On board Ethernet got disabled by a bootable utilities disc

[videobruce]

AMD 970 chipset Gigibyte MB
Win 7 Pro
Realtek on-board chipset with a 1/18 dated driver update.

It's kinda hard to describe this,, but long story short;
I was tiring newer versions to update those bootable CD's with troubleshooting programs on them for possible future use (hopefully not) eg;
Ultimate Boot CD,
Knoppix v7.2 & 8.1
EaseUS Partition Master WinPE,
All IN One Rescue Toolkit,
MiniTool Partition Wizard
for examples.
I believe it was one of the Knoppix versions that did something as they have Ethernet drivers so one can use the included browser, but that is only a guess.

Somehow, the on -board Realtek Ethernet chipset got disabled or corrupted to a point I had to connection to the Router. The 1st time, in Device manager, the network device entry wasn't even there. I managed to get thing back, I believe by powering down and/or rebooting.

The 2nd time, Device manager had the Ethernet device entry there and it showed that it was working, but no connection. Network & Sharing showed a "Unknown Network". The Router showed the port connected as did the LED's on that back of the Tower including activity. I couldn't even access the Router.

I reset defaults in the UEFI BIOS, but that didn't work. Then I did something that I haven't had to for probably 16+ years, I cleared the CMOS on the MB, then reset the BIOS again on bootup. Connectivity was restored.

So, the question is; what could of been done and how did this happen? How could a program outside of the installed O/S affect a on-board device after the program is closed? Has anyone heard of something like this happening?

Mind you, I also didn't have connectivity when I re-loaded two of those bootable discs, so this is NOT a W7 O/S issue. I have a 2nd bootable HDD (same O/S) and that was dead also.

I don't believe it was a 'virus', the iso's that I burned to the CD's came from the original source.

 

[videobruce]

I hope I didn't loose anyone, if so please re-read. It had to be some 'tampering' with the on-board Ethernet chipset and the driver it temporarily loaded.

 

[vailr]

No guarantees, but there may have been a simpler fix: unplug the PC's ethernet cable and the power cord from the wall outlet, then press and hold the PC's power button for several seconds. That would discharge any latent electricity on the LAN port.
That procedure can sometimes fix a similar kind of PS/2 port error, and may also do the same for a LAN port.

 

[videobruce]

I did power down, turned of the PS w/ the mechanical switch for a couple of minutes, but that didn't help.
I have my reservations about holding down the power button with the PS switched off draining the caps.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

No guarantees, but there may have been a simpler fix: unplug the PC's ethernet cable and the power cord from the wall outlet, then press and hold the PC's power button for several seconds. That would discharge any latent electricity on the LAN port.
That procedure can sometimes fix a similar kind of PS/2 port error, and may also do the same for a LAN port.

That's the Kyle Brothlofsky genius procedure from that episode of South Park that parodies Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath:" When everyone loses their Internet and moves West to find a connection in "Cali-forny." What would we do without our internet? We must not abuse our internet. "We should only redactedonce a day on our internet." [the character "Randy Marsh"].

Truth be told, simply unplugging a cable may actually provide a fix!