Network Adapter Disappeared? Dell Inspiron Mini 10

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BestComputerGeek

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Hello Everyone,

So it's been about a week so far since I have been without the speeds of my laptops NIC. One day I just booted up my laptop and there was absolutely no sign of the adapter, checked network connections, checked device manager.. Nothing...

I still have my built in wireless card but I still would like to have my wired card working. I have come to a conclusion that it is defective but I wanted to check with all of you amazing people first.

Below is what I have tried so far.

  • Shutdown, removed all power, waited, rebooted
  • Tried different cables
  • Different ports on switch
  • re-installed drivers from dell resource disk
  • Checked bios settings. Made sure card was enabled
  • Booted into Ubuntu and Knoppix to see if it was software related. Card did not work in Linux but it had before.

One more thing, If I do have to replace this piece of hardware, how would I go about doing that? Or would it just be not worth it?

Thanks for all of your help in advance.
 
yeah, it can do 10/100Mbps. I picked Tigerdirect because they are so close to you :p I know their warehouse is down in Chicago. I get their orders next day, being south of Milwaukee.
 
Ohh cool, Thanks!

I think I will pick one of these neat things up even if I get this fixed on my laptop. It seems like a handy device!

Thanks for your help!
 
I would send the laptop back to Dell if it is under warranty, if not then go with the USB device. One other option that you could try is updating the BIOS. It probably won't make a difference but the BIOS is low-level and sometimes contains Ethernet chip code which could help. It's worth a shot at least.

On our school robotics team's robot PC, the Ethernet card did lose its settings from a power failure (or so we're guessing) and now the card is not recognized in Linux even with a fresh install so we ended up buying a USB to Ethernet adapter which works pretty well. The USB does not limit Ethernet speeds in any way (USB is over twice as fast as Ethernet) and the Linksys adapter we bought works in Linux perfectly.
 
I would send the laptop back to Dell if it is under warranty

Warranty Expired about two weeks ago :p



BUT...

It's working again! I have absolutely no clue what is going on. Just out of no where it starts to work in Windows and Linux again! Also it starts working the day my USB network adapter ships, haha. At least that adapter will be a handy tool to keep in a drawer just in case!

Well, I guess that's just computers for ya! :lol:
 
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