XPS 8930, fails to recognize PCIe x4 Ethernet card

You can try these steps:

Make sure the card is installed in the correct PCIe slot and fully seated. Enter the BIOS and reset it to default settings, then check if the slot is enabled. Update the system BIOS to the latest version available. Test the Ethernet card in another computer to confirm it works. If it is not detected there either, the card itself may be faulty.

Try disable secure boot in bios to see if the card may show up in dev mgr, if you don’t see any error sign in dev mgr.  typically when a new device is added n detected by bios but there is no driver found, dev mgr would list it in a tab as “unknown network device” or something like that.  If there is no such error at all, it would seem the card was not detected at all despite having power.

analogy is a bad video card installed in pcie slot can be totally absent in dev mgr with no sign of being detected (no error whatsoever) yet having power and fans spinning 

Thanks for the replies.

BIOS is the already the latest, 1.1.31. There are no unknown devices in Device Manager. I also tried disabling the onboard Ethernet without success. TP-Link said to make sure USB Root Device Hubs had power management turned off, which I also did. Unfortunately I don't have another computer with an x4 slot, nor do I have any other x4 cards I could try in this one.

I will try disabling secure boot and resetting to defaults. The card is brand new, so I don't think there's anything wrong with the card itself. 

UPDATE: No luck with either disabling secure boot or resetting BIOS to defaults. I was wrong thinking the x4 card is getting power, it is not.

I am going to try a 2.5GB USB-C Ethernet adapter, but I'm giving up on the x4 slot. I also have another SATA HD, which means with a 460W power supply I am trying to run:

• A WD 2TB NVME SSD
• 2 WD SATA HDs
• A GTX1060 Gallardo 6GB GDDR5 video card
• A USB 3 hub
• 32GB RAM

So maybe I am just pushing the envelope of how much power the system can supply? 

Just curious, did the XPS 8930 that came with a GTX1060 have the standard 460W power supply?

460w is standard base configuration nonmodular psu for 8930/8900/8700. For high end powerful gpu next level oem psu is 850w modular.

Re:

• A WD 2TB NVME SSD
• 2 WD SATA HDs
• A GTX1060 Gallardo 6GB GDDR5 video card
• A USB 3 hub
• 32GB RAM

these are nothing in terms of power consumption for a 460w psu

i don’t think it is a psu power issue.  If you tried the card in x16 slot and it is detected, it would mean there is issue of card being detected in x4 slot, but I doubt it is b/c no power distributed to x4 slot.

@redxps630​ Thanks. I'm stumped. But since the whole purpose was to enable fast transfers to NAS, 2.5GB should be enough so I got a USB-C 2.5GB Ethernet adapter. At least I won't have to keep disconnecting everything and opening and closing the case if it doesn't work at first.

Happy 2026!