I bought a second hand IBM EtherJet 10/100 32 bit PCMCIA Cardbus ethernet adapter for my Acer Extensa 501DX laptop with Windows 98 SE. It came with the "dongle" cable. I can't get anything to work, though. Here's the story: I plugged it (the card) in, and the laptop made the sound it makes when a PC card is plugged in. Windows showed the "Updating Driver Database", then it said it couldn't find a driver. So I went to IBM's website (on another computer, of course), which is so complicated now I couldn't find anything, so I just Googled for the driver and found it at Lenovo's website. Downloaded it and installed the driver on the laptop, and then it recognized the card, but said it was either not working properly or the wrong driver was installed. I uninstalled the driver from Lenovo's website and tried the "Add new hardware" program in the control panel. This time, Windows said it did have the driver, and said it installed it successfully. I restarted Windows, and then Windows said there was a piece of hardware that had the wrong driver installed. So, I uninstalled the Windows driver and once again installed the driver from Lenovo's website. Now it says everything is working, but when I plug the dongle and ethernet cord in, none of the lights blink on the dongle. I restarted Windows, but still nothing. Also, when I go to the device manager and look at the properites of the card, it says the card doesn't require drivers and is ready for use. And, the IBM EtherJet Diagnostics program that comes with the driver from Lenovo's website says it can't find the card. What is going on here? Did I install the driver wrong? Do I have the wrong driver? Is there a certain time I should plug the card in and take it out? Any help is appreciated. -Trent "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

Hi Trent, Any model numbers on the IBM network card? Did you try your other card yet? Skip

See what system properties for the hardware shows. See also that you have tcp/ip installed. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10

Are you sure the card is good (functional and not damaged?) "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

Well i'll be darned - I didn't have TCP/IP installed! I installed it, and the little lights on the dongle started blinking immediately! And I got internet! Normally, I would scold myself for forgetting something like that, but I gotta remember, i'm a hardware guru, not an internet guru. Only one funny thing - off all the websites, the laptop won't load computing.net for some reason! It loads the background and advert bar and stops there. Hmm... oh well, I got everything else. Thank you both for your replies, -Trent "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

As for the fact if the card was actually good, I was taking that risk when I bought it. The seller said they had dozens of IBM EtherJet cards and corresponding dongles that were pulled from workstation laptops that were no longer in use, and that they were all in good used condition, and untested. The card and dongle (the pictures probably didn't show the particular one I was getting) looked great, so I said "what the heck", and I bought it. As for the other card (the D-Link 10/100 card that came with this laptop), I can't test it because the dongle won't fit on it - it was meant only for the EtherJet card. "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.

Okay, all of the other computers here are terribly slow loading computing.net, so I think it's the website, not the laptop. I installed all of the Windows Critical Updates. This computer is surprisingly fast on the internet! Also, I installed Opera 9.62, and CN loads fast on that. (I install Opera on all of my Windows 2000 and below computers that won't run IE7.) "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving may not be for you." -Our tour guide at Fenway Park in Boston, MA.