Realtek RTL8111-GR Gigabit Ethernet Controller burnt

[sachinnair1]

Hi,


I have a Intel DG31PR motherboard and it has this Realtek RTL8111-GR Gigabit Ethernet Controller on board.

One day when i was trying to connect to the internet i found that my LAN connection is down. I checked with the ISP and they said everything is ok from their side. Then I checked with my hardware vendor and he said that he onboard IC is burnt.

The vendor says that since this is a physical damage the board cannot be replaced though the Motherboard is under warranty.

I would like to know :

1: what is ment by physical damage

2: how does the physical damage of this kind happen

3: If the IC burnt then there must have been some fault in the circuitry of the board as it could not prevent the IC from burning.

4: Can my motherboard be replaced since it is under warranty

5: How to derermine if the IC is actually burnt


Thanks in advance

Sachin

[skier]

1: what is ment by physical damage

2: how does the physical damage of this kind happen

3: If the IC burnt then there must have been some fault in the circuitry of the board as it could not prevent the IC from burning.

4: Can my motherboard be replaced since it is under warranty

5: How to derermine if the IC is actually burnt

welcome to the forums,

1/2: Motherboard manufacturers and most manufacturers for that matter have a strict guideline for what can be replaced regarding "User Induced Damage" so essentially if they think you were the direct cause of the damage they don't want to have to pay for your mistake. If it is not your fault and you can prove that (explain what happened, with a timeline of events) then you should be able to get it replaced after talking with support again, though you may be out of luck depending on their policy.

3: it is most like a hardware failure on the manufacturer's side, but it could have been caused by a short, a disconnected wire on the PCB from a surface scratch, or just normal failure.

4: depends on their damage policy

5: take the board out and look around the board close to the I/O shield as the ethernet circuitry is generally around there, you might be able to see something wrong, most likely not as sometimes things just die


in my opinion, i would just pick up an ethernet PCI card, i have one from the 90's and still use it all the time

[sachinnair1]

Thanks Skier

I know if i get myself a new Lan Card that will work for me.
But the thing thas buggin me is the mobo is under warranty and the cause of the damage was not me. probably the ISP may be.

Anyways thanks for your reply.

[kenc51]

Thanks Skier

I know if i get myself a new Lan Card that will work for me.
But the thing thas buggin me is the mobo is under warranty and the cause of the damage was not me. probably the ISP may be.

Anyways thanks for your reply.

It wasnt your isp. There's an extremly small chance it was from a power surge from the ethernet cable, but if that happened the modem / router / switch on the other end would also be dead. There are at least 5 - 6 different fails-safe's in place to make sure such a thing doesn't happen.

Sounds like either a manufacturing fault, some soldering wasnt done cleanly or something.
Otherwise it may have been caused by something touching the board causing a fault; that is if it was actually "burnt"