Thinkpads Forum

I just noticed that my LAN card does not show up in the devices, and when I hook it up to a network, nothing happens and the little green light does not flash. I went to device manager and it only shows the wireless adapter.

I am running Vista Business. I suspect this happened in one of the recent updates either from Lenovo or MS, but I haven't been able to figure it out. Does anyone know about this problem? Any input is appreciated.

check the bios to see if the LAN card is enabled.

SHoTTa,

Thanks for the suggestion - I should have thought about that!
I just checked the BIOS, and it did say that the LAN was enabled.
However, when I restarted the computer, voila!, the LAN was there.

I still suspect that something was up, as I have always had it enabled, since I occasionally use it at the office. I will be checking on it the following few days.

T60 turns the LAN adapter off when not in use to save power

XIII wrote:T60 turns the LAN adapter off when not in use to save power

But does it turn it off to the point of not showing up in the list of devices? I am just curious, then how do you re-activate it if you need it, without having to restart?

That part I liked better about XP Pro, when you went to network adapters, you could easily enable or disable them.

Yes, it does turn off to the degree that it does not show up in Device Manager.
It automatically turns on when an Ethernet Cable is plugged in.

I have the same thing.
My T60 ethernet was going into the "Deep Sleep Mode" and not waking up. When that happened it kept saying my ethernet cable was unplugged and the ethernet adapter still showed in Device Manager. I updated the drivers and BIOS through System Update3 and that problem stopped.
Recently it started doing the same as yours. The lights do not come on, the ethernet is gone, even in device manager. Sometimes it reappears later, Sometimes not. It does the same thing in Linux. It does not wake up when I plug in a cable.
I called IBM and the are sending me a box to send it............... to the Depot. Wish me luck.

Actually the same thing happened to me. I plugged in an active network cable and nothing happened. I am just a little miffed, since the adapter it's supposed to work almost the moment you plug it into a network.
Mine does not work like XIII said it should, so... I will keep on monitoring it for now. Thanks for the input though.

RM

I just found out what was going on, I think.

XII was right, it goes to "sleep" when not in use. It only does it if you are in battery power. The only problem I see with this is that it does not come back to life if you are on battery and connect to a network. According to some online sources, it only works if you plug the computer in to the AC adapter. An as a matter of fact, it registers an error in the log, saying that the NIC "disappeared without being ready to be removed". In any event, mystery solved. Thanks to everyone for their input.

If it is normal operation I wonder why IBM didn't just say so? They asked what it is doing and said they will send a box.

I got it back from the Depot yesterday and the sheet says they replaced the Planar. It seems to work properly now.
BTW, The depot did an excellent job on the repair, Everything looks perfect. I even pulled the keyboard looking for a problem.
I'll give it more of a workout today.

I was at a client yesterday with my T60 and the same thing happened to me. I'm running Windows XP SP2 and my T60 is a few months old only.

So in the end was yours defective? It makes sense that the laptop is shutting it off to conserve power. Dell does this to but it has a popup saying HEY WE SHUT OFF YOUR NIC.

Is there a driver / application from Lenovo that I'm missing that might give me some notifications when it happens?

You can go into the device settings and turn off the "Deep Sleep" mode. If it still happens then there is a problem.
Mine got to the point where it did not come back with a restart. It has worked flawlessly since the Depot repaired it. I sure wish the nic was a separate part like it used to be. It seems strange to have to replace a planar for a bad nic.

Had the same thing happen to me a while back in the middle of a meeting. Popped in the LAN, it "worked" but there was no connection so I took it out and put it back in. At this point the entire thing was just "gone". Had to resort to another laptop to continue the presentation.

Restart didn't even fix it. The only thing that fixed it was getting back to my office after the meeting and it was magically back. I think my T60 just hates Lexus as much as I do.

That is what mine was doing. Sometimes it would work, sometimes not. It continued to deteriorate until it got to the point where it would never work.

I'll keep that in mind. I restarted which didn't help either.

was the network cable unplugged when you booted it up and it didn't work? what about when you booted it up this time that it worked?

i noticed with mine that the ethernet sometimes will not work unless you boot it up with a linked ethernet connection in Windows XP. I know that it definitely does that in Linux too.

Mine started doing it again today. I was running XP on the battery, I plugged in an ethernet cable and it connected. Later I unplugged the ethernet cable moved to the next room and plugged back in.....nothing. I rebooted and there it was again, unplugged for 20 seconds and plugged back in...nothing. Rebooted and it was back. Luckily I have a 3Com USB ethernet adapter that does not pull these stunts. This is not going to work for on-site network diagnosis..
This is my only complaint with the T60 but sometimes I wish I had mt T42 back.

I think my T60 suffers from this issue now. For the last 5-6 reboots I haven't seen the ethernet adapter or the modem, but now it shows up with a 'Code 12' error (says I have to free resources to use the thernet adapter - I have cisco VPN and wireless, which have worked flawlessly in the past). Thankfully I am on dialup (!) and the NIC seems to be working for now.

On top of all this, my battery crapped - capacity suddenly went from 100% to 0% - I tried resetting and everything I know from this beloved forum, but I think one of the cells in the battery is dead.

Too bad I am in india now, I have to wait till I get back to contact IBM and get things repaired. I am so glad I have warranty - this ismy primary work machine and I absolutely need it.

India? Wow.... i was actually in Gainsville, FL recently too over christmas!! (shotting contest to win a pig? Only in Florida! ) Anyways i got a T60 now and mine does it also but as soon as i plug the cable in it wake sup no problem. I read in the other threads that it's the "Deep Sleep" state of the device. CPUs have it and now LAN cards have it.

You can always go to the device manager and uncheck "Let windows turn off this device to save power" and then you shouldn't have that anymore

I disabled the power saving feature of the card long long back, I have been aware of this issue with T60s for a while ... I'll get it checked when I am back.

Gainesville during christmas is like a ghost town, almost everyone leaves to someplace else I miss gainesville though, I'll be back in a couple of weeks and am looking forward to it.