I have an absolutely interesting development. No success but...

The problem struck again. This time on the fresh XP test install I made on a spare 80 gig HD a few days ago. I installed XP on 20 june, and it looked fine up until 23 june 2012 at about 1 am when I had decided to compare the output of a working install of XP on that system with the ipconfig output of an install that showed network cable unplugged. As soon as it booted up I saw the broken network icon in the lower right of the bar.
I kept a log of my activity on this test install. It may hold the key?
The fresh install now reports a network cable is disconnected. Just like all the other re-installs I made this year eventually do. WHY is this happening?
I put the original HD back in and booted to debian/linux (dual boot) , the internet works fine, no problems. If I boot up to the windows partition on that disk.. .. network cable unplugged, no internet access. Same if I boot from the fresh install 80 gig test hard drive.

I managed to run ipconfig and direct the output to a text file. The output is identical on both the fresh test install and the original install on the original HD (getting confusing yet?)

Windows IP Configuration
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : a7v8x
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : ASUSTeK/Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-E0-18-E0-C4-0C

I do not know what this means except the obvious "media disconnected".
I also tested whether the fresh install would have network connectivity from safe mode. It did not, though I did not see the broken network icon on lower right of bar. Firefox displayed a message about not being able to connect. The ipconfig /all output in safe mode was identical to that obtained in a regular boot on the same system.

I took some screen shot photos of the various network controller settings (device manager) as well as the network connection settings (control panel) while the test install was working.
As far as I can tell the settings are the same for when the test HD had network connectivity and after connectivity failed (no changes seen).

The last 2 microsoft updates that went onto that test setup were ...KB2345886 and KB970430. They were installed on 21 june 2012 at about noon. They system booted fine later that day (2 pm) and on the 22 june as well. 23 of june the unplugged cable problem struck. I have booted to linux several times and it works. From XP... unplugged cable problem.

????? What is going on?????
Does the ipconfig hold any clues?