After doing all the troubleshooting I can, I received a Code 31. Device not
working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers for the device.
Microsoft suggests that I update the driver, but that is not possible, see
below:

I started my Vista64 computer this morning and noticed that it had no
connection to the internet. I went through a few basic troubleshooting steps
and found that it had no network adapters installed. When I went to Device
Manager, there was not even a Network adapters section! I found the driver
disc for the networking adapters on my motherboard and manually installed
them. The Network adapters section appeared, with adapter #3 shown. I cannot
access 1 and 2, they're hidden and/or non-existent. The reason that the
drivers for this device cannot be loaded is because there are already 2
adapters there that I cannot access, and are not currently working correctly.

I have not installed any new software in over a week and everything was
working properly. The hardware update wizard tells me that my drivers are up
to date, and exits, with no options to uninstall/reinstall. Same in Device
Manager.

I cannot uninstall this and reinstall it as Windows is not detecting any
networking hardware at all, despite the fact that the only thing that changed
since yesterday is a power off and power on. I was networking yesterday,
everything was fine. I even ran a system restore to 2 days ago, and it STILL
does not detect any networking adapters installed, and I cannot access the
ones that are on the motherboard to attempt any maintenance there.

Any ideas, or am I reinstalling Vista64?

MHClemens wrote:

After doing all the troubleshooting I can, I received a Code 31. Device
not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers for the
device. Microsoft suggests that I update the driver, but that is not
possible, see below:

I started my Vista64 computer this morning and noticed that it had no
connection to the internet. I went through a few basic troubleshooting
steps and found that it had no network adapters installed. When I went to
Device Manager, there was not even a Network adapters section! I found the
driver disc for the networking adapters on my motherboard and manually
installed them. The Network adapters section appeared, with adapter #3
shown. I cannot access 1 and 2, they're hidden and/or non-existent. The
reason that the drivers for this device cannot be loaded is because there
are already 2 adapters there that I cannot access, and are not currently
working correctly.

I have not installed any new software in over a week and everything was
working properly. The hardware update wizard tells me that my drivers are
up to date, and exits, with no options to uninstall/reinstall. Same in
Device Manager.

I cannot uninstall this and reinstall it as Windows is not detecting any
networking hardware at all, despite the fact that the only thing that
changed since yesterday is a power off and power on. I was networking
yesterday, everything was fine. I even ran a system restore to 2 days ago,
and it STILL does not detect any networking adapters installed, and I
cannot access the ones that are on the motherboard to attempt any
maintenance there.

Boot into Safe Mode and then go to Device Manager. There should be a place
where you can check "show hidden devices". Do this and hopefully all your
network adapters will show. Uninstall them and reboot into Windows
normally.

If that doesn't work, reinstall the drivers. You can do this without using
Device Manager - just get the drivers from the mftrs.'s websites and run
them directly.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

---
After doing all the troubleshooting I can, I received a Code 31. Device not
working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers for the device.
Microsoft suggests that I update the driver, but that is not possible, see
below:

I started my Vista64 computer this morning and noticed that it had no
connection to the internet. I went through a few basic troubleshooting steps
and found that it had no network adapters installed. When I went to Device
Manager, there was not even a Network adapters section! I found the driver
disc for the networking adapters on my motherboard and manually installed
them. The Network adapters section appeared, with adapter #3 shown. I cannot
access 1 and 2, they're hidden and/or non-existent. The reason that the
drivers for this device cannot be loaded is because there are already 2
adapters there that I cannot access, and are not currently working correctly.

I have not installed any new software in over a week and everything was
working properly. The hardware update wizard tells me that my drivers are up
to date, and exits, with no options to uninstall/reinstall. Same in Device
Manager.

I cannot uninstall this and reinstall it as Windows is not detecting any
networking hardware at all, despite the fact that the only thing that changed
since yesterday is a power off and power on. I was networking yesterday,
everything was fine. I even ran a system restore to 2 days ago, and it STILL
does not detect any networking adapters installed, and I cannot access the
ones that are on the motherboard to attempt any maintenance there.

Any ideas, or am I reinstalling Vista64?

My laptop Vista 64 did exactly the same thing, but with my touchpad. I
found that it had disappeared from the Hardware Manager. For some
unfathomable reason, Microsoft has made all items that are showing an
error "hidden". Go to the top of the window and choose View - Show
hidden devices. Your adapters should show up and give you the reason
they aren't functional.

