mcc flashes, does nothing when activating ethernet

[ropegun]

Newbie alert.
I installed mandriva 2006 for athlon 64. It correctly detects the ethernet card as nforce mcp51, but when I try to configure the forcedeth driver the control center seems to crash, sending me from the autoprobe option back to manually select the driver.
I tried to resolve this by using a different driver, the one from nvidia. I installed that okay and even established the connection. But I can only surf a few pages before it seems to disconnect. I go to a desktop tool that allows me to "monitor connection" or something, which tells me I indeed have no connection. Also, the hardware detector now hangs, where before it worked.
My connection is a high speed cable from the suite upstairs. XP uses it no problem, no configuration necessary.
Thanks for any direction, I want my life back!

[ropegun]

Come on people! Why would the network device only sporadically connect? I've taken so much advice but none seems to fit my pathological computer.

[ropegun]

I'm quite all right talking to myself here. From much searching of forums, the long and short appears to be that Linux x86_64 + nVidia chipset = grief (something about APIC, APCI, and ethernet not coexisting?). It came to the point where I decided to just wipe out the Linux partition and reinstall XP, which had also started acting funny with the network controller. I've since learned that athlon 64 doesn't require x86_64, but can use a 32-bit OS just as well. Some day, when motivation returns, I'll just install a 32-bit linux on another partition and probably all network drivers will behave.

[Hobartimus]

For what it's worth, I am having the exact same problem with Madriva. Had the exact same problem with SuSE.

So far, this is the only thing keeping me from loving Linux.