Network Connection devices disappear

[BenRain]

I am not sure how long this problem has been going on, but when I went to check my network connections, everything was gone, for the modem, LAN, and the 1394. All the devices are installed according to the device manager, but when I try to start a home network as well, it says it cannot locate the devices. The internet is working fine, although I do notice I don't even get the "A network cable has been unplugged" notification anymore.

I also think the problem keeps disconnecting me from AIM. Even if I use different clients like trillian or gaim it won't connect, and it's really starting to annoy me, but MSN and others work fine.
For the record, I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the devices and tried system restore with no luck. I have looked around and have not found much information on how to solve this issue. It seems so far that my only option is to reformat but I'd really dislike to do that. Can anybody help me please? Thanks.

 

[tipstir]

Are you using onboard NIC? Did you update your Chipset Drivers and NIC Driver for your MOBO. You might want to try to disable that onboard and get PCI NIC to see if the problem goes away.

 

[blue_dragon]

hmm

start-->run-->services.msc
make sure all network services are up and running
the network connections service is the one that displays available devices in the network connections menu found in control panel

 

[BenRain]

Yes, I am using onboard and yes, I have updated my drivers. It's an nForce430 chipset. I think it seems more of a windows issue after searching around on google (And still yet, to find a working solution).
And yes, blue_dragon, all the required services are enabled.

I read on Microsoft's website a hotfix was availiable, but I would be charged for it and should wait until the next service pack unless it's a serious problem.

 

[BenRain]

Semi-Update:
I created a fake connection using my dialup modem, before there was also a bogus connection for it when it listed my LAN and 1394. So my guess is that somehow it got literaly deleted from the network connections. So is there any way to add LAN and FireWire back?

 

[tipstir]

Why don't you disable the onboard NIC and use PCI card they're cheap now and do a really good job and less problems like you're having now. You use dial-up modem? Is that for Caller ID control. I use one but have disabled internal modem for external ZOOM with CallerID/Call Waiting features...