GP

"Grand_Poobah" wrote:


My laptop Vista 64 did exactly the same thing, but with my touchpad. I
found that it had disappeared from the Hardware Manager. For some
unfathomable reason, Microsoft has made all items that are showing an
error "hidden". Go to the top of the window and choose View - Show
hidden devices. Your adapters should show up and give you the reason
they aren't functional.

GP

Unfortunately, they're not even showing up as "hidden"
I attempted to manually add new hardware and used the correct driver. There
are now 2 items there (#3 and #4) both of which are not functioning, error
"Windows cannot load the drivers for this device (Code 31)".
I am running an Nvidia NFORCE 790i SLI (not currently using SLI mode)
motherboard with 2 Gigabit network adapters. I tried reloading the mfgr's
drivers, no luck
I tried uninstalling the drivers, both in standard mode and in safe mode,
and every time but one they've given no error and not uninstalled.
The one time I did get an error the error read "No good (OK button)"

The odd thing is, nothing was plugged into the other network port, but it
has disappeared as well, so I know that the extremely unlikely event of a
power surge (because it's all surge protected through a UPS) wouldn't have
blown the disconnected port.

So I can't uninstall, I can't get windows to load the drivers. Roll it
further back? (That shouldn't have any effect as I already rolled it back to
when it was last working). This acts like a Windows issue...
Any other ideas?

---

"Grand_Poobah" wrote:

My laptop Vista 64 did exactly the same thing, but with my touchpad. I
found that it had disappeared from the Hardware Manager. For some
unfathomable reason, Microsoft has made all items that are showing an
error "hidden". Go to the top of the window and choose View - Show
hidden devices. Your adapters should show up and give you the reason
they aren't functional.

GP

Unfortunately, they're not even showing up as "hidden"
I attempted to manually add new hardware and used the correct driver. There
are now 2 items there (#3 and #4) both of which are not functioning, error
"Windows cannot load the drivers for this device (Code 31)".
I am running an Nvidia NFORCE 790i SLI (not currently using SLI mode)
motherboard with 2 Gigabit network adapters. I tried reloading the mfgr's
drivers, no luck
I tried uninstalling the drivers, both in standard mode and in safe mode,
and every time but one they've given no error and not uninstalled.
The one time I did get an error the error read "No good (OK button)"

The odd thing is, nothing was plugged into the other network port, but it
has disappeared as well, so I know that the extremely unlikely event of a
power surge (because it's all surge protected through a UPS) wouldn't have
blown the disconnected port.

So I can't uninstall, I can't get windows to load the drivers. Roll it
further back? (That shouldn't have any effect as I already rolled it back to
when it was last working). This acts like a Windows issue...
Any other ideas?

I'm fresh out of ideas now. Could the motherboard be going bad on you?
Is taking it to a repair spot out of the question?

GP

On Nov 9, 4:47 pm, MHClemens
wrote:
Unfortunately, they're not even showing up as "hidden"
I attempted to manually add new hardware and used the correct driver. There
are now 2 items there (#3 and #4) both of which are not functioning, error
"Windows cannot load the drivers for this device (Code 31)".

Obviously, Windows does not and is not intended to fix hardware
problems. Windows cannot see network cards. Either Windows is
defective or the network card is defective. How do you diagnose one
problem without even using the other? That is what you must do.

Better machines have comprehensive hardware diagnostics for free. If
yours is not, then go to the network card manufacturer to download his
diagnostics. Diagnostics run without any Windows. Now the problem is
being broken down into parts as described in the above paragraph.
What does the comprehensive or manufacturer diagnostic report? Don't
make any effort yet to fix or replace anything. First collect facts
such as diagnostic reports.

Examining your problem: motherboard computer should communicate with
the network card computer. Does it? Only tool that limits all
reports only to that communication is a diagnostic. Then the network
card computer talks to the network. Diagnostics typically have a
special test by having this network card talk to another card (often
required to be from the same manufacturer). NIC is not known good
until the network computer can talk in both directions. However
Windows will not even show an NIC if motherboard computer is not
talking to NIC computer.

If you don't break the problem into parts, then you spin wheels.
That is why every responsible computer manufacturer provided
comprehensive hardware diagnostics for every computer. Before
solving anything with Windows, first determine hardware integrity
using hardware diagnostics.