[jeffpoulsen]

I have a 3 year old Dell XPs 410 with Vista Home Premium. I set up a home network (modem + router) 3 years ago, and have a laptop connected to it through wireless connection, and another desktop via ethernet cable (in addition to the XPS which is conencted to the router throu an ethernet cable). For years, it worked perfectly. Then yesterday it suddenly stopped working, I could not access the internet. The pop up window says the network cable is not plugged in (it was plugged in). The other computers on my home network could access the net without any problem. I changed the cables around, and the cables were fine. I tried the following, without any effect:
1. Reset the modem, and router several times,
2. Applied system restore,
3. Called Dell's support, spent 90 minutes on the phone with them , tried everything they recommended, to no avail. They said that I would need to reinstall everything (peut it back into its original factory condition)
4. At first the little light at the place where the ethernet cable is plugged into the PC did not come on. Later yesterday it came on, but still no connection. The PC said it does not recognize any network. When I connected the cable directly to the XPS from the modem (cutting out the router), it said it recognized a local connection, but could not connect to the internet.
I would be grateful for any advice from the experts. I have a feeling that my network card is gone, and I am concerned to reinstall everything without trying some easier options. Thanking you again for your advice.

[philthomas]

Try downloading the latest network driver here

Uninstall the existing driver, reboot the system and install the new driver.