Originally Posted by jephree

My web search so far only brings up the idea of reloading all the drivers from the driver cd (not the web site).

Have you tried this?


Also try loading in Safe Mode.

I've tried both the website and the CD that came with the laptop. It's not that these drivers don't work, really... its seems that Windows identifies the NIC as something it's not and it won't let me update or overwrite the driver its using so I'm not entirely sure the driver is incorrect. The Dell Driver CD says it supposed to be 3Com and Windows says it is not correct.

Same thing in Safe Mode.

I'm going to try reinstalling from the Dell restore CD AGAIN. Maybe I missed something...

Just out of curiosity try our hardware scan and see what it finds in there:

http://www.d-a-l.com/hardware-scan.php

Originally Posted by jephree

Just out of curiosity try our hardware scan and see what it finds in there:

http://www.d-a-l.com/hardware-scan.php

My AVG virus protection sees the hardware scanning download file as a Trojan horse virus threat and won't even let me burn it.

Yes. Sorry a known issue. You need to turn off AVG if you want to run it.

You can use Belarc if you prefer:

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

Originally Posted by jephree

You can use Belarc if you prefer:

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

I had run Belarc earlier today. It sees the NIC the same as Windows-- as an Intel NIC. If I uninstall it it doesn't see it which probably makes sense. Isn't Belarc just seeing what info Windows has on it anyway?

Another weird thing is when I select to choose my own driver from a list, there is only a very few selections to choose from and none are 3com. "Have disk" again, tells me there are no files for my hardware in the selected location.

Well just for the sake of a try I'd try to find an Intel driver.

Are there no details on the supposed Intel device?

Also you could check your BIOS Setup.

Originally Posted by jephree

Well just for the sake of a try I'd try to find an Intel driver.

Are there no details on the supposed Intel device?

Details? Where? I don't see any "details". I see The following tabs:
General
Advanced
Driver
Resources
Power Management

I'm not familiar with a Dell BIOS. Just thought there might be a hardware list.

What shows in the Device Manager?