ADSL modem not seen by laptop

[Rwy in Sight]

Hi guys!

I got a laptop from a pal and I am trying out. It does have a history with some burned USB ports due to a thunderstorm. Last night I tried to connect to the internet via a wired modem -Ethernet cable -(which did and still is working ok with another netbook) and it can't be connected. It works fine via a wifi connection. However I don't want to use a wifi connection at home.

The question how can I know if it it is the ethernet port or something else and what can I do?


Thanks in advance.


Rwy in Sight

[green granite]

Try, right-click "My Computer" and select "Manage", then go to Device Manager. You should see something that relates to your NIC (Network Interface Card), although it might be listed as "unknown device" in there. Right click anything with a yellow "?" flag, and try to "Update Driver" for it.

[Rwy in Sight]

Thanks green granite for the advice. I rang my Internet provider, we ran some troubleshooting but we were unable to find a solution.

Time to talk again to my friend.


Rwy in Sight

[Avtrician]

It could be that the ethernet port was fried as well as the USB ports....

[Saab Dastard]

It could be that the ethernet port was fried as well as the USB ports....

Indeed, especially if it was connected at the time.

Another possibility is to check if the ethernet port has been disabled, at BIOS or OS level.

SD

[Rwy in Sight]

Saab Dastard,


my friend says he did not touch the ethernet system.

I will have to wait until Thursday.

Rwy in Sight

[SamTHorn]

Pursuant to what Green Granite's advice, while you are in the hardware profile settings you should also be able to view your USB port status there.
If it is burnt out or there's other problems it should have a little yellow flag or Yield symbol next to it denoting an issue.
If your port has been burnt out then your bios won't be able to communicate with it on startup and that would let the device manager know that there was a problem.

Hope that helps and if not, good luck. Post your solution here when you get it covered, I'm curious now also. :)

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[11Fan]

Had a similar issue with my company laptop. Lost everything across the back, USB, Ethernet, Power, the works. They wound up replacing the Motherboard.