[soldierboy]

I have a Dell Dimension 9100 with a Pentium D CPU 2.8Ghz and 3GB of RAM operating on XP. I connect to the internet by using Belkin 54g ASDL modem with wireless G router. This is connected to the Dell via an Ethernet networking cable, and the router also connects my laptop (WLAN) and kids computers via network adaptors. Hope there is someone out there who can point me in the right direction with this problem.

The Dell and Belkin are connected at the same point to the mains using a Micromark MM22296 6 way surge and spike protection extension lead with telephone lne protection and audio alert. All products are 3years old and have been running fine with no issues.
A couple of nights ago, whilst using the above in the kitchen where it is seated, my 1400w breadmaker, developed a major fault at the point where the 1400w element comes on to cook the loaf. It triggered the main RCD circuit protection switch at the fuse box and closed down all four protected circuits including the computer. To make sure it was indeed the breadmaker, I tried it again and of course the same thing happened.
When I switched the extension lead (Dell and all the peripherals) back on, all was not as it was. Having had a couple of days to observe the Dell, my observations are as follows:
1.Dell boots via BIOS as normal and presents my four user accounts to chose from.
2.If you click on an account then the screensaver presents itself but nothing else happens. Well it does – but it takes 6 minutes for the noise of the hard drive to click in and for the desktop icons, start menu, task bar etc. to load. I have established that if I didn’t click on a user account, the hard drive would take the same 6 minutes to activate, and then the user account would then load straight away. So the issue is that the hard drive is not clicking on right away.
3.At this point the computer appears to work normally (playing video, music, word etc.) with the exception of NOT connecting to the internet.
4.I have looked at the modem settings and it tells me it is connected. It is still supporting wireless connection to the other 3 computers.
5.I installed a Belkin wireless adaptor to the Dell and it installed with success, but although the link from the computer to the internet are showing as transferring data, the link from the computer to the internet is not working.
I am out of my depth with this and any help or advice would be appreciated. I wonder if my surge and spike protection has let me down, or if it did its job the first time, it failed the second. The instructions are limited, but the led and audio alert are still functioning.
The device manager in “properties” is not showing any hardware not working properly.
Whatever the final outcome, the whole system is backed up on my external hard drive, so at least this is not an issue.
PLEASE HELP!!

[Carbon]

It sounds like the Ethernet controller on the motherboard was damaged.

I would assume the cheapest and quickest solution is likely to be a complete reformat and reinstall (if it's hardware damage, obviously this won't work, but it's worth a shot), and the next best to replace the motherboard or (possibly) buy a PCI ethernet controller.