IBM Thinkpad with a broken LAN connector. Any help?

[[email protected]]

I could take home a pc from work. It's a Thinkpad with a 1,7 Pentium
CPU. It works very well except for a quite frustrating problem. Its
lan connector can't mantain a stable connection. As soon as a lan
cable is plugged into it it start to continuously getting ON and OFF
the network. This happens with Windows XP, but it also happens using a
Linuc livecd, and with different lan cables, so I guess it's a
hardware related problem.

Do you happen to know if this is easily fixable or what may cause it?

Thanks a million in advance.

 

[Meat Plow]

I could take home a pc from work. It's a Thinkpad with a 1,7 Pentium
CPU. It works very well except for a quite frustrating problem. Its
lan connector can't mantain a stable connection. As soon as a lan
cable is plugged into it it start to continuously getting ON and OFF
the network. This happens with Windows XP, but it also happens using a
Linuc livecd, and with different lan cables, so I guess it's a
hardware related problem.

Do you happen to know if this is easily fixable or what may cause it?

Thanks a million in advance.

Just buy a pcmcia or usb ethernet connector and forget about the built in
lan.

--
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COOSN-266-06-25794

 

[JANA]

It's fixable. You will have to take the computer apart, and see if there are
any cold solder connections. You will need the proper soldering tools, and
skills to re-solder the connector pins at the circuit board.

If the connector itself is defective, many of these are standard PC mount
type connectors. You will have to match it up to a proper part number using
the connector listings in the proper catalogue. There are many electronics
parts suppliers that can supply these connectors. You may have to buy a
minimum size order to buy the connector.

To change the connector, you will still require the proper soldering tools
and skills. Removing the old connector without damaging the board is a task
in itself.

Your best bet would be to bring the computer to a service centre that is
able to change these types of parts and service computers. The greatest cost
will be for the labour.

If you don't want to fix the connector problem, if the computer has a PCM
slot for external options, you can buy a PCM type network card, and install
it as your Ethernet connection. I have seen these PCM Ethernet cards going
for about $40 to $70 US depending on the type and quality.

There are also USB-2 to Ethernet adaptors. I found that these are not
always the best solution. They tend to have speed problems at times and
sometimes other issues, but usually they do work.

--

JANA
_____


I could take home a pc from work. It's a Thinkpad with a 1,7 Pentium
CPU. It works very well except for a quite frustrating problem. Its
lan connector can't mantain a stable connection. As soon as a lan
cable is plugged into it it start to continuously getting ON and OFF
the network. This happens with Windows XP, but it also happens using a
Linuc livecd, and with different lan cables, so I guess it's a
hardware related problem.

Do you happen to know if this is easily fixable or what may cause it?

Thanks a million in advance.

 

[mike]

Just buy a pcmcia or usb ethernet connector and forget about the built in
lan.

First thing I'd do is take a peek inside the socket. make sure the
wires that form the connection are not bent and can make firm
contact with the right part of the plug. Sometimes people try to plug
the phone wire in there and bend things. Not sure how the pins line up,
but the 50V on the phone wire is not ethernet friendly...

Then, I'd take a Q-tip and some alcohol to try to clean off any gunk
in there.

Then I'd put an oscilloscope on a tap at the other end of the wire
and see if anything interesting shows up.

It's always possible, but if you don't touch anything and it's going
on and off, it may not be the connection. Putting pressure in one
direction or another may or may not make the problem better or worse,
but it's an experiment worth trying.

 

[bz]

I could take home a pc from work. It's a Thinkpad with a 1,7 Pentium
CPU. It works very well except for a quite frustrating problem. Its
lan connector can't mantain a stable connection. As soon as a lan
cable is plugged into it it start to continuously getting ON and OFF
the network. This happens with Windows XP, but it also happens using a
Linuc livecd, and with different lan cables, so I guess it's a
hardware related problem.

Do you happen to know if this is easily fixable or what may cause it?

Fixable.
Buy a USB-ethernet adapter and plug it into the USB port.
Disable the on-board ethernet device.
Or buy a PCmcia card ethernet adapter.

If your computer doesn't have USB or PCMCIA capability, it is too old to be
useful for most purposes.

Alternately, replace the mother board.







--
bz 73 de N5BZ k

please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an
infinite set.

[email protected] remove ch100-5 to avoid spam trap

 

[[email protected]]

Thanks everybody for the replies
I'll let you know if I could fix it (or have it fixed...

 

[Rick]

I could take home a pc from work. It's a Thinkpad with a 1,7 Pentium
CPU. It works very well except for a quite frustrating problem. Its
lan connector can't mantain a stable connection. As soon as a lan
cable is plugged into it it start to continuously getting ON and OFF
the network. This happens with Windows XP, but it also happens using a
Linuc livecd, and with different lan cables, so I guess it's a
hardware related problem.

Do you happen to know if this is easily fixable or what may cause it?

Thanks a million in advance.

Not knowing with series and model IBM this is all I can tell you is to
get that info off the bottom, go to the IBM web site, and download the
Hardware Reference Manual (HRM) for this specific lap top.

If you think the LAN socket itself has developed a problem:

If this is an IBM that uses a mini PCI combo card that contains the LAN
and/or modem on that card, chances are the sockets for the modem and LAN
are connected to the mini PCI card with a ribbon cable. If that's the
case those are the only two sockets on the back of the lap top which are
removeable and you are in luck. Replace the cable/socket assembly. But
also be prepared to do a full disassembly of the lap top - that cable
runs underneath the main board and is held in place with double sided
foam tape.

If the LAN connector looks ok:

Check the HRM for removal/insertion instructions for the mini PCI card
and reseat it to see if that corrects the problem.

But before you do any of that run the IBM PC Doctor disgnostics to see
what it has to say about the LAN hardware in this system. It should be
on the system already. If not, download it from IBM.

Rick

 

[isw]

Just buy a pcmcia or usb ethernet connector and forget about the built in
lan.

First thing I'd do is take a peek inside the socket. make sure the
wires that form the connection are not bent and can make firm
contact with the right part of the plug. Sometimes people try to plug
the phone wire in there and bend things.[/QUOTE]

The 8-pin jack is specifically designed so that the 4-pin plug can be
inserted; it's intended for that. The middle 4 connections will go
through.

Isaac

 

[bz]

On Tue, 22 May 2007 02:13:59 -0700, [email protected] wrote:

I could take home a pc from work. It's a Thinkpad with a 1,7 Pentium
CPU. It works very well except for a quite frustrating problem. Its
lan connector can't mantain a stable connection. As soon as a lan
cable is plugged into it it start to continuously getting ON and OFF
the network. This happens with Windows XP, but it also happens using
a Linuc livecd, and with different lan cables, so I guess it's a
hardware related problem.

Do you happen to know if this is easily fixable or what may cause
it?

Thanks a million in advance.

Just buy a pcmcia or usb ethernet connector and forget about the
built in lan.

First thing I'd do is take a peek inside the socket. make sure the
wires that form the connection are not bent and can make firm
contact with the right part of the plug. Sometimes people try to plug
the phone wire in there and bend things.

The 8-pin jack is specifically designed so that the 4-pin plug can be
inserted; it's intended for that. The middle 4 connections will go
through.[/QUOTE]

Yep, but a phone cord doesn't *work* worth a darn in place of a cat-5
cable.

I was called to check the ethernet drop in a room because they couldn't get
a link light. I had to explain to them that the telephone extension cord
they were trying to use was NOT an ethernet cord.




--
bz 73 de N5BZ k

please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an
infinite set.

[email protected] remove ch100-5 to avoid spam trap