Network Cable Is Unplugged

[szap4]

Alright, this is going to be a long explanation of my problem, so here goes. My brother has a Dell Latitude C840 laptop. Recently the internal ethernet adapter starting giving the message "Network cable is unplugged." I tried the basics, disabling it, enabling it, updating drivers, checking cable, etc. None of that worked. I tried a PCMIA ethernet card, and that did not work either.

The computer was really loaded down with all kinds of spyware and stuff so I thought it might be some sort of virus. I decided to reformat which was a mighty task in its own right since his internal DVD drive broke awhile ago, I could not establish an ethernet connection, and the Dell bios does not support booting from a USB drive. Last night I finally was able to format the hard drive, boot into linux using puppy linux on a usb drive and their usb boot floppy disk, copy the I386 directory to the HD, and reinstall windows xp.

I thought I had finally solved all his problems. That doesn't seem to be the case. After a fresh install neither the internal nic nor the pcmia nic work. The internal wireless card works just fine. While I was in linux, i tried using the internal network and it didn't work in linux either, so I think that one might be broken. However, the pcmia nic is brand new so it should work. I didn't have linux drivers for it so I was unable to test it in linux.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I've run out of ideas.

 

[spidey07]

Use a good store bought cat5 cable or try different switch ports.

-edit-
welcome to AT networking. Almost always "network cable unplugged" means you do not have physical link. So check the link lights on the NIC and the switchport, if you have that on both ends you are still not in the clear as a "bad cable" can give you link lights. "network cable unplugged" means somehow the card doesn't have a link, or it does have a link and it isn't being communicated to the OS - driver, possibly bad card, etc.

 

[Lemon law]

I s this a constant cable unconnected---or an intermittent one? I had the intermittent variety which I traced to a bad NIC. But I would check to see if the extra NIC works on another computer---and then rule the NIC out as a cause---then the next troubleshooting step with be the cable itself---or in a possible router that may or may not exist in his setup. And have you tried repairing the winsock?

But if something is now defective in the hardware of the lap top---there may be no hope other than another laptop.

 

[jlazzaro]

have you tried another PCMCIA card (non-NIC) to verify if the slot is even working?
is your on-board modem functioning?

If the answer is no, I would look towards the motherboard. Pretty sure PCMCIA, NIC, and Modem are all on the same bus. Out of warranty?

 

[Pulsar]

I just went through this exact same thing.

Try downloading and running the winsock fix.

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/winsockxpfix.html