# My Dell Latitude C610 NIC does not work even with module

## MrVahn

I recently bought a second hand Dell C610. It works fine and it has Windows installed. The only thing I noticed though is that the NIC is detected but it does not work. In windows device manager, the NIC, 3com 3C920, has an error message saying "The device cannot start." 

What I did is I wiped out windows and installed Gentoo using the live cd. The network card was detected but still there was no connection. I installed Ubuntu afterwards. Ubuntu found the hardware, loaded the appropriate module, but still it won't work. That's when I thought of plugging in a PCMCIA network card and see for myself whether that will work.

I brought it to the office and our in house technician installed Windows. The same problem occured. It detected the NIC, installed the appropriate drivers, but failed, showing an exclamation point at the device manager next to the icon of the device. We plugged in the pcmcia card then. But guess what? It exhibited the same problems as the NIC. It got detected, but it failed. We tried to plug it into another machine and it works.

Now the question is: "What is the problem?" I did everything that I can do in terms of software and driver installation. I'm thinking of taking apart the laptop and see for myself whats wrong before I take it to a repairman. I don't know where and what to poke though. Any tips? BTW I don't have a diagnostic CD with me, and the diagnostic partition is wiped out ages ago I think, which adds up to my misfortune.

----------

## erik258

it doesn't work in windows, it doesn't work in linux ... are you sure it isn't broken?  As for the PCMCIA not working either, perhaps the laptop's mainboard is broken in a way that would cause problems for both network cards.  

Do other pcmcia devices work?

----------

## MrVahn

I haven't trying out any PCMCIA devices except for the one I mentioned. It's a Xircom network card. I tried the card on another machine and it works fine.

Everything works fine in my laptop except for the onboard network and the PCMCIA slots I think. Oh well. Is there any way I can fix it?

----------

