Win 2000 install on A20M

[Bydesignprez]

I have installed Win 2000 Professional on my newly acquired A20M. 10G HD and a throbbing fast 500 Celeron CPU with something like 192 MB of memory installed. Everything works except for the network connection.

I am using a 3Com PCMICA card and dongle and have loaded the new 3com driver and Windows tells me the network card is working properly. But, it also tells me the networkcable is not connected and I have tried everything I can think of to get the Internet working. The internet connection works on my desktop works just fine, but no go with the PCMICA card. What did I forget? I've done a fresh W2000 install a number of times on my desktop, but is there some reason it won't work with the laptop?

I have read something about an update to Windows CE giving it network access, but I have installed Win2000 which is supposed to (and normally does) connect to the internet automatically.

Thanks in advance for any insights as to what I have missed

[GomJabbar]

You could have a defective PCMCIA slot (happened to me once on a ThinkPad 600E). I am not that familiar with the A20m; if you have a second PCMCIA slot, then try that one. If this doesn't fix it, try your card in another laptop - either that or try a different card in your A20m.

Another possibility is a bad ethernet cable. Try changing the ethernet cable; also inspect the ethernet jacks that no pins are bent or broken.

[Bydesignprez]

Tks GomJabber.

Since posting this question I have had a vist from my son who was enrolled in Computer Science for 2 years at University. He did exactly what I tried with the same result.

The network cable is known to work as I can plug it into my desktop and it works fine. The Ethernet card has fresh drivers and W2000 says it's working properly. The only fault is that the systray says that the network cable is unplugged. I cannot get it to change its mind. Is there any unusual trick in Thinkpads of A20M vintage to get them to recognize an internet connection?

As an aside (and I'm suspicious about this), there is an unknown piece of hardware in the hardware device manager. There does not appear to be anything missing from the list so I am wondering if this is the dongle. Does the dongle require a driver (which I have been unable to find so far)? This would be the solution of course....

[Kyocera]

The dongle is usually part of the card so it should not require any additional drivers (unless it's a dongle from a different card then maybe). Do you have a yellow exclamation point in the device mgr under your lan card? If you do delete reboot and try to either reinstall that driver or see what happens.

[jdhurst]

If I remember correctly, an A20m was not able to properly detect and use the network card. I recall the machine came originally with Windows 98, and I had to use the driver from the Windows 98 recovery CD supplied with the machine. Good luck. ... JD Hurst

[Bydesignprez]

After trying every concievable solution including reading the manual , I stopped just short of tearing everything apart and considered that some time ago I had had the same problem with another laptop. I also could not detect the router. Hmm....think think.

It turned out that the problem was the 100 foot CAT 5 cable that I had from the router to where I use the laptop. Once I shortened that, the network was found, I won the lottery and the blond married me. OK, 2 of those are lies, but the lap top works now.

Now I have managed to "break" the desktop. Sigh.......