VMWare 3.5 to 4.0 Upgrade, Network Card Issues with Exchange Servers

Just recieved a tip from a colleague about problems with network cards on virtual machines after a 3.5 to 4.0 upgrade of VMWare. Apparently the old card gets hidden, and if you try to add a new card there will be a conflict. This is most common on Exchange servers, but can also occur on other types of VMs.

The solution for this can be found at the following KB article (KB825826), and the one listed bellow is one that will most likely work. Note that this is for XP/2003 Server, but it might also work on Vista/Win7/2008.

Solutions – KB825826 outlines several potential fixes.  I ended up using Method #6 to remove the hidden network adapter.  To uninstall the ghosted network adapter from the registry, complete these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd.exe, and then press ENTER.
2. Type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1, and then press ENTER.
3. Type Start DEVMGMT.MSC, and then press ENTER.
4. Click View, and then click Show Hidden Devices.
5. Expand the Network adapters tree.
6. Right-click the dimmed network adapter, and then click Uninstall.

Next I configured the static IP on the NIC, and regained network connectivity.  A reboot was required in my case, only because services dependant on domain availability did not automatically startup.