No internet on the laptop....

[Greco101]

I bought a used laptop so I don't know much about the history of it. They said the cd drive was broke and it had spyware. Often, when a cd drive goes bad in a laptop you just pop out the one screw, pull it out and reseat it. Nope... it was bad. Bought a new one, wiped the hdd and reinstalled XP. I tried connecting to the internet to update and all that good fun stuff but it wouldnt connect. I turned off the laptop, unplugged the modem...waited... plugged the modem back in... waited... restarted the laptop. Nothing. I figured obviously it was a software issue so I burned them with my desktop, installed them on the laptop. restarted. Nothing. I began thinking it was hardware failure but ran a diag. and it showed up fine althought I'm not too familiar with Dells so it could just be telling me, "YEP. It's there alright... don't know if it works though...Pass."

Any ideas? I tried talking to Dell and was lucky enough to get ahold of someone from india or something... Take a look at part of the convo...


Agent (Sanju_148902): "ARE you trying to connect using the Ethernet cable?"

Michael Greco: "yes, because I do not have a router or hub"

Agent (Sanju_148902): "All right"

Agent (Sanju_148902): "How are you connecting it?"

Michael Greco: "I have to unplug the cable from my desktop, then plug it into the laptop"

Agent (Sanju_148902): "Do you have extra cable?"

Agent (Sanju_148902): "I guess if you disconnect the chat will end."

Michael Greco: "Yes."

(Sanju_148902): "Since when are you facing this issue?"

Michael Greco: "I just bought the laptop off of craigslist a few days ago"

Michael Greco: "so since I got it a couple days ago"

Agent (Sanju_148902): "Thank you for your time, my records shows that you have an Inspiron 5150 XP Home as the operating system. Is this
the system you need assistance with?"

Michael Greco: "Yes"

Agent (Sanju_148902): "Who is the internet service provider?"

Michael Greco: "cox"

Agent (Sanju_148902): "Okay."

Agent (Sanju_148902): "How many computer do you have?"

Michael Greco: "2"

Agent (Sanju_148902): "How are they connected?"

Michael Greco: "with a cable?"

Michael Greco: "Can I be transfered to someone else... you seem to be new."

Agent (Sanju_148902): "We will have to connect the laptop with the cable and then try to troubleshoot."

Agent (Sanju_148902): "Michael, we need to determine how the other computers are connected."

Michael Greco: "I have already told you I do not have a network hub or wireless.... I only can have one plugged in at a time."

Agent (Sanju_148902): "Michael, we need to connect the cable so that we can troubleshoot it."

Michael Greco: "That'd be pretty pointless considering IT WONT CONNECT."

Agent (Sanju_148902): "WE will have to connect so that we can try to establish connection."

Agent (Sanju_148902): "We can come to know about the problem."

Agent (Sanju_148902): "Without plugging the cable we can not try to create connection."

[xRyokenx]

What the hell kind of tech support is that? That guy and/or company he works for need a slap to the face and then to be banned from tech support, lol... terrible. One more reason to avoid Dell at all costs.

[Greco101]

I know...

Still no internet. I installed every damn driver I could find for the 5150... no luck. I googled it and and found a lot of people can't find the damn ethernet driver after a format. You'd think out of all this someone would have posted an answer or a link but nope. ghervfudijcn

[xRyokenx]

If I knew a way to fix this, I would post it... I've found that a lot of things have little quirks, some stupid things inhibit others, sometimes a file that's glitched in some way and needs to be deleted or it's being dumb like when I have to set an IP for my wireless and then tell it to get one automatically, things are quirky with computers in general. Maybe that helps, I can hope it does, but it may not, I dunno...

But yeah, good luck with getting it to work.

[Luke122]

Did you reboot the modem when you connected the cable to the laptop?

:D

[Greco101]

Did you reboot the modem when you connected the cable to the laptop?

:D

Definitely learned my lesson on that one hahaha

[Greco101]

install the A17 bios and then intall the laterst INTEL PRO drivers

it will work

-Jeremy

a17? It had a37 and I installed the a38? Are you thinking of the desktop 5150 desktop? link?

[Greco101]

you said you have a 5150 inspiron.. sorry I didn't realize that..

I have the 6400 | 1505

Sorry for the confusion.. You did upgrade BIOS to latest firmware, though, correct?
Still not working... hmm

If you peel the sucker apart, the board may tell you exactly what it is, look for the Ethernet controller chipset.

