I have a Thinkpad A21M which was not used for about a year. It has Windows XP Pro SP2. After starting to use it again, the ethernet controller is no longer working. There is no LAN connection in Network Connections, and in the Device Manager there are no items that don't have drivers installed (in other words, everything looks fine). I tried doing a scan for new hardware but that yielded no results.
I could not find an option in the BIOS that would indicate a NIC is disabled.
I would like to get this network controller working again. 500 points.
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I looked in the BIOS again and still couldn't find any option to enable the NIC.
No, it does not show up in my device manager. I don't have a wireless card in my laptop (I use a USB adapter to get online right now.)
I just installed the ThinkPad Configuration utility and do not have an option to turn on the NIC...in fact I don't think it recognizes a NIC exists.
Well my next thing to try would be to open the bottom of the laptop up and check and see if there are any cables connected to the network jack. Since you were not able to find a network adapter with the add and remove hardware and you are not able to see anything in the device manager it makes me think that there might not be a network adapter. I think there was a period of time where laptops were made with the connectors for networking but there was no network card installed. But I don't know the Thinkpad A21M in specific.
Right now things don't look to hopeful from my perspective that you can get the NIC working. Do you know for sure if the laptop did have a working NIC before it was set aside for the past year?
Sorry.
Bernard
I agree it is really silly. I had one computer that had the port covered - but if I removed the cover it looked just like it would actually work.
But on their side - it means one case to make for every type of option. Still silly yes but somewhat understandable.
I am sorry things did not work out for you.
Bernard
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by: ChrisSchumannPosted on 2007-06-25 at 11:33:30ID: 19357946
Run ThinkPad Configuration (download it from Lenovo if you don't have it installed). That can enable or disable your built-in wired networking. If that cannot enable the networking, you have it disabled in the BIOS. The setting is in there somewhere.