Some help with Dell laptop please?

Hi everyone,

I recently reformatted another computer for a friend, a Dell Inspiron E1505. I went through the usual steps, deleting the partition and booting from disc etc. However when I was done I cannot get it to recognize the Internet connection.

Any help would be great.

Thanks.

Use a second computer to download all the drivers from Dell.com. Put them on a thumb drive, drop them on the desktop & install. I have had to do the same thing, lost my drivers, and had to reinstall them.

kingofwylietx said:

Use a second computer to download the drivers from Dell.com. Put them on a thumb drive, drop them on the desktop & install.

Click to expand...

+1

They are probably right. It's probably the wireless drivers. Can you access the internet via a wired connection? I know the function key and f2 turn the wireless adapter on and off on my wife's dell e1505. If your hardware is on and good to go than it's most likely the drivers.

Good luck.

There is a Service Tag on the bottom of the laptop. Enter it here to get the correct drivers that you need for it.

Easiest is to do like kingofwylietx says with a thumb drive.

Ok, I went to Dells website and typed in my product key, and it gave a list of driver. I downloaded all of them accept the ones that said they were for things I don't need, like blue tooth etc. I saved them to a thumb drive, and all but one of them worked. The one that did not said I need to update windows before it can be used.

I did get the little icon in the bottom right that shows the computer (LAN connection) but I have plugged in both USB and Ethernet cables to it and it still will not acknowledge the internet. It claims the Local Area Connection is unplugged.

Any ideas?

What does the ipconfig/all say for ip address, and can you ping 127.0.0.1 ?

Egsise said:

What does the ipconfig/all say for ip address, and can you ping 127.0.0.1 ?

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply Egsise. I think you shot over my head a little bit there. Where would I get the ipconfig info? I think I have seen that ping done before but I don't recall how to do it?

Question,
Specifically, did you install Network drivers from the Dell website? There should have been at least two of them. One for the Ethernet card and one for the Wireless.

Another important one would have been the Chipset drivers.


To answer your question to/from Egsise...

Open a DOS window (type CMD in the Run box)
...in the DOS window type..
ipconfig /all
See what it tells you.

Same way, in a DOS window..
type..
ping 127.0.0.1

If successful, it means your network card, drivers, etc are working properly.

I'll hand it back to Egsise now...

Sorry....that was a little test to see on what level your skills are, you should know those things before you start deleting partitions etc.

Was the disc the original restore cd/dvd or just windows xp/vista/7 disc?

Lite_me said:

Question,
Specifically, did you install Network drivers from the Dell website? There should have been at least two of them. One for the Ethernet card and one for the Wireless.

Another important one would have been the Chipset drivers.


To answer your question to/from Egsise...

Open a DOS window (type CMD in the Run box)
...in the DOS window type..
ipconfig /all
See what it tells you.

Same way, in a DOS window..
type..
ping 127.0.0.1

If successful, it means your network card, drivers, etc are working properly.

I'll hand it back to Egsise now...

Click to expand...

Ok, here is the list of drivers I was given. I got all of the ones that said recomended, urgent, and several of the ones that said optional.

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...nspironI6400/E1505&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=

Here is what it said when I did the ipconfig

Host name..........: Danny
Primary Dns suffix......:
Node type.......: Broadcast
Ip routing enabled......: No
Wins Proxy Enabled.......: No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State............: Media disconnected
Description..............: Broadcom 440x 10/100 integrated controller
Physical Address........: 00-15-c5-17-58-co

Ping said

Reply from 127.0.0.1 : bytes"32 time<1ms TTL=128

Packets: sent = 4 recieved = 4 Lost = 0

Egsise said:

Sorry....that was a little test to see on what level your skills are, you should know those things before you start deleting partitions etc.

Was the disc the original restore cd/dvd or just windows xp/vista/7 disc?

Click to expand...

No sorry needed, I realize my understanding of these things is limited, I just cant afford to have pro work done on them. I have done seveal PCs using this disc, and most of the time there is no problem, I just got into a little somthing this time :shakehead

I did not have the origonal disc. The computer did not come with anything. I used regular XP disc.

Thanks again you guys for taking the time to help me.

vestureofblood said:

I did get the little icon in the bottom right that shows the computer (LAN connection) but I have plugged in both USB and Ethernet cables to it and it still will not acknowledge the internet. It claims the Local Area Connection is unplugged.

Any ideas?

Click to expand...

vestureofblood said:

Ping said

Reply from 127.0.0.1 : bytes"32 time<1ms TTL=128

Packets: sent = 4 recieved = 4 Lost = 0

Click to expand...

Looks like it's working to me.

You do not mention a wireless router, so you're not trying to connect wirelessly, or through a router port, correct?

What type of service do you have? Cable, DSL?

If you only have, say, a cable modem and you are just connecting the cat5 cable that normally is used by your computer into the laptop, you'll most likely have to power cycle your modem in order to get a new IP address for the different MAC address that the cable system sees from the laptop in order to connect to the internet.

If this is the case, you'll have to cycle it again when you connect it back to your machine.

Egsise..?

Are there any unknown devices in device manager(right click my comp, manage)?
While the lan cable is connected:
What's the IP address that ipconfig says?
What's the DNS suffix?


FYI:
Most new computers come without operating system discs, then it notifys you to burn them very very many times.
Or you can just call to manufacturer customer service and they'll send you the discs free of charge.
Those discs contain all the drivers and usually many programs that manufacturer has bundled with the computer.
Even if you have no discs there often is a (hidden) restore partition in the hard drive and you can do a clean install just by activating it with proper key combination in the startup.

Read the manual, or call to customer service for reinstall instructions before deleting partitions....

Take the service tag to the dell site and order the restore disks. They usually run $20 -$25 and will set it straight. You will then have the correct discs for this computer from now on. This is the best and most favored method. If you are going to be doing repairs for people this will keep them off your back. If a problem develops later they always have the option of reloading the computer. I have spent many hours doing exactly what you are doing now and putting the responsibility on the owner is the best way to teach them to use their computer responsibly. HP laptops are notorious for losing their wireless connection because of faulty slots this may be the problem here. Try pinging your wireless router or your cable modem. Check the antenna connections on the wireless card.

After looking at the post and the download page it appears you are trying to use the wired connection (broadcom) because the intel pro wireless is not shown. If you are using wireless you must install the intel drivers under the network drivers. I also didn't see any ip addresses listed in the ipconfig. If it is not listing an ip address in the ipconfig you are probably missing some windows components. If the ip address is listed and you didn't write it down does it match your network ip addresses? You might try ipconfig /release followed by ipconfig /renew. Or just restart the computer and see if it picks up the new address. Make sure your wired connection is plugged in when you restart. HTH

My E1505 uses the intel PROset Wireless to control the network card. Works fine, and I believe it was listed under the dell downloads for this system last I checked.

If you find the dell OS disk, burn a copy as a backup. Will work on all Dells.

Also, right-click my computer and click manage. Then on the left of the computer management window, click devices to see what is working and what isn't.

Fn-F2 disables and enables wireless

I guess that's all I got. Post back with where you're at, it sounded kinda like you were almost finished with it and just installing drivers right now.