Reinstalled OS -- Now my DESKTOP doesnt detect ethernet cord

Clean installed windows 7 on top of windows 7. Now my computer isn't recognizing there's an ethernet cord plugged in.

99% sure this is a driver issue
1) because of the situation
2) I'm not positive but I believe this happened before when I tried to switch to linux then ended up switching back (aka did a clean install)

my fix before was to download the new driver file, put it on a flash drive, and update my driver. Problem is, when I try to do that now all I can get is something called

Win64.exe

It seems to be a universal installer..when I try to run it on my desktop it simply says "you have the latest driver installed"

It seems to want to connect to the Internet though. I believe the first time I didn't download a .exe , it was whatever file extension actual driver files are. I can't even navigate to this file through device manager since it is a .exe

Any tips?

Win64.exe came from the official Intel website
The graphics card I have is the
Intel PRO 1000 GT Desktop Adapter

Update:

Just wanted to state my current driver version is 8.4.1.0 , if I'm not mistaken that is extremely outdated. The current version is definitely past 15.0, I want to say it's 19.3 or something similar.

I've tried the link for the Win64.exe installer as well as
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=22283&lang=eng&ProdId=1878

both files get to "Copying driver files"
then they say "Cannot install drivers. No Intel(R) Adapters are present in this computer." (in a popup message)
After clicking ok on the popup it says "The wizard was interrupted before Intel(R) Network connections could be completely installed. Your system has not been modified"

Edit: Turned out to be a simple drivers issue. Silly me -- it had been a long day. Within the next six months I ended up getting an entirely new build anyway

 

Is it possible you can find the old driver for your network card?

If you go to device manager, does your network adapter have a ? next to it?

 

If you can get us your PC model or motherboard model then we can probably find it for you.

If you bought the PC from the shop then just find out the model number.

 

No I cannot, I did a clean install (also when I was talking about having this problem before it was over a year ago)

In device manager under network adapters I see

Intel(R) Pro/1000 GT Desktop Adapter

That has a computer/network symbol next to it. It reports it has the most up to date driver software.

It's worth mentioning under "Other devices"
I see

-Ethernet Controller
-PCI Simple Communications controller
-SM Bus controller
-Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller

All four of these things have lock symbols next to them. When I attempt to view properties it says those exact names;

as in Ethernet Controller is literally "Ethernet Controller" -- it has no further information about it & says it cannot find any driver software for it.

Also it may be worth mentioning I am still able to use flash drives on my desktop despite USB Controller having that strange occurrence.

It was custom built from a company (I know, I know but it was only $20 more than buying the parts separately via Newegg + it came with a good warranty)

Anyway, System Information states

<edited>


Also, thank you both so much for your reply! I appreciate the help. I'm actively working on solving this problem (I've been putting it off haha)

 

Download CPU-Z
https://www.google.co.nz/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=hPIhVNOLNIGK8Qfy0oFI&gws_rd=ssl#q=cpu+z&safe=active

If you run that on your PC, it should give you your exact motherboard details.

 

Updated OP.

Will do this in just a second.


Edit: Updated OP even more

Ran that program;

<edited>

 

I did go ahead and add you on skype, but if you can just get your motherboard name it should be simple to get the drivers from there.

 

Alright, go ahead and download

http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Driver/mb_driver_lan_atheros_813x_815x_816x.exe

Just extract it to your desktop and run the setup

After a restart, see if it works.

 

Yes!!!!

Success!!! You are amazing!

Thanks a lot!

Can you help me learn from this? Why was the Intel file not what I needed? How did you find the file that I needed?

 

No worries man.

Well I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "intel file" but I guess what you downloaded was some driver finder thing, those programs are usually sub par, and if you know what you're doing it can be really easy to just find the drivers yourself.
EDIT::: Ohhhh I just clicked the link in your OP, yeah it looks like a driver package for a whole bunch of motherboards, unfortunately it didn't contain the one for your specific motherboard. Intel is the brand of your CPU, not the brand of your motherboard.

All I did was google "Gigabyte Z77-DS3H" and got
http://www.gigabyte.co.nz/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4147#driver

That's the website for your motherboard there, so it's got all the specific drivers for that exact model. What you needed was the LAN drivers (obviously).

If there's any other items in your device manager that have the ? next to them, you should download the drivers for them from that website, I noticed you said USB Controller was listed under "Other Devices" so you'll probably want to download the USB 3.0 drivers from there too

If you've got any other follow up questions I don't mind answering them too.

 

Download and install all the drivers for your specific motherboard / PC model.