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Ethernet controller won't load
I have a 2 year old Dell XPS 410 still under the 3 year warranty. I can't seem to get Dell tech support to understand my problem. I had a popup after restart saying Ethernet controller missing. I tried to download another driver on a different computer and transfer it to my Dell with no luck. I also have a Dell drivers CD, but didn't have luck there either. Dell is perplexed, but I just want my computer fixed. How do I get Dell to act???
I also read this on a non dell forum: (I had updated this Bios several months ago myself-- I have no clue what to do next.)
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Dell has released a new BIOS for the XPS 410 and Dimension 9200, which they have marked as Urgent (in big bold and red-colored text). BIOS 2.5.2 corrects problems the system was having when in Gigabit Ethernet environments. It’s not clear if this also applies to systems with a 10/100 controller… or what else Dell didn’t note in the change list… so just go update.
Update: Dell has pulled the update. Judging from the comments below, the update was randomly frying Ethernet NICs on-board, though I cannot reproduce this on my system.
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1 Comment on “Dell XPS 410 / Dimension 9200 BIOS 2.5.2 Released (Updated)”
chris on November 13th, 2007, 12:40 pm Hey man,
This BIOS fried the ethernet port of 3 of our 9200’s. We own over 40. On the forums, 1 or 2 others reported similar results.
Dell has now pulled the BIOS down and has 2.5.1 back up.
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There was no further comment on what to do about this. I am perplexed. Dell is not helping.
I understand. And trying to get help in a forum like htis takes so much time posting back and forth. So a few questions.
Does your warranty have in home support? If so you may want to escalate this to a Dell supervisor.
Is your ethernet card a separate card.... I am almost certain it is built in on the motherboard so your whole motherboard would have to be replaced to fix a defective one.
Can you go into device manager and look under network adapters. Is it listed there? Any yellow ! next to it?
Have you run the Dell diagnostics on it yet. If not please do so and give results.
Aslto try booting to safemode with network support see if it works in safemode.
I think you are right. The ethernet card was separate on my old Gateway computer (the one I am currently writing from--it is 7 years old). The ethernet seems to built in on the motherboard on the Dell. In device manager, there is an exclamation point on the ethernet controller, whereas on the Gateway, under Network adapter, there is 1. 1394 Net Adapter and 2. D-Link DFE-530TX+PCI Adapter.
My warranty is "3 year Limited Warranty, Warranty Support, 2 year Extended, Dell Hardware Warranty PlusOn site Extended, Type 15 Third Party At Home Service with Nights and Weekends, 24x7 Tech Support, 2 year Extended, Dell Hardware Warranty Plus Onsite Service, Initial Year"........so I don't know beyond that.
When I get the time tonight, I will do the Dell Diagnostics again and let you know. Then will try safe mode with network support to see if that works.
It seems that this old Gateway for its time was more advanced than the Dell 410, but I have unfortunately never delt with the inner workings of the machine. I would not expect the average person would have even my knowledge.
Thanks for your help. Sorry it took me so long to reply........
Ok that is sort of good news the yellow ! is next to the adapter in device manager. It shows that windows does see the adapter and it may just be a driver problem. I will research for the driver and help you tonight to install it and hopefully it will work.
Hi hfhlt004.
Sorry to barge in slamx.
My 9200/410 has BIOS 2.5.3 since long time ago. It came with 2.0.1 Two years ago, and I also upgraded the Ethernet driver to the one in Dell´s "Drivers & Downloads" in January 2008 with no ill effects, as a matter of fact, since the Ethernet driver upgrade my connections are great.
BIOS 2.5.3
Intel 825xx Gigabit Platform LAN Network Device
Hope it helps.
The Dell tech and I got that far last night, tha is using the Drivers & Utilities CD that came with the computer. Then we could not find the proper driver, but tried on of the many listed. It didn't work-would not install. Then tried another which wouldn't work. At that point, I didn't want to try anything else, so signed off for the night.
As you noted about, you used the
Intel 825xx Gigabit Platform LAN Network Device
I will try that one and report back.
Ok I see the problem. You do not understand how to install the driver.
The self extracting file only unzips the file. You then need to install the driver from the directory where that file was unzipped to. Do you have AIM or Yahoo Msgr...or some live chat program I can connet to you with?
Some drivers are installed with a setup files and some are installed through device manager by point to the directory where to get the driver from.
OK, still no luck. I downloaded that driver from the internet with my old computer and saved it to my thumb drive. It is dated August, 2007. Then installed it to my Dell. Something unzipped and installed, but it didn't go anywhere. It was R171870 Intel LAN Network Device for XPS410.
Then I went back to Device Manager > Network adapters> Intel (R) Pro 10+ PCI Adapter
Under Driver File details, I got Intel (R) Pro/10 + PCI Adapter > Driver files> C:\Womdpws\system 32\DRIVERS\el00b325.sys
I'm going to take a break now and get some chores done. Will be back later.
Thank goodness I still have this old 2001 Gateway!
hfhlt004
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Posted January 12th, 2009 22:00
As I said, I am not tech oriented, so I must rely on Dell support to help me. The notation I posted about the Bios was the only one that seemed to fit, though the upgrade was done several months ago.
I was hoping that Dell could just send me another ethernet card, but they want me to try a new driver CD first. (Actually, it didn't seem like they knew what to do either, as they didn't mention the diagnostics) I suppose if that is all they know how to do, I will have to follow their advise. They mentioned that the next step would be to reload windows. I really don't want to do that. Seems that I am going around in circles after two days and two different techs.