I've got a Gigabyte GA-MA780G-UD3 motherboard and the on-board LAN works fine out of the box- Realtek RTL8168C(P)/8111C(P) Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.20) with driver v7.2.1127.2008 dated 26/02/2008 However, if I allow Windows Update to install the Optionaldriver update, which it says was released in June 2007 and has a Published date of 3/10/2008, I lose my network connection (both LAN and Internet, NIC is connected to a router). After installing, this driver shows v6.195.625.2007 dated 25/06/2007.It seems strange that an older drive is offered as an optional update and I think most people would install it thinking it would be a newer and therefore better driver.

this is one big bug and has been reported here a few times but the update is still there I ended up using system restore and then use the hide update feature

OK, just wanted to make sure this was known about. I've used system restore and driver roll back (on separate occasions) successfully to fix the problem. As I do updates manually, I might just leave this update visible so that I notice when it's fixed/removed.

I had continual problems with the network and internet dropping out. I found that Realtek have just released a network adapter driver for Win7 and after I installed this, it fixed all the issues with the network and internet. You might like to have a look at the Realtek site and see if there is a driver available for your network adapter.

Thanks but my NIC works fine with the default Win7 driver. It just doesn't work if I install the optional update from Windows Update.

Thanks for pointing me to new drivers for the Realtek, but unfortunately the install of the new drivers didn't solve my problem: the LAN connection I get will not go any higher than 10mpbs whereas I have2 gigabite network adapters integrated on the motherboard (Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5) which obviously should take me much higher than that. The cable (cat 5e) doesn't seem to be the problem either because when I plug it into my laptop, the connection reaches 100mpbs (limit of my laptop) which is also running win7.Anybody any ideas or directions I can follow to find the solution ??Thnx!

Go to the properties/advanced for your Realtek and manually set the speed to 1gb full duplex. Had to do that on my setup ( Biostar TA790GX-128M) and got the 1gb speed afterwards. Sam