when is a network port not a network port?

bats

this is quite possibly me being stupid but...got this laptop from a friend of mine-dell inspiron 8000 and it has both a modem port and network port side by side.

Now, the modem port works fine but the network port refuses to be recognised by any driver, windows 2000 or the bios. According to dell, the laptop never came with a network port, however there was only the little plastic protection thingy in it when it was purchased. I took this out and voila a network port.

It looks like a network port (has the little symbol on it) but doesn't appear to be. Can anyone help me out?

cheers

yossarin

i got that once + in my case there was no card behind that rj 45 plug. can't remember what machine make though...

the port was just there in case i decided to buy an internal eth card and install it myself.

bastids ! i was dead annoyed when it happened :mad: + had to shell out extra for a pcmcia card

Zab

I don't suppose you can really be all that annoyed: It would have been pretty lucky to have got a network card when you didn't pay for one.

I believe the port is there because dell DO sell laptops with internal network cards, and they don't want to use a different case for machines with or without. Makes sense I guess.

byrnenj

Most manufacturers do that actually. I have an IBM laptop with exactly the same situation.

No free lunches......Such is life!!!

Difficult

on an 8000 you can buy them with or without,
the port is on all of them,
the 8000 8100 and newer latitude series use mini pci,
you can buy the card and there's a cable on the base one goes to the nic one to the modem, just pop the card in attatch the cable your off.

bats

ah well...thanks for feedback though, can stop banging head off wall now

btw, how much are pci network cards?

Gerry

remember its mini pci, not pci you are looking for. You'd have a tough job getting a pci card into that laptop

Krusty_Clown

What you need is a PCMCIA network card.
You could try the links in the sticky at the top of this board..
See here.

A quick search, reveals:
www.jaguarcompsys.ie selling: MRI PCMCIA Network Card 10/100 € 95.00

po0k

In fairness though, weren't Dell being a bit mean not to throw in a NIC? they cost bugger all and it wouldn't cost them as much having to waste time having two different mobos.

Koopa

they cost bugger all

depends what kind of card it is, i think dell do 3com network cards, which actually do cost a bit

Cake Fiend

So does YORE MA

Gerry

Originally posted by Koopa


depends what kind of card it is, i think dell do 3com network cards, which actually do cost a bit

Not if you find them in a bin...

Kairo

Originally posted by Gerry
remember its mini pci, not pci you are looking for. You'd have a tough job getting a pci card into that laptop

Just gimme 5 minutes..a claw hammer, and a few rolls of duct tape.

Same story with a Dell Inspiron I got. Rj45 jack...but no network. If anyone can find drivers or a way of getting it to work. Giz a shout.

Dell must be using 3com cards..cause I remember when buying this the option they had to add Networking added allmost €70 to the whole jobby.

bats

uurgh, this is frustrating, like having chocolate and not being able to take the wrapper off. I add my voice to Kyro's: any way of getting this to work?

Gerry

Erm, if the network card isn't there, how do you expect drivers to fix it? It is actually you being stupid.

Dell occasionally make mistakes and you end up getting free stuff. However, if you have no unknown devices in device manager, there is no network controller sitting behind that rj45 port.

If they gave you a network controller with the laptop, they would have charged you for it, and installed the drivers.

Kairo

Thought as much....just got a little excited when i saw it.

bats

here, hold on now, i actually *do* have an unknown network device in my device manager list-does this mean that i might actually have a controller installed?

or am i just stupid?