LAN Card Issue with Fatal1ty Gaming X370

Thundernerd wrote: Hello, I purchased an ASRock Fatal1ty Gaming X370 mobo this week for a Ryzen 7 build. After installing windows, I noticed that the network adapter was not showing up in device manager.  I downloaded the intel drivers from the ASRock website, but I get the error message "Cannot install drivers. No Intel(R) Adapters are present in this computer.". I cleared the CMOS, pulled the battery for 15 minutes, reinstalled windows, and it still cannot detect the adapter.  I don't think the card itself is bad, as when an ethernet cable is plugged in, the amber light flashes on and off at a constant rate. Is there a location in the BIOS where the adapter can be enabled or disabled?

Assuming you have the Fatal1ty X370 Gaming K4 board. No idea which version of Windows you are using.

I have the feeling the Intel I211AT NIC chip is not working in your board, and I'll explain why.

I have a different but similar ASRock Ryzen board, the X370 Killer SLI/ac, that has both the wired Intel I211AT and a WiFi adapter.

There is no UEFI/BIOS option to enable or disable the network adapter(s), and if there is such an option, it would be enabled by default. It would be in one of the screens in the Advanced section. There is a Network Configuration option in the Tools screen, but normally the default setting is all that is needed for the network chip to work out of the box.

When I install Win 10, I don't connect the PC to the Internet during the installation. I also wait to connect until I install all the basic drivers, and configure Win 10 to not automatically install drivers that it would do so via Windows update.

The Windows 10 installer has a built in network driver that it would install for the Intel wired and WiFi adapters. That would have happened for you if it could find your networking chip, which it obviously couldn't do. Both of my network adapter were working immediately after the Windows 10 installation.

I was able to install the Intel networking driver without a cable connected to the RJ45 network jack. If the Intel network driver installation program could not find the I211AT network chip, IMO that is a problem with the chip.

There are two LEDs next to the network input jack, one on top and the other below the jack. The upper LED is the Link indicator, which you said is on, but do you see the LED below the jack coming on at all? It should be either orange or green depending upon the speed of the connection, and stay on continuously. Do you see that lower LED on at all? If you downloaded your board's full user manual from its information page on ASRock website, the IO panel section describes the network input:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/Fatal1ty%20X370%20Gaming%20K4/index.asp#Manual

I could be wrong, but in my experience with many boards with Intel networking chips, they all function immediately after a Windows installation with the built in Windows network driver. That the Intel network driver installer could not find the network chip is a bad sign, and that it is not shown in Device Manager. Do you get an entry for Other or Unknown Devices? That could be the network chip, but there is no reason IMO for the Intel network driver to fail finding the chip.

In BIOS find out EASY DRIVER INSTALLER (in same sheet as BIOS update is). Select EASY DRIVER INSTALLER, connect some USB flash disk (formated to fat32 or ntfs) and select your operating system. LAN driver will be installed on your USB drive, youc an easily install it in widows then.

Dont know, why windows are so dumb, but they are not able to install working LAN adapter at all. I had same issue with sound - mic was ok, but headphones still told me, they are unpluged - downloaded drivers from asrock site help me.

An update on this: 

It's a TP-Link with a Realtek NIC. I downloaded the latest drivers for it when I installed it. I'm guessing it's just a coincidence, shouldn't have anything to do with the on-board Intel NIC.