Dell Inspiron 8000 modem problems

[Hatz]

Hey everyone. My buddy brought over his Dell Inspiron 8000 notebook and I am trying to hook it up to my network. He said he was never able t use the ethernet port when he had Windows ME, now he has XP Pro and it still doesn't recognize it. If I put in my Ethernet to USB cable the USB recognizes the network and modem just fine.

Why can't I get the onboard ethernet port to work? I looked under device manager and it says its working just fine...........the 1394 Net Adapter.

Shouldnt there be another connection besides the 1394 Net Adapter under Network Connections? I tried looking on the dell website for some drivers but I don't know what type of modem it is and of course Dell will put 3 or 4 different brands of ethernet cards in there.

Any help would be great..........thanks

Hatz

[Faustus]

Well the 1394 connection is firewire(for firewire networking !HOT!), so its not seeing the correct port at all. Unless its disabled in the BIOS it may be dead. Can you visually see an ethernet connection on the back of it? Just to make sure there is one.

[Hatz]

The ethernet port is on the side of the machine.........next to the phone jack. The phone part of the modem has a little phone above it and the ethernet port has the little print of the 3 computers in a line......one on top, two on the bottom, and a straight line going through them.......pretty much the networking sign.....hehe.

I haven't tried looking in the bios.........There is another thing in device manager called Texas Instruments pcmia cardbus or something like that.....but I think that is the card farther up on the machine with the firewire, headphones, and mic inputs.

Any other suggestions? Thanks for the response.

Hatz

[Faustus]

The card bus is the PC card slots on the side. Sounds like the ethernet port isn't showing at all. Unless its something in the bios shutting it off somehow then I think it likely there is a problem on the laptop.

[stiltman]

in the device manager you should see "network adapters" then under that you should see a 3com card if the card is actually installed, as this is an optional item, but the case will still have the hookup for it.

If you don't see it under network adapters, check to see it there's a yellow question mark, I yes, see whats under it.

here's the drivers for your network adapters if the hardware is installed in the computer
http://support.dell.com/filelib/Devices.aspx?Category=5&OS=WW1++&OSL=EN&SvcTag=&SysID=..._PNT_P3CG_8000

Edit: I would try this one first
3Com 3CCFE575CT 10/100 MB Ethernet Cardbus PC Card