No network adaptors

Hello all, I bought a cheapy notebook for the grandchildren a Dell Inspiron 8000 and cannot get a connection on any port. Have tried Hard Wired/USB Dongle and a PCMCIA Card to no avail. Drivres are installed an nothing untoward in Device Manager. When I run the Windows 'Network Dianostics' all that shows is a Modem the Network Adaptors box is uchecked/empty although it shows Ok in device manager saying 1394 Net Adaptor and PCMCIA adaptors OK and listed as Texas Instruments PCI-CardBus Controller twice. When I slot the PCMCIA Card in the notebook rings/pings that it has connected but there is no sign of it anywhere I get the same result with a USB Dongle both being WIFI of course. Chipset on Intel site not available. I firstly went into the Bios to see if LAN was activated but there is no reference to LAN other than 'WakeUp with LAN (or words to that effect) only reference to a connection port is Modem. This notebook has facility to both modem and Lan wired ports. I was assured by the seller that the HD had been formatted and a freshh install of XP and Updated was done but how he got the updates is a mystery to me. Any ideas fellow Geeks as I have just about exhausted every avenue I know in the past 3 days. PS I also installed Intel PROSet Wireless software and when it has run the result is 'No Supported wireless adapters availble in the system'.

 

I do not know if this will help but here is the INF chipset utility for your computer. Does your router have SSID broadcast enabled?

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...OSFullname=Windows+XP++Professional*&lang=eng

I am not sure if this matters but the USB ports on that computer are 1.1 and not 2.0. Is your USB dongle compatible with 1.1?

Can you attach the USB dongle and then create an Everest Report, attaching the log file? Also, what is the make and model of the PCMCIA card?

Here is the documentation for your reference

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/plav/sm/index.htm

 

I'd check that you have the latest BIOS installed and then run the (usually) built-in diags via the BIOS - if the hdd has been changed, there may be no chance of running the diags though.

Older Dells were sometimes difficult to upgrade with better hardware because some of the hardware was actually blocked by the BIOS. Forcing a BIOS update to the equivalent Latitude or M-series laptop fixed much of this.

Again, with older Dell laptops, there was a BIOS screen that showed exactly what hardware was installed (and showed a boot pop-up if there was an incompatible device - often cured by the above forced BIOS flash).

Do you have the Dell code (Service Tag) for the machine on a sticker underneath?

 

Thankyou both for your replies I will certainly get to work on your suggestions in the morning as i am getting a bit short tempered at the moment I have been to Dell with the service tag and there is a Bios update but nothing about LAN in there tag number is 1LY850J AND link is
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/Home/NoDefaultOS
XP is not listed there as originally this notebook had win 2000 installed.

 

If you input your Service tag here, it'll output the original spec. that it was supplied with.

Good old BayWolf still has the XP drivers listed for the I8000 (FYI, this is effectively the same hardware as the Latitude C800).

 

EUREKA !!! I performed a clean install of XP SP3, loaded the chipset drivers then loaded the 'Belkin G ' card driver and BINGO we now have a live connection. I wanna thank you guys for the help and I am now off to Grandchildrens house to present them with yet another laptop, lets hope this one lasts longer than the 3 months that the other did. Thanks again guys.

 

Great news, I hope they appreciate it