When working with Get-NetAdapter in Windows Server 2012 (PowerShell 3.0), you might encounter network adapters showing "Not Present" status. This state appears when the network interface exists in the system but isn't physically or logically available for communication.

The "Not Present" status indicates one of several conditions:

• The physical NIC isn't detected (removed or failed hardware)
• The virtual NIC's underlying component is unavailable
• The adapter is in a "hidden" or disconnected state in the Windows NDIS stack

Example output showing different states:

Name                      InterfaceDescription                    ifIndex Status       MacAddress             LinkSpeed
Slot 0 Port 4             HP NC382i DP Multifunction Gigabi...#53      15 Not Present  11-80-1B-94-2A-82          0 bps
Slot 0 Port 2 (TM-2)      HP NC382i DP Multifunction Gigabi...#51      14 Up           11-80-1B-94-27-72         1 Gbps

The Enable-NetAdapter cmdlet silently fails because it can only transition between Disabled and Enabled states. The GUI performs additional initialization that PowerShell doesn't handle automatically.

Here's how to properly enable a "Not Present" adapter:

# First disable then enable to properly initialize
Disable-NetAdapter -Name "Slot 0 Port 4" -Confirm:$false
Enable-NetAdapter -Name "Slot 0 Port 4" -Confirm:$false

To intentionally set an adapter to "Not Present" state:

# Physically remove the adapter or disable the parent device
Disable-PnpDevice -InstanceId ((Get-NetAdapter -Name "Slot 0 Port 4").InterfaceDescription.Split('#')[1]) -Confirm:$false

For persistent "Not Present" issues, try these steps:

1. Reset the TCP/IP stack: netsh int ip reset
2. Reinstall the driver: pnputil /delete-driver oemNN.inf /uninstall
3. Refresh hardware detection: devcon rescan

Example script to monitor state changes:

$adapter = "Slot 0 Port 4"
while ($true) {
    $state = (Get-NetAdapter -Name $adapter -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).Status
    if ($state -eq "Not Present") { 
        Write-Host "Adapter not present - attempting recovery"
        # Add recovery logic here
    }
    Start-Sleep -Seconds 5
}

The "Not Present" state originates from the NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) stack. When an adapter is in this state, it means:

• NDIS reports the adapter as non-operational
• The miniport driver failed to initialize
• The hardware abstraction layer can't communicate with the device

For developers working with network adapters programmatically, you might encounter similar status codes when using the Windows Filtering Platform or NDIS APIs.

When working with Get-NetAdapter in PowerShell 3.0 on Server 2012, you might encounter adapters showing a 'Not Present' status. This state is different from 'Up' or 'Disabled' and behaves unusually with PowerShell cmdlets:

# Example output showing 'Not Present' status
Get-NetAdapter | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq 'Not Present'}

Name                      InterfaceDescription                    ifIndex Status       MacAddress             LinkSpeed
----                      --------------------                    ------- ------       ----------             ---------
Slot 0 Port 4             HP NC382i DP Multifunction Gigabi...#53      15 Not Present  11-80-1B-94-2A-82          0 bps

The puzzling aspect is that while the GUI can enable these 'Not Present' adapters, Enable-NetAdapter silently fails:

# This command will silently fail for 'Not Present' adapters
Enable-NetAdapter -Name "Slot 0 Port 4" -Confirm:$false

However, once the adapter has been toggled through the GUI to 'Up' state, PowerShell commands start working normally:

# After GUI intervention, these work as expected
Disable-NetAdapter -Name "Slot 0 Port 4" -Confirm:$false
Enable-NetAdapter -Name "Slot 0 Port 4" -Confirm:$false

The 'Not Present' status typically indicates one of these conditions:

• The physical adapter is not detected (removed or faulty hardware)
• The driver is installed but the device is in a low-power state (D3)
• The adapter exists in registry but isn't responding to queries

To properly handle 'Not Present' adapters in scripts, consider these approaches:

# Method 1: Use devcon.exe to force a reset
& "$env:ProgramFiles\Windows Kits\10\Tools\x64\devcon.exe" enable "PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_163B"

# Method 2: Registry modification to trigger re-initialization
$regPath = "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0015"
Set-ItemProperty -Path $regPath -Name "EnableDHCP" -Value 1
Restart-NetAdapter -Name "Slot 0 Port 4"

If you need to recreate this state for testing:

# Disable the adapter completely through WMI
$adapter = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_NetworkAdapter | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq 'Slot 0 Port 4'}
$adapter.Disable()

When writing automation scripts, always account for the 'Not Present' state:

function Enable-NetAdapterRobust {
    param([string]$AdapterName)
    
    $adapter = Get-NetAdapter -Name $AdapterName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    
    if ($adapter -and $adapter.Status -eq 'Not Present') {
        Write-Verbose "Adapter in Not Present state - using alternative enable method"
        $pnpid = (Get-PnpDevice | Where-Object {$_.FriendlyName -like "*$AdapterName*"}).InstanceId
        & pnputil /enable-device $pnpid
    }
    elseif ($adapter) {
        Enable-NetAdapter -Name $AdapterName -Confirm:$false
    }
    else {
        Write-Error "Adapter not found"
    }
}