-Jeremy

I'm buying a 1505 tomorrow :D :D with the T2500 :banana:

What am I looking for in the laptop?

[Greco101]

I don't understand what that would achieve? To see if I downloaded the wrong drivers from dell?

[Xpirate]

I don't understand what that would achieve? To see if I downloaded the wrong drivers from dell?

Doing what Minty suggested will help you determine what chip your laptop is using for the network connection. This will help you see if you are using the right drivers.

[Luke122]

On the Dell support site, you should be able to enter the service tag code, found on the bottom of the laptop. Once you punch that in, it will give you the "as built" spec of the laptop, including a full list of hardware and software specific to that exact one.

If the NIC is supposedly installed correctly, check the device manager to see if it's listed as working or if there's a problem. Red X or Yellow ! means disabled, or troubles. If it says that it's fine, then it's not likely a driver error. You can also just do the usual "uninstall" from the device manager, and reboot to let it redetect the nic and auto-install it.

Check in the bios to make sure the onboard NIC isnt disabled. Also, are you running on battery when you are testing it? Some Inspirons that I've worked on disable the onboard NIC when running on batteries to conserve power. Check your power settings on the NIC also in the device manager, and make sure it's not set to turn off the device to save power.. try changing your power scheme also to either presentation mode or "always on".

Do you get a physical link light when you plug in the ethernet cable? A light is a good sign, no light means that the physical connection isnt establishing.. can be one of two things. Either the jack is damaged, or the cable is damaged/wrong. The NIC on your desktop PC could have an autosense port on it, meaning that it will accept a crossover or a regular patch cable.. if the cable IS a crossover, then the laptop may not work.

Bring up a command prompt, and try to run "ipconfig /all". If you get an error about the IP configuration, then your TCP settings are corrupt. If not, then they are fine, and it's something else causing the problem.

Umm.. lemme think some more about this.. I love a good challenge.

[alexanderH]

Please take this response in stride. As I have not worked on any Dell Laptops, I have seen my fair share of Dell desktops. If dell has any kind of continuity or consistency then I can tell you if you install drivers in the wrong order it will never work properly.

Formatting a Dell can be one of the most arduous and annoying processes ever. I suggest scowering the dell site for direct instructions on driver installation for the specific model. I know that on the drivers disks themselves it tells you the order for which to install on a fresh system. If you do not have the disks you can download all required material from the site.

If that helps at all please let me know. But just a warning, Dell installations suck and take far too much time to get correct. Be patient, well as patient as one can be with Dell.

[Greco101]

I have the 5150 disk but I'm not 100% sure if I went from top to bottom exactly. I tried the cmd> ipconfig /all and no error, just some blanks info and some other crap but no error.

Tried deleting the network stuff under the manager and restarted... detected it but still no connection. On the modem itself, the pc activity light isn't lit which leads me to believe A) NIC is bad or B) the cable is in fact wrong (I always thought an ethernet cable was an ethernet cable?)

I checked the bios and found this:
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b5/BlackS3ven/gfd.jpg?t=1188280403

"cardbus NIC" pretty much tells me the people I bought it from knew about the bad NIC and decided not to include the cardbus NIC to make it more fun for me (and you...). They were both blue with no arrow... I tried enabling the onboard NIC and moved it up a notch because it was below the cardbus nic (not that that would matter I don't think?).

The NIC port light is always on but when the cable is connected, a smaller light in there flickers ever few seconds.

[Luke122]

I've never had troubles with Dell drivers either. Most of them are self installing too.. download, run, wait a few... reboot.

The cardbus nic that shows up in the list doesnt mean that there was one installed previously, it just means that the computer can use it as a boot option (likely for PXE or wake on-lan activity) functionality.

Anyways... a solid light with flickering light is what you want to see. The solid one is the physical connection light, and then flickering one is showing activity.

If you are seeing that, then 9 times out of 10 the hardware is functional.

On your ethernet cable, if both ends are the same, it's a pass-through or standard cable. If the ends are different, it's a "crossover cable". Crossovers reverse the send and recieve wires at one end for plugging directly between 2 computers.

[Crazy Buddhist]

... I tried the cmd> ipconfig /all and no error, just some blanks info and some other crap but no error.

...

