Well, that's me again...
After a successful installation of ESXi on my nForce2 chip I've got a new problem. I use 3Com905C LAN card and in Network Adapters I can see it like vmnic0 (MAC address) and the status is DISCONNECTED. I can't ping anything in my network but I can ping my self. (my own IP) I've tried to change the lan cable, switch but nothing helps. Can someone tell my what that DISCONNECTED means and maybe how can I resolve that issue. As I can understand my network card is successfully installed but don't know what is the problem.. Thank's for replies...

Are you able to assign an IP address to it in the DCUI? Personally I haven't had much luck with 3Com cards since ESX 3.0 came out (although mine were a bit old). Do you have an Intel Pro 100/1000 or Broadcom 57xx around you can try?

Hi Dave, thanks for reply.
Yes, I assigned IP address, submnet mask (that should be enough to ping someone from the same network)... Like I said very strange thing are happened. I also tried to set IP address to automaticaly (have DHCP server) but nothing changed. I will try fo find intel network card but honestly 3Com cards should be able to work on EXSi.... or shouldn't....

If you access the console and run esxcfg-nics -l what is shown for link and speed? Any other NICs in the system? Does the 3com pick up as DHCP address?

Link is DOWN and speed is 0MBps... I've tried to change from full to half duplex on my switch but nothig happens. And 3Com can not pick up address from DHCP. About others NICs on the system, no, this is the only one... By the way this network card works perfectly on mikrotik, so it is 100% in good condition.
For about day or two I will be able to test Intel pro card...

You can also use esxcfg-nics to set the speed / duplex of the NIC to match your switch. If you look at /var/log/messages are there any errors?

Hi Dave, thank you for spending your time solving my problem... I am at the end of my nerves about ESX. Now I have new Intel PRO 1000 MT network card and gues what? It doesn't work. Driver is installed but I have no ping. When I run esxcfg-nics -l command I can see that link is UP, speed is 100MBps and duplex is FULL. There is nothing that I wasn't tried with my cables or switches. I even try to connect PC to PC with crossover cable but I just can't get that PING... I don't know waht to do. I was examine /var/log/messages too. There is no errors in it exept this entry that is interesting for me:
....3477:Connecting device vmnic0 to pps
....3634:Connecting port 0x3 to device vmnic0
....2491:Setting capabilities 0x0 to device vminc0
....1865:Opening discovery port
netdiscover:946:Using port 0x2's output chain
....3521:Disconnecting device vmnic0 from pps
....3634:Connecting port 0x1000005 to device vmnic0...
and so on....
Why disconnecting device vmnic0 from pps? And what is pps?
Really, I don't know what to do anymore...
Thanks..

I SOLVE MY PROBLEM!!!!!!
From desperate I've tried to disable all unnecessery stuff from BIOS... ACPI was the problem... I disabled it and finaly I can use ESXi... Thanks a lot for your time and I'll hope this posts would be in some help for others.... Sorry for my bad english... Right now I'm very happy....
Thanks again.

P.S. 3Com card works too...

Glad to hear you got it working. Would you be able to post the PCI id for the 3Com card?

Hi Dave... Here you are:
3Com Corporation 3c905c-TX/TX-M [Tornato] [vmnic1] Class 0200: 10b7:9200

I'm openning new topic about virtual machine in section Managing Your Host...