Quick opinion - integrated network card

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Arroryn, Sep 29, 2007.

  1. Arroryn

    Arroryn we're all dooooooomed Moderator

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    Hi guys!

    Just a quickie (oo-err)

    My uncle has a Dell C521. It has a Broadcom 440x integrated NIC.

    Since he's had the PC (about 2 months) he hadn't had reason to use it. However, when his wireless network went up the swanny a couple of weeks ago, and I went to hardwire him in to keep his connection up - lo and behold, his NIC didn't work.

    Emailed Dell, seeing as his box is still under warranty, I'm not going to touch it with a bargepole.

    I've tried to uninstall the existing Broadcom diag utility and reinstall the drivers. The existing driver won't reinstall, as it fails when it tries to remove the old driver. And the diag utility won't work, as it doesn't detect that there's even a NIC on board.

    I've been in the BIOS, and all the "normal" settings look tickety-boo.

    After emailing Dell again, they basically emailed me back telling me to download the drivers again - keeping in mind, I'd sent them a bunch of screenshots, step-by-step, of what I did the first time round.

    To my mind now, seeing as the unit is still under warranty, is either for Dell to come out and replace the mobo, or to replace the whole base unit. What do you guys think? Is there anything else I can try without invalidating the existing warranty?
     
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  2. greenbrucelee
    Highly Decorated Member Award

    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    We had a problem at work a while ago where the nic in the dell pc that controls one of the CTP machines went and it turned out the mobo was knackered I cant remember the model number of the PC off the top of my head but it did begin with a C
     
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  3. MacAllan

    MacAllan Byte Poster

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    You could waste an afternoon reinstalling Windows I guess...

    I'd just tell them that I downloaded the drivers, and that hasn't solved the problem - so will they please now get on with sending out an engineer to replace the system board as per the Warranty...
     
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  4. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Make sure the integrated NIC is in fact a Broadcom. I've had a Dell brought to me that turned out to have an Intel NIC instead of the Broadcom that was advertised.

    Harry.
     
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  5. grim

    grim Gigabyte Poster

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    i take it that it shows up in the device manager ?

    does it get i.p, subnetmask, gateway details, try ipconfig ?

    does it show up under network connections ?

    grim
     
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  6. ffreeloader

    ffreeloader Terabyte Poster

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    I agree. I've seen similar things with a Toshiba laptop. The model and serial number said it should have an Intel graphics card. It had an ATI card in it. And, yes it came that way from the factory. I ordered the laptop for someone so I was the first person to see it out of the box.
     
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  7. Arroryn

    Arroryn we're all dooooooomed Moderator

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    Thanks for the responses, guys.

    Grim - it doesn't turn up in device manager, no. And no link lights, hence my personal belief it's dead.

    Harry, Freddy - the manufacturer/brand issue seems valid and possible - but whilst his PC is under warranty, I don't want to crack it open until a Dell tech has been round (which I have requested).
     
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  8. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    No need to crack it open. ID it with CrystalCPUID (or similar).

    Harry.
     
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  9. stuPeas

    stuPeas Megabyte Poster

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    you could try installing SiSoftware Sandra Lite. It lists all hardware, but if it doesnt show in device manager it may not show in this either.
     
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  10. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    A good tool should show devices that allow themselves to be enumerated, even though there are no drivers. Device Manager will often not show such devices, or mark it as 'unknown'.

    Harry.
     
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