mind that this is not the ever notorious ''connection drops out'' issue that many suffer in W7 since I can't even get the ports functional and they act the same in XP. Just like enabling trim in W7 with this board by installing the default MS drivers for the storage adapter.. the ONE thing I haven't tried is picking the MS OS generic ones for the NICs (a cure for the W7 drop-out issue). I haven't tried that in either OS (just heard about it tonight) but I don't hold out much hope.
 
Here are links to two screen captures of some settings in both XP and W7. Since I'm a newb here I can't yet insert hyperlinks.. sorry.
 
hxxp://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a315/emdeesee/Desktop1.jpg
hxxp://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a315/emdeesee/desktop2.jpg
Sheez.. apparently I can't even type in a web address!.. ludicrous!
 
I'm open to any suggestions. I know the motherboard is old.. but so far I'm loving it compared to my older one. I'm using a Q6600 and two EVGA 8800 GTs in SLI that a friend gave me. I've tried oc'ing the CPU but it runs too hot and I think the PSU is too cheap for it. The 8800s are already the 675 stock oc'ed models. I'm running 4X2GB of GSKILL 666 RAM (just fine I might add) and haven't tried oc'ing them since I can't seem to get the CPU stable.
 
Thanks to all for your time and attention.
 
BTW..  I guess it's obvious.. but I have been using the last set of nForce drivers on this. Also.. I HAVE tried various BIOs versions as well. I'm currently on P28 because until I get the proper bridge I have to use my old short ASUS flex-bridge and have to use PCIex slots 1 and 2.
 
 

Sadly, most of the 680i stuff from this forum is gone with the archived forum. Used to have all kinds of overclocking/troubleshooting guides, but they are all gone.
 
Sometimes the Nvidia drivers for your video card will mess with the network adapter on those older Nvidia chipset motherboards. I had that problem with my old 750a a while back... It was driving me crazy, ended up adding a NIC and that fixed the issue for a while. Then that quit working, but the on-board started working again. I never did figure that one out...

..seriously? So in your case do you think it WAS your video drivers? In my case.. it's an EVGA mobo (680i) with an Nvidia chipset.. coupled with 2 EVGA video cards (8800GTs) with Nvidia GPUs! That would be sad if that were the case.. couldn't get much more compatible than that !
 
I guess I could try installing some ''ancient'' GeForce drivers to see what happens. As soon as I get the proper SLI bridge so that I can put the 2nd vid card in the proper slot (bottom one) I could try out some newer BIOS or play around with other chipset driver versions as well but come to think of it.. when I first set up the board I used all the latest drivers for everything, and flashed the BIOs to P33.
 
I've also ran the board briefly on one video card. Nothing seems to get these ports active.
 
Anyone can tell me something? If I take a LAN cable.. plug it directly into the back of my Xbox, then go into my BIOS and enable the onboard LANs and install drivers and plug the other end into one ofthem.. what should happen? Will the console communicate with the PC.. or vice versa? That would at least tell me if they were dead altogether. Because the fact that my little cheapo gigabit add-in card works fine with my cable modem (as well as the onboard LAN on my old ECS mobo) tends  to make me not want to blame the modem.
 
I think such a test might be the ''final'' test, wouldn't it?

heres a tip for you, disable one of the ethernet ports.  i found on my old 680i that if i didnt have a cable plugged into both ports the internet would not work but by disabling the port that does NOT have the ethernet cord the nic would work just fine.

Hmm.. to be honest with you (I failed to mention it) while testing them I already tried one of them at a time.. no difference. But your other ''clue'' is worth a try.. actually plugging in two cables at the same time! not a problem.. I just bought an 8 port switch awhile back! I'll give it a shot.
 
I also saw somewhere someone mention about visually inspecting the ports for pins that may have been pushed in too much. The former owner may have used both ports at once.. I suppose it's possible.
 
I really like the board so far. I bought it off of a guy on eBay who had a 100% + feedback as a ''guest'' (I don't have an account) so I wasn't worried, but I can't contact him or leave feedback either as a result. My friend donated a Q6600 and his two old EVGA 8800GTs to me awhile back 'cause he upgraded and I'm in heaven. So I got this board so I could maybe overclock a little. I also purchased 4X2GB sticks of GSKILL 667 RAM so it's maxed for memory. The PC's actually working out great for me.
 
Only two things wrong with this board (seller never mentioned) is that one of the six SATA ports is missing the inside middle plastic tab.. rendering it useless which is a shame because the six SATA ports is one of the things I bought it for. Only 5 are usable now. The second being no functioning onboard LAN ports.
 
I tried oc'ing my Q6600 a bit awhile back but wasn't too successful. I want to get the ''kinks'' out of this board before I try again.
 
One other thing I haven't tried but saw mentioned elsewhere is to use MS Window's own drivers if they have some.. rather than Nvidia's. I already had to do that for the storage drivers in W7 in order to get trim working on my SSD.. so it wouldn't surprise me. I'm not RAIDing anything (although I could) so that's not an issue.
 
Thanks for all the help so far guys.. I'll let you know what develops.

yeah only reason for 2 ports is for lan, if you are just running internet you only need 1 of the ports enabled also if you installed nam (network area access manager) get rid of it, i personally never installed it on my 680 or my 780i (im currently typing from my 780i rig).
 
and good point to check the ports for dust bunnies fuzz, or anything that could cause an issue remember there are 2 ports and you cna use either one by disabling the other  :D