Starting some programs disables my network card

[elsupl]

So, it all began yesterday when some friends decided to use my computer. Once I got back on it, I noticed a bunch of random drivers were missing, including my network adapter, audio, display, among other things. I reinstalled all the drivers, it all seemed fine until I tried playing a game or two, and noticed that as soon as I started certain programs or services, my network card would just turn off. When I would exit the game, it would start up again as if nothing happened. Slowly it started doing this to just about every program but firefox, gaim, and mirc.

Ive spent all day working with some of the most computer knowledgeable people I know and we've tried everything we could think of, but nothing has worked as of yet. I'm willing to reinstall windows again as a last resort, but since one of said friends smashed my cd that had all my drivers on it and the ones on the manufacutors website dont often work, I want to stick away from it if at all possible.

also, if it helps, when the card is active (it's onboard, btw.) it has a solid orange and green light always on. When it shuts off as i described, the orange light flashes every 5 or so seconds until I exit the program that caused the shutdown. Some examples of programs that do this are any valve games, gtasa, last.fm, on occasion itunes and winamp, and some others. It also does this on some embedded web elements, which, I havent isolated yet.

cliffs: starting some programs and services causes my onboard network card to shut off, from what I can tell.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[sisq0kidd]

Spyware?

It could be that your friends have downloaded some spyware and it's attaching itself to some programs that you run. But it's odd that it would shut down your internet connection instead of keeping it open.

Anyway, I would check for spyware, adware or any trojans before reformatting.

 

[elsupl]

ah, forgot to mention that. I did a virus scan with AVG and a spyware check with windows defender, which ive heard is better than many antispyware programs, but you never know. Ill check with a few more programs and give an update.

 

[Lord Evermore]

If you've got System Restore turned on, you could try falling back to an earlier point than when your friends touched it. Obviously I think, check Add/Remove Programs and see if there's anything YOU didn't install. This situation sounds familiar, and I think it did end up being spyware or a trojan of some sort, it was in a forum thread on AT but I can't remember when or where.

Incidentally, what kinds of friends are these who come in, screw up your computer, and smash your driver CD?

The drivers on the manufacturer's websites don't often work? Who do you think made the drivers you had on the CD? If you mean like the motherboard manufacturer's site instead of the chipset maker, all they are is usually slightly older versions than you can download from the chipset maker, repackaged to have the mainboard brand name.

 

[elsupl]

well, first of all heres an update. did a spyware and virus check with some other software, didnt turn up anything, but in safe mode a few of the programs that seemed to do it before didnt, but I couldnt test them all.

But as a temp fix I found an old linksys card i just installed and it seems to be working fine for the time being, but id still like to figure out the problem.

As for the friends question, it was an accident on smashing the CD, but how it happened doesnt make it sound any better. He knocked my laptop off my desk and somehow the cd managed to get under the laptop and the corner smashed it. Luckily though, the laptop was one of my dad's offices old IBMs, and those can take a hit, so no damage to that.

And as for the driver question, usually the site drivers work for my motherboard, sound card, gfx card, and a few other things. But occasionally some product comes around where the device doesnt like the drivers I get from the website, like my PCI card that gives me 2 extra IDE slots since my mobo only has 2 to start with. Dont ask me how, but I know that I matched product names exactly, and it didnt matter, it just didnt take the drivers, but the ones on the cd worked fine. It only happens sometimes, but its a really big pain when it does.

edit: just checked, no progs i didnt install in add/remove programs. This remains a mystery. I'd like to think that its just this motherboard crapping out on me because I'm doing a complete system upgrade soon anyways, but it's just odd that certain programs cause it to shut itself off.