# Network adapter problems on Dell Inspiron 8100



## DanniN (Sep 4, 2008)

Hi

I'm doing a reformat/clean install of windows xp pro sp2 on a dell inspiron 8100. Everything went well, and it seems windows as most of the hardware covered driverwise.

however, i'm having trouble installing the driver for my ethernet lan card. It's not to be found in device manager in any way, not under 'network devices' and not as a device thats not installed. Can't really figure out why. Also, if i plug in the network cable, the little green light that is supposed to be on, isn't. There is no sign of life whatsoever.

I tried downloading the networking driver from dell.com, but i don't know how to install it. I tried to install it manually by forcing it to use the driver i specify, but with no luck. When i point it directly to the driver, it doesn't show any network devices in the list. I checked the BIOS, but it doesn't seems like theres anywhere i can choose to enable/disable the network adapter, other than when its docked. And i already tried to enable that, again without any luck.

And it worked before the reformat/reinstall.

Any ideas, anyone? I'm really stuck here...


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

You should have a driver cd that came with your dell, run it and install all the drivers for the hardware it detects, its possible that the chipset drivers are not installed and the nic is not recognized because of this.

Is this a onboard lan or a seperate card?


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## DanniN (Sep 4, 2008)

Doby said:


> You should have a driver cd that came with your dell, run it and install all the drivers for the hardware it detects, its possible that the chipset drivers are not installed and the nic is not recognized because of this.
> 
> Is this a onboard lan or a seperate card?


I dont have anything other than the laptop itself and the power supply. Shouldn't i be able to find the drivers i need (for chipset etc.) on the dell website?

It's a onboard lan card. I think it's maybe some sort of combined networking card, because theres a modem/RJ11 plug right next to the LAN plug on the side. However, it seems like the modem drivers has been found and installed by XP.


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

If you go here

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&ServiceTag=&SystemID=INS_PNT_P3CT_8100&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=

Click on the + next to network, click on the "3com" driver on the top, on the next screen there are installation instructions near the bottom, open the + to view.

Download this driver and follow the instructions to install, that should work


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## DanniN (Sep 4, 2008)

Doby said:


> If you go here
> 
> http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&ServiceTag=&SystemID=INS_PNT_P3CT_8100&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=
> 
> ...


Uhm, try to open the link... Only thing i can download is some html document under sound. Can't see anything else?


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## DanniN (Sep 4, 2008)

Okay, got something new.

Ignore my last post, i just wasn't able to download anything from the dell site for some reason. However, i finally found what you pointed me to. 

Heres what i've did so far

As i couldn't find anything for windows xp, i tried searching for drivers for win 2k, this time with better luck. But when i tried to intall the 2k drivers in xp it just found nothing again. Then i tried to install windows 2000 instead of XP to see if that could help. I installed the chipset drivers again, and then i tried to install the network adapter manually, and this time it actually found a network adapter when i tried to 'force' it, by pointing it directly to the driver. However, now the network adapter is in the device manager, but not working. It says "The device annot start (code 10)"

I also tried to run a bios update, but it just shut down for some reason.

And i have reset all settings in bios.

No luck.. What the **** am i doing wrong?


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

Your in way to deep here you should not have installed windows 2000 let alone update the bios your system is desighned to run XP if the correct driver (witch I ain't sure you have) would not install there is something else wrong.

You should not have updated the bios there was no need, will the computer even boot now?

The link works for me, can you access the dell site? If so I'll point you to the driver a different way


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