Dell network card issues

Question

I've seen this happen on a number of Dell machines.  The network cards go bad and I can't seem to find a fix or explanation for it online anywhere.  The computers appear to function perfectly otherwise.  I'm not sure that the cards are actually bad, I think its more of a software problem.  I'm able to ping localhost and if I asign IPs manually along with the gateway some times the network cards will work with linksys routers and sometimes they wont.  It seems like DHCP doesn't work for some reason.  My fix for this problem has been to install another network card in the computer and disable the on board one.  This always fixes the problem but its a pain explain to my customers what the problem is and why their brand new computer needs a new part.  Hard to do it without making Dell look bad.  I'm just wondering if anyone knows about this problem or has been able to fix it.  I've seen a few posts on this message board that seem to coenside with this problem.

jmwills · Answer

Just exactly what kind of machines are we talking about?????

Uncmarts · Answer

I agree with you. I have a Dimension 4550, now about two years old. My onboard ethernet card just quit responding over a year ago. Dell support had no answer. I didn't want to have the motherboard replaced just to have the ethernet card working agian. At that point I hooked up my cable modem via USB.

Just recently I deceided to create a wireless network and had to buy a new PCI ethernet card and also disable the onboard one. I also believe these onboard ethernet cards have issues that cause them to stop responding. Many posts on this board complaining about the same problem.

jmwills · Answer

I personally have 5 Dell machines (Laptops & Desktops) along with the 125 I am responsible for (mostly Optiplex) and I have only seen 1 NIC card go bad and that machine spent some time in the desert, so I do disagree with the idea of wholesale failures on NIC cards.

Asmodeous · Answer

Well, I own my own company doing tech support for multiple companies.  Its definately a problem, altho I'm not saying that the cards are necissarily going bad.  I've seen this happen to Optiplex as well as Dimension Dell's quite a bit in the past year.

jmwills · Answer

I'm sorry to hear that, so I guess my lot is special.  Have you guys updated your chipset drivers?

Huntster50 · Answer

The problem I'm having is with a Dimension 2400 The onboard NIC just disappeared. I can't even see it in the BIOS. Then right after the POST I get NIC Failure message before the OS starts. You can't see it in the device manager either.

Seems to me to be a BIOS issue, whether it is corrupt or the onboard NIC is actually going bad is beyond me.

Also I am having a hard time installing another nic card in it's place. :smileysad:

jmwills · Answer

Have you tried updating the BIOS?

Asmodeous · Answer

I have tried updating everything.  I've try BIOS/Chipset/NIC driver.  The only thing I have you to try is a complete reinstall.  The only way I would get to try that is if the computer crashed and the client needed it.  If these were my computers I would have already tried that as well but I can't charge a client to do something like that especially if I'm not sure if its going to fix the problem or not.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

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