Windows Server 2019 and Intel I211 NIC Drivers
Posted by essjae on February 11, 2019
I have a Ryzen 5 system that I wanted to install Windows Server 2019 to start experimenting with. Unfortunately, Intel doesn’t offer Windows Server 2019 drivers for their I211 NIC. There’s quite a bit of info regarding it, but no easy solutions.
That looked like way to much work for me. As laziness is the mother of invention, I tried an old and true trick.
I downloaded the I218 drivers and extracted them using 7zip.
Next, I went into Device Manager and right-clicked on the NIC and selected Properties.
Clicked the Driver tab, then Update Driver, then Browse my computer for driver software.
The next step is the key, click Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer.
Click Have Disk. I browsed to the extracted files:
%downloads%\PROWinx64\PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS65
I then picked one of the INFs shown, e1r65x64.inf and clicked Open.
This brought up a list of NICs, I picked the I218 and installed the driver.
Everything works, except my I211 is showing up as an I218.
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a new life in chengdu.18.03.16 « die deutsche Orthopädiesenpai said
[…] 难道我还要改用win10不成？才不，按照这个帖子里的做法，我们开始强制上驱动：在更新驱动的界面那里有一个“从计算机的设备驱动程序列表中选取”，然后加载%驱动解压目录%PROWinx64PRO1000Winx64NDIS68e1r65x64.inf，然后在出现的列表里选择i217到i219里的任何一个；就这样硬是装上了驱动，除了设备显示为i218；当然如果是用823xx网卡的矿机的话就不用这一步，但需要蛋疼的主板上焊接电阻步骤才能解锁GbE，这款一开始就是GbE […]
Jay said
Just wanted to leave this here to confirm that this works perfectly. I searched online for the Intel I211-AT driver and found this site: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/64404/Intel-Ethernet-Controller-I211-AT, clicked on the “Intel Ethernet Driver Complete Pack”, and unzipped the file to a USB drive. Once I copied it over, I followed the instructions above, pointing it at the PRO1000\NDIS65\ folder, and then chose the I218 driver as the OP did. Worked like a charm. All 4 nics on my Qotom Q355G5 mini now work with my Windows Server 2019 installation.
Dawid said
Confirmed, Intel Ethernet I218-LM works perfectly on Windows Server 2019. No warning. Connectivity tested operational.
Magnus said
Thanks!, worked perfect, picked the I218-LM for my I211-AT.
Florian said
Yap, it worked.
Dan.V said
It worked after I chose from the list I210 Gigabit Network Connection.
Gummy said
Thank you so much. You are a true fucking legend.