My girlfriend recently bought a new computer from Best Buy. The best option we found was a $450 refurbished computer, 1.2 ghz with 256 ram, CD-RW, DVD, the standard generic soundcard/video card, and Windows XP. The price seemed right, and was cheaper then anything else along with better hardware. I guess we got what we paid for getting a refurbished PC however. Upon taking it home, we unhooked everything from her old computer and plugged it into the new one. Everything loaded up fine, acted just like a brand new computer should, shiny, spiffy and quick. At first glance, everything works great, infact I believe that the problem we're having is the only one that exists with it. The first priority was to get it on the network we have set up (with an Netgear RP114 router), and being an XP newbie, it took me a while to get the hang of it. I eventually got everything where it seemed it should be though, however the entire time I got an error that said "Network cable unplugged". I figured it could be something with the router, so I plugged the computer directly into the cable modem, no difference. Tried different cables from my computer which worked just fine, and tried the ones on the new one in mine, they worked on mine but nothing on hers. When I plugged the cable into her ethernet card, the green LED came on, so I was fairly sure that worked. Fast forward 8 hours later, I've spent 5 hours on tech support with the cable company, and brought it back to Best Buy. I verified that the ethernet card DOES work, as I switched it out with the one in my old computer and the one from the new one worked just fine in my computer, but not mine in the new one. I'm at loss here, I haven't found any way to get that damned "Network cable unplugged" error to go away, and Best Buy tech support said flat out that we can either get a refund, wait 14 days until we can no longer get a refund and send the computer into Compaq tech support, or trade it in for a new computer. Trading it in for another computer would be fine, except since it's refurbished and $200 cheaper then normal, there's no way I can as good a deal. Anyone have any idea what's wrong with this? A friend told me that he had a similiar problem, but only with networking with Windows 98 computers, but I was hooking hers directly into the modem as opposed to the network. Thanks for the help in advance everyone, hope someone else knows more about this then me.

Sounds like a doozy there. Could be any number of things wrong. I'm not a XP expert, but some things should carry over from 2000. Here are a few things to check/try. 1) Right-click your network connection. There should be an 'enable' option. Make sure card is enabled. 2) Make sure you see the card functioning in Device Manager (or XP version of it). While you're there check the drivers. 3) Try putting the card into another slot in the machine. From what you've stated it sounds like everything has been tested except this. 4) Return it, get your money back, and take your girlfriend on a trip. Hope this helps a little.

I've seen a problem like this before which turned out to be the driver for the network card. A card may work in another computer, but not in an XP one because of not all operating systems use the same driver. The card will register a connection light, but of the OS can't communicate properly with the card, it will register a "cable disconnected" message. Try getting an recent driver for your network card that's rated for XP. If that doesn't work, you may want to try getting a premium network card. Not all network cards are created equal! Cheap, off-brand cards can cause lots of problems that are hard to diagnose.

I have 2 windows xp computers. one is a desktop and one is a laptop. when I unplug my laptop from the cable modem and plug it into my desktop it says the cable is disconnected. but when it's plugged into the cable modem everything is fine. I can't figure it out for the life of me. any help would be appreciated