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I have been setting up a new Zotac IONITX-A motherboard in a computer I am building for a home theatre setup.
However the on-board gigabit ethernet will not detect my cable to the switch.
I have tried 3 different cables, every port on the switch, I took the cable off of my tower that I know works and hooked it to it and still "The network cable is unplugged."
I've tried both the Zotac driver download (which appears to just be the nvidia forceware) and the latest nvidia forceware drivers.
I have also tried the drivers from windows update, with the same luck.
The switch is an 8 port Linksys gigabit switch.
I am truly at a loss as to what would cause this, no LEDs light up on either the network port on the board, or the switch.

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Dani AI

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As later noted, the problem turned out not to be drivers or cables but a switch/NIC compatibility issue. When a gigabit link never lights the port LED on either side, that points to a physical‑layer/PHY negotiation failure rather than a software fault. Gigabit Ethernet needs all four wire pairs and relies on auto‑negotiation; if the PHYs on the two ends refuse to agree, the link stays down.

Practical checklist to reproduce and isolate the fault:

  • Confirm the OS sees the adapter (Device Manager on Windows, lspci/ethtool on Linux).
  • Try forcing a lower speed as a quick test (Windows adapter advanced properties or ethtool -s eth0 speed 100 duplex full autoneg off on Linux). If a 100 Mbps link comes up, the gigabit negotiation or magnetics are likely at fault.
  • Test the NIC against another known‑good switch or directly to a router. If it works there (as it did for ), the original switch is the weak link.
  • If the switch is managed, check port settings (forced speed/duplex, auto‑MDI/MDIX, energy‑saving features, port disablement). Also check for and install any switch firmware updates.
  • Inspect the RJ45 jack and pins for damage and try a different port on the same switch before condemning hardware.

If the NIC only works on other gear, options are to update the switch firmware, change the switch, or use a different NIC. Forcing speed/duplex is useful for diagnosis but not a long‑term fix; persistent auto‑negotiation mismatches should be resolved by firmware or hardware replacement.

Member Avatar for Edgeman

This ended up being a switch-related problem. Tried the card on another switch and it worked fine. Some sort of odd compatibility issue between the card and the switch I guess...

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