Unable to access internet after reloading XP Professional

I just reloaded my daughters Dell laptop with XP Professional SP3 2002 from a Systems Disc for Refurbished PC's.

She had a problem with the other XP home addition so I chose to reload with the Professional.

Once loaded XP Pro comes up fine but when trying to access the internet it fails to connect to msn yahoo or mozilla.

Before she could use the wireless connection despite the problems but now that option is not recognized nor can I even find the wireless device.

I plugged in a cable plugged into my Netgear 600 and that did not allow access either.

Am a bit confused as to why it will not connect to the internet or why it will not attempt to utilize the wireless when not hard wired to the router.

I tried pinging but it failed to connect "Destination host unreachable" x 4 :cry

So any help will be appreciated.

I will check back in the late morning for comments.

Thxs

 

Greetings, Bindel.

Possible that the NIC/wireless drivers were not loaded or were loaded incorrectly - are there any flags showing in Device Manager?

 

Yes, as Caliban is indicating, you probably need to load the device driver for the LAN interface on the motherboard.

 

"flags showing" in Device Manager.

Not being that unconfused would those be the 'yellow' question marks showing in the Device Manager?

B~

 

It is a Dell disc for an Optiplex 755 which came with a bad op/sys.

Her Laptop is an Inspirion 6000.

"

I used the install key for the 755 to install on the I6K and am aware that MS 'might' flag it but wanted to try since the other situation was intolerable with screen flicker and inability to really do anything with the LT since her cousin messed with it. (lesson learned ~ don't let anyone unqualified mess with your computer)

B~

 

This appears to be the LAN driver which would give you wired access.

You might want to go to the Dell drivers homepage and put in your service tag number to get the specific wireless driver. There appear to be three possibilities under Networking. I believe the protocol is to install the chipset driver before any other drivers so that some unknown devices might get more descriptive names in Device Manager.

 

In a word 'BINGO' !!

I wanted to thank all for your helpful insight and advice.

I was able to use my other PC to download the chipset and other drivers (one at a time does not require a service tag # ) and after transferring them to CD was able to upload them onto the Lap Top and with a bit of effort was able to establish both Local Network and Wireless access to the internet.

Downloaded Norton Suite 5 for virus and Spybot to rid the machine of future adware etc.

Was able to upload the 92 MS patches and 'passed' the MS scrutiny of the Operating system twice. :-D

Next adventure is to upgrade this Lap top to it's maximum RAM of 2g.

Crucial.com provided a handy tool to asses the current RAM configuration and recommended upgrade requirements.

Once again Major Geeks has come through for me in providing a solution to my PC ills.

Thank you again to all the helpers and the help.

B~ :cool

 

Good job, Bindel - glad you got things up and running, and thanks for the feedback.