[Solved] Could not start WinXP because physical network intfc not found

[GaryS]

My WinXP guest has been working for several months without a hitch, when a few nights ago my Lenovo T540p crashed. After I rebooted and attempted to run the Win XP machine, I got the following error message:

Could not start the machine Windows XP Pro SP3 because the following physical network interfaces were not found: Intel(R) Ethernet Connection I217-LM (adapter 1) You can either change the machine's network settings or stop the machine.

I've checked the network adapter; Reset it; and it seems to be working fine. I can access the Internet through my Ethernet cable.

When I select "Change Network Settings" I get [see attached file].

Any suggestions?

[socratis]

Any suggestions?

You see the "Attached to: Bridged" and under that the "Name: Not selected"? Select the Name and change it to something... selected.

And I bet the if you hover over the error icon at the bottom of the screen () where it says "Invalid settings detected", it will tell you that you need to fix the Bridged adapter.

[GaryS]

Thank you for your response.

Any suggestions?

You see the "Attached to: Bridged" and under that the "Name: Not selected"? Select the Name and change it to something... selected.

There is nothing in that field to select. That confirms my suspicion that my Intel I217-LM Ethernet adapter is not functioning. Sounds like I may need to replace it, as I'm seeing other users of that card having problems with it as well, including having to cold boot the computer to get the network adapter to even work directly on the host (Win10) system. Will be back in touch later.

[socratis]

Do you have any 3rd party antivirus? Disable it and reinstall VirtualBox. Make sure the Bridged option is enabled. Then go to the Network and Sharing Center » Change adapter settings » right-click on the Intel I217-LM Ethernet adapter » Properties » make sure that the "VirtualBox NDIS6 Bridged Networking Driver" is there and is enabled.

[GaryS]

THANK YOU!! That has appeared to fix everything! I thought my network adapter might have been bad, and I was going to have to purchase and install a new one.

[socratis]

Glad you got it going. Marking as [Solved].