Lan cable unplugged

macman

mirabelle wrote: »

Hello,

Yes, I have learnt a lot about this PC ! I'm ready to reach for the vodka bottle tonight.

I have fiddled around with the cable in the back of the desktop and can now get an intermittent light coming on which also lights up the connection on the modem. However, I can't keep the light on for more than a second or so. This also gets rid of the " Lan unplugged" message and icon. So, this now looks like a fault with the network card or connection and not the software.

I think I now need to take card out and reinstall, making sure connections are sound. If not, buy a new one.

Cheers!

Have you tried a known good ethernet cable as a swap?
Certainly worth removing the network card, reboot, then replace card and reboot, that should bring up the 'Found New Hardware' Wizard and prompt Windows to reinstall the drivers.

mirabelle

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Morning Mirabelle, when you went through this with Belkin did you use a wired connection from your other machine? If the answer is yes have you tried the same cable to the desktop?

Thank you for your help with this problem of mine.

x

mirabelle

macman wrote: »

Have you tried a known good ethernet cable as a swap?
Certainly worth removing the network card, reboot, then replace card and reboot, that should bring up the 'Found New Hardware' Wizard and prompt Windows to reinstall the drivers.

I did try another ethernet cable, not the one that came with the Belkin ,and that's when I got the intermittent light.

I am happy I am nearer the answer now. Thank you.

hc25036

Good luck! Let us know how you get on.

exup

mirabelle wrote: »

I did try another ethernet cable, not the one that came with the Belkin ,and that's when I got the intermittent light.

I am happy I am nearer the answer now. Thank you.

hello again Mirabelle -didnt abandon the thread but nothing extra to suggest more than what others on here have said.
The intermittent light on the back of the PC looks like a faulty port. I had a similar problem on a modem I had from NTL (although NTL blamed my antivirus, operating system and router for this even though I had to hold the cable forcibly into the modem to get it to work).

Do you know if this is your inbuilt ethernet port or an extra PCI ethernet card?
I would expect that its a motherboard port myself so it would be case of installing a new card in the PCI slot - you shouldnt need to disable the "old" motherboard port as I would expect a new PCI card to be plug and play and will start working once it is in and the power connected back up again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LND0Gqgyyk

This video is not too bad at shpwing a fitting of a PCI card, this one does a graphic card , but its pretty all similar for most PC's

macman

The Dell Dimension 5150 has on-board networking-no separate PCI network card. However there are two free PCI slots, so you can add a PCI network card/port.
Instructions from the manual are below.

If you installed an add-in network adapter and want to disable the integrated network adapter:
a Enter system setup (see "System Setup" on page 107), select Integrated NIC, and then change the
setting to Off.
b Connect the network cable to the add-in network adapter’s connectors. Do not connect the
network cable to the integrated connector on the back panel.
15 Install any drivers required for the card as described in the card documentation.

debitcardmayhem

mirabelle wrote: »

I did try another ethernet cable, not the one that came with the Belkin ,and that's when I got the intermittent light.

I am happy I am nearer the answer now. Thank you.

Since you have normally used this desktop via USB to your old router it may be worth having a look at the RJ45 socket on the back of the PC to see if it is gunged up, it is cheaper and as it looks like you may have to buy a new lan card anyway it cannot hurt

hc25036

exup wrote: »

Do you know if this is your inbuilt ethernet port or an extra PCI ethernet card?
I would expect that its a motherboard port myself so it would be case of installing a new card in the PCI slot - you shouldnt need to disable the "old" motherboard port as I would expect a new PCI card to be plug and play and will start working once it is in and the power connected back up again.



Agree with Exup in general here - but if the port is malfunctioning it would be better to disable it just in case it is having other effects...

mirabelle

Thank you for helping me with this problem. I am off to Maplin this morning to buy a new card.

I took the old one out and refitted it and managed to install the Belkin at last, but the connection is not holding, so will fit a new card tonight. I am now sure this is the answer. Will let you know the outcome.

Thanks once again. It's been really helpful to me.

mirabelle

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Since you have normally used this desktop via USB to your old router it may be worth having a look at the RJ45 socket on the back of the PC to see if it is gunged up, it is cheaper and as it looks like you may have to buy a new lan card anyway it cannot hurt

Thanks for helping me with this. I will take your advice and post back when it is working after I have bought a new card from Maplin today.