Dell Inspiron 8100 NIC issues.

[Thesuperiorone]

Hey all. I am trying to get a ladies Dell laptop, model 8100, PIII 1ghz, 256 mb ram back on the network at the hotel she is staying at, but for some reason, the port does not seem to realize a cord is plugged in. The NIC/drivers seem to be installed ok, but in the network connections window it says that the cable is unplugged. I tried two different cables, and neither worked.

There are only 2 options I can see.
1- the port on her laptop is bad, (but I have never seen a PORT go bad but hte hardware stay good)
2- The hotel's port is bad.

I have another laptop I will take by there on Friday to try, but is there anything else it could be?

Thanks!

Chris

 

[Thesuperiorone]

sorry, it's running Windows XP Home, Ver. 2002 with SP2..

Chris

 

[Frank4d]

You can eliminate the PC as the cause by testing with an ethernet wraparound cable.

Find an old cable and cut off one end. Wire pin 1 to 3, and pin 2 to 6 (pins 4, 5, 7, 8 don't care).

When plugged in to the PC you should not see an unplugged cable.

 

[biglebowski]

does the amber light come on when you plug in the cable?

Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?

 

[Thesuperiorone]

No it didn't.. I took my fiancee's laptop up today, and it did not work either. I took my fiancee's to another room and it worked instantly, so I am thinking it is the port in the room. When the lady gets back, I will have her take it to another room to test it, but it sounds like it is the hotels port at the moment...

Also, is it possible for the hardware on the INSIDE to work properly, but for the port on the laptop (where you plug it in) to be bad but Windows won't recognize it?

Chris