kitgirl,

Reboot the laptop and at the Dell logo screen tap the F2 key to enter the BIOS system setup.  Make sure the ethernet port is enabled.

Checked the BIOS - everything is enabled.

kitgirl,

Since you said the NIC did not appear in Device Manager under Network Adapters, the only thing left to check is to see if there are any devices flagged as errors in Device Manager.  If there are none I'd say you have a system board failure, since the NIC is integrated on the system board.  You will have to contect Dell for a repair.  If there are device(s) flagged as errors, try reinstalling the drivers.

You could also try uninstalling the onboard NIC and rebooting and let it reinstall.  What happens when you ping the NIC @ 127.0.0.1?

jmwills,

How do you uninstall a device that does not appear in Device Manager?

Interestingly, I just removed the NIC from one of my systems and since it was the only NIC in the system Device Manager showed no Network Adapters entry, as it should.  But pinging the localhost produced 0% packet loss.  Hmmm?

Interestingly, pinging home nets the message :

Pinging 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time1ms TTL=128
Pinging 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time1ms TTL=128
Pinging 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time1ms TTL=128
Pinging 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 127.0.0.1:

Packets: Sent = 4, Recieved = 4 Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum 0ms, Average 0ms

So yeah, 0% loss. I'm rather at a loss myself.

Message Edited by kitgirl on 04-12-200608:18 AM

It's there as I suspected by one of the comments.  Do you see it under Add/Remove Programs?

Message Edited by jmwills on 04-12-200603:46 PM

Just as for a wireless, the power management on a network adapter seems to default to "allow Windows to power off" and that checkbox (if you can find it) should be CLEARED

It looks like under Add/Remove Programs there is something called Intel(R) PROSet for Wired Connections, an Intel(R) PRO network adapters and drivers program, and an Internal Network Card Power Management program - those are the closest things that I can find. Are any of them what I'm looking for, or am I not thinking of the right thing?

kitgirl,

Make sure you are running the laptop plugged into AC power, i.e., not on battery.  That should bypass the possible "allow to turn off" issue.  The NIC should work properly even on battery though.

 

We have been running the laptop on AC power all along - though we did try it on battery once or twice to see if it changed anything. It didn't.

The NIC power management program has one changable setting - for activating on battery or always deactivating on battery when the network cable is unplugged. It is set on Always activate on battery, and has been for most of the time. I changed the setting once to see if there was a change - again, nothing. If there's another network power management application with settings that can be changed, I havn't found it.

kitgirl,

Which "power management program" did you use, considering the device does not appear in either Device Manager or PROSet.  I'm afraid my vote is still on a busted motherboard.

As an aside, I just finished installing XPSP2 (Home) on one of my test systems that does not have a NIC in it.  Ping 127.0.0.1 worked flawlessly; 0% packet loss.  My confidence in ping localhost as a diagnostic tool is severely shaken.

The Internal Network Card Power Management program.

I'm glad it helped you!

Upon turning on the laptop the last time (after a long time off due to frustration), the Intel PRO system now lists a wired internet controller that has errors - it says something about the miniport drivers failing, and then a second message that says the miniport isn't installed and that the network adaptor is either disconnected or not enabled. The messages both say to fix this with Device Manager, but there is still nothing there under Network Adaptors or anything similar.

I think this is just messing with us now.