On the modem itself, the pc activity light isn't lit which leads me to believe A) NIC is bad or B) the cable is in fact wrong (I always thought an ethernet cable was an ethernet cable?)

...

The NIC port light is always on but when the cable is connected, a smaller light in there flickers ever few seconds.


In summary if I understand right the lights of the ethernet port on the laptop are on but the PC activity light on the modem is not on.

If this is right it is almost certainly one of two things:

a) you are using a crossover cable and need a patch cable

or

b) The IP settings in Network connections for the Ethernet port are wrong.

The lights being on on the NIC demonstrate it is trying to connect to the modem but not finding a response. The PC activity light not being on on the modem would imply ame thing.

b) is easy enough to rule out.

Open the network connection properties on your desktop machine.

Open the ethernet "Local area connection" properties

Click on internet (TCP/IP) and open properties

Firstly see if it is set to "obtain an IP address automatically" or "use the following IP address". If it is set not to obtain an IP address automatically it might be that your modem does not have a DHCP server or that it is not turned on. Then your laptop is asking the modem for an IP address and the modem has no idea what the laptop means.

Based on what settings are in there follow this:

Use the following IP address

In this case copy down the IP address, network mask and gateway and DNS settings on a piece of paper.

Open your laptop network connections then open the ethernet connection properties and internet (TCP/IP) properties and copy the above information into the boxes there. (you may want to change the last three digits of the IP address if you ever put a router or switch/hub on and have both connected concurrently but for now keep it the same).

Plug in the laptop to the modem and see if it works.


Obtain an IP address Automatically


If your desktop is set to this then your modem is running a DHCP server and it might be the cable: try borrowing another Ethernet cable that you know is not a crossover cable. Plug the laptop in with this. See if it works.

If none of the above works then you probably are back to either bad drivers/resource conflict / BIOS issue or a faulty NIC but from what you have described of its behaviour it does not sound like any of these.

Hope that helps.

CrazyB

[Greco101]

-The lights of the ethernet port on the laptop are on but the PC activity light on the modem is not on.

- Not using a crossover

- TC/IP settings both were set to "obtain an IP address automatically"

[Greco101]

i still saypop out the keyboard, and look for the NIC chipset. At least then you can verify that you have the right driver.

support.dell.com will give you the list of possible NIC's onboard that particular model. There may be one or 4 drivers to choose from. If you verify the chipset against what you are installing you can then at least verfiy whether you are dealing with borked hardware or borked settings.
-Jeremy

Can't I do the same by just uninstalling the network drivers then restarting the computer and seeing what it detects?

[Crazy Buddhist]

-The lights of the ethernet port on the laptop are on but the PC activity light on the modem is not on.

- Not using a crossover

- TC/IP settings both were set to "obtain an IP address automatically"

I agree with Jeremy, and it may be worth trying this:

type IPconfig /all on the desktop in command prompt, copy down the IP address, mask, gateway DNS server information and then set those manually on the laptop and see if it then works.

[Greco101]

Alright, I'll check it out.

So far, I downloaded/burned/installed sp2 on the 5150... thought it may help but no luck. Oh well.. at least now I can have my buddys dad install the office 2007 pro... that's mainly what I was freaking out about because I posted it on ebay saying it would come with it.

[Mysteriphys]

I just sent dgrmkrp a pm about a similar issue, though depending on how many computers have ever been connected to your modem it may not help, send me a pm and I can send you the instructions I sent him :)

[Greco101]

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b5/BlackS3ven/2222.jpg
what the laptop says I have
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b5/BlackS3ven/1111.jpg
Inside the laptop

does this have anything to do with it?

[Mysteriphys]

I'm writing up a tut on cable modems (if you use one) incase it might not be the nic, watch for it if you don't get the problem solved.

[Crazy Buddhist]

have you tried popping round to a neighbour's/friends and plugging it into their router to see if that works? Might be worth a try - would show if there is some incompatibility between the modem and the NIC for sure.

[Greco101]

have you tried popping round to a neighbour's/friends and plugging it into their router to see if that works? Might be worth a try - would show if there is some incompatibility between the modem and the NIC for sure.

there are incompatibilities between NIC's and modems? :(

[Crazy Buddhist]

there are incompatibilities between NIC's and modems? :(

i have found in computer communications only one thing is certain: nothing is certain.

doing the above is an easy way to be sure it is down to Lappy's hware sware or setup.

or finding it works !