Last night, I was the surfing the net fine when I accidentally hit a button that sent me into standby mode. I couldn't get the computer out of standby mode so I restarted it. When everything came back up I had the icon in the Systray that said my network cable is unplugged. I've tried everything and can't get it to work again and I have no net access whatsoever.

I checked our hub and the port that my cable is plugged into is not lit. When I switch ports, the new port does not light. I've unplugged and plugged the cable back in at both ends and have had no success. I've completely removed the Ethernet card from the computer, all the drivers and disabled the LAN connection itself. Nothing. I even ran the Ethernet cord from my brother's computer into the room and attempted to connect it to my computer. Nothing at all. I also searched Microsoft for issues and noticed that something happened like this on stations running ELAN's and they recommended updating the service packs. I downloaded and updated to Service Pack 3 and still nothing.

Some things to point out:
1 - My brother's computer has connections to the Internet. So if it were a cable problem, it should have worked when I ran his cable to the computer.
2 - When I physically removed the card from the computer and all the drivers, I restarted and Windows 2000 still, somehow, recognized an Ethernet card, installed the proper drivers and designated that the card was working properly.
3 - I've never had a problem like this before until the computer was accidentally put into standby.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Might want to check the duplex or speed connections. Set to Auto if it isn't, - set to 10mps, 100mps and see what happens.

Can you ping the loopback? Try to ping 127.0.0.1 If you get a response then TCP/IP is working properly. If not then try reinstalling the TCP/IP suite. You can do this from the properties box of your etherenet card(the same place you set static IP's.)select TCP/IP and then hit the uninstall button. I would then reboot and go back and click the check box to reinstall it.

May not help but it's worth a try.
Good Luck!
Chaz

Are you by any chance using Norton AntiVirus??
If so, uninstall it. Then uninstall NIC and TCP.
Re-install NIC and TCP, not forgetting to configure Properties.
I have had NAV shut down W2k workstations 5x on Network. Could not even ping NIC from console! And with no satisfactory answer from Symantec, pretending they never heard of it. When you do re-install NAV, don't live update. Then if all goes well for a while, try live update again.
NASA's push for higher security since 911 has cuased overkill security such as denial of service etc. Spartan firewalling can cause this problem.
Cheers!......//Stocky//

I can ping the loopback. But I tried to reinstall Windows with the same settings and everything. Not actually overwrite it. And it still is getting the same error.

I'm not using NAV either. I have the latest version of McAfee. It's odd because I'm at the point where I'm thinking of just reinstalling.

I have 2 computers on a network one computer has win xp and win me on it dual boot and the other only xp. on my first computer I can connect to the internet with np on winme but when i use XP it says network cable not plugged and it shows it's connected on my hub. I installed all the drivers for xp and still nothing my second computer has np connecting to the internet on xp. I tried swapping the network cards when i did that it said it was connected meaning no cable connected show up. the first computer had an intel card and the other had a dlink and both card work fine on second computer. I have an msi motherboard and I'm thinking it could be something on the motherboard but i checked the web site and loaded all drivers for xp still nothing. If anyone has any info please send me your input it would be much appreciated. Thanks for your time in reading this.

I am having the same probem with my laptop wireless connection to my desktop. What is happening is that the settings on the card on the desktop (running w2k) are reverting to the default configuration of the drivers, which is an ad-hoc 802.11 network (instead of 802.11b, which is what I have). When I reset those settings the "Network cable unplugged" goes away and the LAN says that it is Enabled again (which indeed it is). So, I'd say to check your network card settings.

Hello.I have been racking my brain for the last 3 days over a "Network Card Unplugged" message which appeared after I did a full format of my hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP.Before the formatting everything worked fine but after nothing I did could get me reconnected.So I caved in and called my ISP guys who sent out a very capable fellow who after a brief span simply installed a REALTEK ethernet card and Voila!Everything works.I was using an SiS 900 Fast Ethernet Adapter before.Why it stopped working?I don't know.Perhaps this may be a solution for anyone having a similar problem.

I meant "Network CABLE Unplugged"

Okay, I am having a similar problem. I have two machines, one is a w2K server machine set up as a domain controller and the other is a win xp pro machine. I want to share my internet connection via the w2k machine so I set up my hub, modem, ethernet cards etc. Using the hub I get link lights from both machines. When I try to add the winxp machine to the domain I get an error stating that the domain controller cannot be contacted. I removed the hub and connected both machines directly using a ethernet cable, when I do this I get the NETWORK CABLE UNPLUGGED message on both machines. Now I know that both network cards work since I can use the dsl modem on each machine and connect successfully to the internet, and I know that the cable is fine since I used it from the dsl modem to the machine. I tried all the suggestions above and no luck. I have seen this problem before but attributed it to a faulty card trying to setup a p2p network between winxp pro and win98se.....

Any assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

shirohl,
I suspect that the reason you receive the "cable is unplugged" error when you attach the computers directly by a cable is that you must use a "cross-over" cable for direct connections without a hub. You cannot use a regular cable (a straight-through cable) to connect two PCs directly.

one of my customers is having a "network cable is unplugged" problem as well. but it seems to be intermittent. She is using windows XP on a new DELL notebook.

remove (NOSPAM) from the email address inorder to send email to me.

I've having exactly the same problem as described above with Windows 2000 Server. I'm using two 3COM NICs and I know both are functional. However, Network and Dialup says "Network Cable Unplugged" when it clearly is plugged in. The indicator light on the hub and the NIC both come on when the machine is first powered up, but 3/4 of the way through the boot cycle the OS kills the network connection and the light goes out on the hub. I've tried working with Routing and Remote Access, Power Management of the NIC, swapping cables, ports, NICS and PCI slots. Nothing seems to work. I've found other threads in discussion groups with similar problems but no solutions. Any help?

I have the same problem than Glen Barry (response 11). Network Cable Unplugged while all network hardware works fine.

PC: PII-300 (Compaq), Win XP-Pro. All drivers updated.

Problem: During the boot, the OS kills the network connection (lights on the router are flashing then died).
Sometimes, the connection will only die after 1 minute.

I think it may be connected to an IRQ problem, network card using the same IRQ than the graphic card ... but so far, I could not change these IRQs ... any help welcome. Thanks.

Note: Glen, could you check if the IRQ used by your network card is not used by another device too ?

I know this sounds stupid but have you tried reversing the ends of the LAN cable. (The one that goes from the ethernet adapter card to the modem) I was having the exact problem you're describing and I tried everything from restarts to re-installing drivers to regestry edits and nothing worked. I called up my ISP and the guy said unplug your cord and plug it in the other way. So that the end that was in your computer is now in the modem and vise versa. Voila! instantly the "Network cable unplugged" message disappeared never to be seen again. Sure, laugh, go ahead. But try it.

Good luck

I'm having the same problem - my two computers (both using windows xp home) were networked with the right cable and happily shared files, a printer and internet connection for about a year. Then one of them froze and I had to turn it off without shutting down, and ever since it has said "Network cable unplugged" on one of them - even though the plug is in.

I spent most of yesterday playing with the settings, re-installed the drivers, did a system restore to back when it was working... and nothing worked. Today I bought a new network card, and still it doesn't work.

I've even tried turning the cable around - but alas no, it didn't work.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm totally stuck!