Atheros LAN Driver is uninstalled and won't install.

I recently replaced my GTX 660 with a GTX 970, and after I had completed installing that, the PC started up perfectly. The only issue was the internet said it was not connected (with a red X on the connection icon). I used the troubleshooter to discover that I did not have a LAN driver installed and windows didn't couldn't detect what I needed. I check my files and the driver was still there, so I uninstalled it expecting the disk that had come with the box of the motherboard to reinstall the driver correctly. After I had uninstalled the driver and used the disk to try and reinstall, the driver did not reappear. I searched for a driver install separately on my laptop, but to no avail. Nothing seemed to be compatible with my motherboard. The driver which I had assumed matched state that it could not detect the family of driver on my PC. I tried to do a recovery but didn't have a backup file, and resorted to a factory reset. After trying the disk after the reset, and continuing to search for the right driver, I came up empty handed. Any help would be much appreciated.

Is that a Custom computer with the Gigabyte motherboard? If so the LAN drivers should be on the CD/DVD that came with it, both of mine did. Or you could download the drivers from Gigabyte's site.

Michaelvas17 said:

Could you post a screenshot of Device Manager under Network Adapters? One could see whether or not the LAN adapter is being recognized, and whether or not it is functioning properly.

It appears that I don't even have network adapters in my Device Manager.

I see that the newest driver for the Atheros network adapter at Gigabyte is for Windows 8.1.

GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1155 - GA-Z77-DS3H (rev. 1.0)


Probably OK for Windows 10.

I'm a little surprised that the adapter doesn't appear in Device Manager under "other devices" or some such. I hope that the 8.1 drivers do it for you.

bobkn said:

I see that the newest driver for the Atheros network adapter at Gigabyte is for Windows 8.1.

GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1155 - GA-Z77-DS3H (rev. 1.0)


Probably OK for Windows 10.

I'm a little surprised that the adapter doesn't appear in Device Manager under "other devices" or some such. I hope that the 8.1 drivers do it for you.

When I use that driver install it says "Installer can't find Qualcomm Atheros AR81Family ethernet controller on your system" which is the main issue, how am I going to get the driver back on the computer if it won't install. I guaranteed have GA-Z77-DS3H motherboard as well.

Rawrsy said:

When I use that driver install it says "Installer can't find Qualcomm Atheros AR81Family ethernet controller on your system" which is the main issue, how am I going to get the driver back on the computer if it won't install. I guaranteed have GA-Z77-DS3H motherboard as well.

A stupid question:

Is the controller enabled in the BIOS settings?

bobkn said:

A stupid question:

Is the controller enabled in the BIOS settings?

How does one navigate to their BIOS settings?

Rawrsy said:

How does one navigate to their BIOS settings?

I went into the PC's BIOS and it stated, "OnBoard LAN Controller#1 Enabled"