nic: ip but no lease, packets sent not received

[veryfrazzled]

Please, any ideas?
asus p5n32-e sli motherboard with two onboard NICs
"nVIDIA nForce 680i SLI (MCP55PXE) - Gigabit LAN Controller (PHY: Marvell 88E1116) PCI "
cable modem, linksys router
laptop always works (ethernet via devolo mains plug setup to router)
desktop (this) used to work fine with either nic (standard ethernet in one, devolo mains plug in other)
Now desktop nics behaving badly:
With automatic ip they get 169.1etc, and limited or no connectivity, or network cable unplugged, or just plain sullenness.
With manual config they get 192.168.whatever-I-set as an ip address, but no lease from the router (default gateway, 192.168.1.1, dhcp enabled), packets are sent but none received.
However, plug the ethernet cable into a Belkin USB ethernet adaptor and the connection is just fine (that's how I'm sending this).
I have, in an effort to solve this, (in no particular order of desperation), formatted the hd and reinstalled xp pro basic / sp 2 / sp 3
run the asus motherboard disk to reinstall drivers
installed latest network drivers from nvidia site over those
followed every bit of advice I can find on the web about releasing ip, killing the stack, swapping cables around, nailing horseshoes over the door, .....

Is it possible that both nics have got fried somehow to the point where they will send but not receive packets? They show orange (?red) light on all the time, disabled or not.

veryfrazzled

[Midknyte]

APIPA is working, so the card is trying to obtain an IP. Did you try switching cables and ports on the router?

Did anything happen recently, like a thunderstorm?

[veryfrazzled]

APIPA is working, so the card is trying to obtain an IP. Did you try switching cables and ports on the router?
Yep, and yep. Many times, and every combination.
It gets an IP if I give it one manually - but that doesn't show up on the router's list, of course.
If I tell it to get an IP address automatically, it just says "Acquiring network address", and eventually "limited or no connectivity"
Did anything happen recently, like a thunderstorm?
Yep, but everything is plugged in through a spike-resistant plug-board (and the laptop, which works fine, isn't, now I come to think of it)

I would go and get myself another card, but there's no room to fit it, what with all the bulky graphics cards taking up the space. How much am I throttling network bandwidth by using a 10/100 USB2 ethernet adapter?

[Midknyte]

Static IPs won't help. If you can't get an IP via APIPA, that means you don't have physical connection to the router even though the TCPIP stack is working properly.

Did you install the Nvidia firewall? if so, remove it. I've seen that cause problems.

If there was a storm, it's possible that the NICs got damaged. Electricity is a crazy thing.

By network bandwidth, i'm guessing you mean Internet. Most ISP don't come anywhere near 10Mbps, much less 100.

[veryfrazzled]

Did you install the Nvidia firewall? if so, remove it. I've seen that cause problems.

Not consciously, and it doesn't appear anywhere obvious. If I disable the AVG firewall, Windows tells me I have no firewall.......
(Thinks....) No, disabling the AVG firewall doesn't help either.

I think I'll just stick with the USB adapter - at least it works......

(My cable ISP actually gives me "up to" 20Mb, and I have had 18Mb at times, though the average is about 6Mb.....)

Thanks for the sympathy!

[Train]

6Mb

Not bad, sounds like about a 20 foot distance from the router.
Or the the antennas are not parallel to each other.

10 tips for improving your wireless network
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/setup/wirelesstips.aspx

[veryfrazzled]

Sorry? Not actually using wireless. Have we got our wires crossed here?

[TropicalBound]

OK. So are we saying the issue is most likely confined to the Linksys router? Have you set it back to factory defaults?

TB

[Train]

Sorry? Not actually using wireless. Have we got our wires crossed here?

We did. But it does give you some idea of what is possible solution.

[veryfrazzled]

Thanks for the (different) answers, but it can't be the router, as that happily gives an IP address and contact with the outside world to my laptop (over there) through a wired ethernet, and to the desktop machine (over here) through a (USB adapted) wired ethernet. It's just the onboard NICs on the desktop machine that ain't being given IP addresses. So, logically, it must be the NICs that aren't working.

Oh look, I've answered my own question. I just couldn't believe two NICs would go in for a suicide pact....

[Train]

It happens and also try a new cat 5 cable. Had both nics and cables go belly up on me many a time.

Why I keep a new nic and cable stocked!

[veryfrazzled]

It happens and also try a new cat 5 cable. Had both nics and cables go belly up on me many a time.

Why I keep a new nic and cable stocked!

I appreciate your point, but it isn't the cable, as it's the cable I'm using at the moment on the USBdongle. Has to be both motherboard NICs....

[Train]

Are they enabled in the BIOS?

I have had bad shutdowns cause weird disablings in the BIOS.

Then again, the onboard nic is shot in this computer so I disabled it use a PCI nic.

[veryfrazzled]

Are they enabled in the BIOS?

I have had bad shutdowns cause weird disablings in the BIOS.

Yep, been there, checked that!

[highlanderc]

I have exactly that same issue.

They will send packets but will not receive them. Same thing on 2 different OS's.

Did you ever find a solution to this issue?