Network connector not working on Dimension 8250

Hi,

I have a Dimension 8250 with a Intel(R) PRO/100 Network Connection built into the motherboard(this is not good by the way). We had a real bad storm and subsequently all the power went out. When booted everything up and tried to connect to the internet, I noticed no green lights on for the connector. Just to be sure I thought it could have been the cable so I used a different one and still no signal. As a last resort I used my USB cable to connect from the cable modem to a usb port on the back of my pc and bang I can get to the internet. I've unistall the drivers and re-installed the drivers and the network connector is just not working. The reason I need this to work is because i was using a wireless router which now I can no longer use because my network controller doesn't work.  I also tried installing a backup Netgear network card in my desktop and i'm getting green connection lights but it seems i've got some type of hardware conflict. Can someone suggest a way that I can get this network card to recognized instead of the existing one that doesn't work.

 

Thanks

Ark