Windows 7 Not Recognizing NIC Card

[dragon2041]

I'm not sure if this is an OS problem or not - but 7 just suddenly stopped recognizing my external NIC card on my laptop. I was on a bus, and was perfectly able to use it to connect to a friend's laptop. I got off of the bus and walked 20 feet to my house. When I opened it up again, it would not recognize the card. I've rebooted it 4-5 times, opened it up and blown it out with compressed air, etc. I can't tell what's wrong.

The transmit/power lights are both lit up on the card - but 7 doesn't recognize that it's connected - making me think it's an OS problem.

Help?

 

[Kross07]

Does doing a system restore to say, 3 days back work? The only reason I ask this is b/c I work in my Dorm's IT department, and I have had 2 or 3 laptops stop connecting to a network. I know that your issue is a bit different, but you could try this. Also you could try uninstalling the driver, and then re-installing it with maybe an updated or newly downloaded one.

This is worth a try at least.