Error message when you try to set an IP address on a network adapter

When you trying to set the IP address on a network adapter, you may receive the following error message: Where XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX is the IP address that you are trying to set and Name of adapter is the name of the network adapter that is present in the registry but hidden in Device Manager.

If you click Yes, you see the TCP/IP properties where you can change the IP address to something different for the currently showing network adapter in Device Manager. If you click No, the IP address is assigned to the network adapter. Note that if you click No, the selected network adapter in Device Manager and the ghosted network adapter have the same IP address. In most cases, this does not cause any problems because the driver is disabled.

Note On a computer that is running Windows Server 2008, you receive the folloiwng error message:

A network adapter with the same IP address is in the registry but is hidden in Device Manager. This can occur when you move a network card from one PCI slot to another PCI slot.

To resolve this problem, uninstall the ghosted network adapter from the registry using one of the following methods:

Method 1

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd.exe, and then press ENTER.
2. Type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1, and then press ENTER.
3. Type Start DEVMGMT.MSC, and then press ENTER.
4. Click View, and then click Show Hidden Devices.
5. Expand the Network Adapters tree.
6. Right-click the dimmed network adapter, and then click Uninstall.

Method 2

The DevCon utility is a command-line utility that acts as an alternative to Device Manager. When you use DevCon, you can enable, disable, restart, update, remove, and query individual devices or groups of devices. To use DevCon, follow these steps:

1. Download the DevCon tool by clicking the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   311272  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272/ ) The DevCon command-line utility functions as an alternative to Device Manager
2. Unpack the 32-bit or 64-bit DevCon tool binary to a local folder.
3. Click Start, click Run, then type cmd and press ENTER.
4. Type CD:\path_to_binaries to navigate to the devcon.exe is located.
5. Use the following syntax to find installed network adapters:
   devcon findall =net or
   devcon listclass net
   Note In the output of the previous commands, there is a line for the ghosted network adapter that is similar to the following:
   PCI\VEN_10B7&DEV_9200&SUBSYS_00D81028&REV_78\4&19FD8D60&0&58F0: 3Com 3C920 Integrated Fast Ethernet Controller (3C905C-TX Compatible)
6. Remove the ghosted device by typing the following syntax:
   devcon -r remove "@PCI\VEN_10B7&DEV_9200&SUBSYS_00D81028&REV_78\4&19FD8D60&0&58F0"

When you receive the error message in the "Symptoms" section, the hidden or ghosted network adapter does not appear in Device Manager unless you follow the steps in this article. Device Manager does show a network adapter and it typically has "#2" appended to the name.