Need Help Upgrading to Gigabit NIC in Dimension 1100/B110.

Uninstall it from device manager and then try what Larry wrote after you place the nic in a different PCI slot. Change any card if you dont have an open slot.

Make double, tripple sure it is full inserted. sometimes it look like it is but it is not.

Dear Larry,

Thanks for the assist, the new Linksys gigabit NIC is now working fine; I am connecting both to my network printer and the internet.  I just have one other question ... I'm getting an error icon showing up in the right side of the taskbar stating that a "Network Cable is unplugged in my local area connection".  I'm assuming that this is referring to the onboard NIC (Intel Pro/100), which I am no longer using, but which I've not disabled in the Device Manager.  Am I correct in this assumption, and there's no other issue?  If I disable the onboard NIC will this error icon disappear?

Thanks again,

Jack

Dear Dave,

Thanks for your help, the new Linksys gigabit NIC is now working fine. 

Sincerely,

Jack

Dear Dave,

Thanks for your help, the new Linksys gigabit NIC is now working fine.

I'm glad to hear you got it working.

And yes, if you disable the onboard NIC (either in Device Manager or the BIOS) you will stop seeing that message.  The new NIC is probably listed as "Local Area Connection 2" (or maybe 3 due to the problems earlier).

Dear Larry,

Thanks again, disabling the NIC removed the message.  One more issue:  When I plugged the PC into the new gigabit switch, I noticed that the LED indicator for the PC's connection was only showing up as 10mbps, rather than 1000mbps, and sure enough when I checked the NIC's status on the PC that was, indeed, the speed.  When I re-enabled the onboard Intel Pro/100 NIC and plugged the ethernet cable into it, both the switch and the device's status on the PC showed the device working  at 100mbps.  I can't seem to find anything in the system properties of the new gigabit NIC to change the mbps.  Is there something in the BIOS that needs to be changed?  Lastly, I've been searching to find whether anyone makes an ADSL gigabit modem, but I can't seem to find any.  Are you aware of any, or is this technology that is yet to come?  (It seems kind of odd to me that there are gigabit NICs but no corresponding modems.)  As always, I appreciate your assistance.

Sincerely,

Jack

You should have an option to manually set the connection speed to 100Mbps full duplex in the Device Manager properties window for the NIC (the Advanced tab).  I've seen before where a 100Mbps device connected to a gigabit device drops back to 10Mbps because the gigabit device confused it when it attempted to talk at 1000Mbps (the NIC is supposed to negotiate with the connected device to set the connection speed, and sometimes one end or the other gets a bit confused if the difference between them is great enough).

If you don't see a setting there, then you'll have to check the connection manager software for that network adapter.  The BIOS only has an enable/disable option (and nothing else) for the onboard NIC.

Dear Larry,

Thanks again, I found the manual setting in the Advanced tab, and set the NIC to 1000Mbps full duplex, which now shows up as 100Mbps on the gigabit switch and in the status of the NIC in the Network Connections.  You'd indicated that the setting should be 100Mbps instead, but I figured I'd try the 1000 setting to see what happened; I guess that since there's no other 1000Mbps device on my home network, this is the reason that the switch and status is only showing a 100 speed.  Might I encounter any problems if I leave the manual setting to 1000Mbps full duplex, and should I change it back down to the 100 setting?  I'm assuming that more devices/technology are going to be coming out that have the gigabit speed, otherwise it seems kind of silly to have spent the money and time on upgrading to a faster NIC and switch, when the maximum speed I'm able to achieve is the 100Mbps that I already had with my original setup.  Oh well.

I appreciate all of your help and assistance, and hope that you had a wonderful Christmas, and wish you a most happy New Year's.

All the best,

Jack

There are no problems with having it set to 1000Mbps if the switch supports it.  If nothing else on your network is working at that speed then only the communication between the switch and computer will be at 1000Mbps, but that doesn't hurt anything at all.

I suggested setting it to 100Mbps because I've seen gigabit connections not talk right to slower devices when set to auto.  Full duplex is the important thing, as half-duplex sends data at half the speed (it can talk or listen, but not at the same time in half-duplex, while it can talk and listen at once in full duplex mode).

Dear Larry,

Great, I understand now.  Thanks for all of your assistance and advice, and helping me comprehend everything.  I do appreciate it!  I hope that you had a wonderful holiday season, and wish you a fantastic 2009!!

All the best,

Jack

No problem.  I'm just glad I could help out. :emotion-5:

I'm trying to find a NIC ethernet card (to replace a faulty one) for a Dell Dimension 1100/B110. I can find the driver on Dell's site, but I can't find any part number for a replacement NIC card. Under Device Manager->Network Adaptor, Intel PRO/100VE Network Connection is listed.  Is that the name of the NIC card? Are there substitues I could purchase instaed?

Thanks -

Andy

Is new driver software usually supplied with an NIC card?

Any full-height NIC card will do.