Silly dell laptop

godskitchen

The Laptop

Windows XP PRO
Version 2002
Service pack 1

P3 697
256Mb ram

The laptop is not mine, it is a friends, they have a Gprs/G3/Hspda data card running and connected to the Vodafone network , they want to hook it up to their desktop via the ethernet port, simple stuff, but no, the Dell wont play ball.

In device manager it states that the computer has 2 modems, one being the Data card and the other a "Lucent Win Modem" which the inspiron did not come with! device manager does not list a "Ethernet Controller" or "network Adaptor", its as if the ethernet port is not there. my friend tells me ther have never used the port before. i have uninstalled the LUCENT WIN MODEM and then searched for new hardware, windows then reinstalls the said modem.


Does anone have any idea as to what is going on? i just cant work it out, thanks in advance guys

mizwizzy

well the lucent modem must be inside the laptop thats why it keeps finding it and installing it...it has nothing to do with the ethernet port

basically what ur lookin for here is a network card if u want to use the ethernet option... u must also have a network card on the desktop pc also in order to communicate with the laptop via cat5 or indeed wireless...

quaidox

some of the old ibm thinkpads had an ethernet port on the casing, but no actual ethernet connection to the motherboard. maybe this is the case with your dell, and the lucent modem is in fact connected via the ethernet port? an rj-11 plug will plug into the ethernet rj-45 socket no probs.........

irlrobins

Yep, I remember having a dell with a ethernet port but no card. Sounds like the problem here.

godskitchen

When I put the service number into the dell site it tells me the Ethernet and modem are a combo card from 3com, it has the drivers and diagnostics for it and I downloaded them, did this yesterday, and the diagnostics say no such modem is connected to the PC, also been looking on the net for answers, as you do, found someone with the same problem with the same model and they never got to the bottom of it, im just going to buy a USB to Ethernet from ebay, save myself some time and stress!

Thanks for all the advice guys!

peterk19

a lot of the ld dell laptops had a port but they came with a cover on them that people removed to reveal an rj45 port but there is no card installed in the mini pci slot what model is the laptop i think i have a card that will enable it here

aidan_walsh

irlrobins wrote:

Yep, I remember having a dell with a ethernet port but no card. Sounds like the problem here.

Thats rather bizzare. How old was the laptop at the time? I can't imagine a new Dell having that problem, but anything is possible.

godskitchen

peterk19 wrote:

a lot of the ld dell laptops had a port but they came with a cover on them that people removed to reveal an rj45 port but there is no card installed in the mini pci slot what model is the laptop i think i have a card that will enable it here

Its a Inspiron 2500.................yes it did have a cover on it...........i really dont like dell!

Occidental

Dell did definitly ship at least some 2500's with Ethernet ports, but no card.

Plums

The 3com cards were combo (network and Modem) but if it is listed as a Lucent then that is modem only, someone may have changed it at some time.

TerrorFirmer

You can pick up a usb->Ethernet adaptor for about a tenner on ebay. I've one or two myself and they always come in handy at some stage or another.

sceptre

godskitchen wrote:

When I put the service number into the dell site it tells me the Ethernet and modem are a combo card from 3com, it has the drivers and diagnostics for it and I downloaded them, did this yesterday, and the diagnostics say no such modem is connected to the PC

If I heard "ethernet/modem combo card from 3com" I'd tend to think "PC card ethernet/modem combo card from 3com". Did the machine originally come with a PC card? My inspiron (presumably vaguely around the same vintage, it's a p3-450) did, though the modem conveniently was a built-in Lucent winmodem, which your friend's also appears to have.

Capt'n Midnight

you could disable the modem in device manager.
or control panel, modems
or in internet settings , conections
or go into the BIOS and see if it's listed there and disable it there.

tiny chance it could belong to the data card - but if you redetect HW with the data card out it will sort out that (nokia phones come up as modems)