Ethernet doesn't work on Thinkpad T42p

After installing SP1 on my laptop the hard wired ethernet works
intermittently. The DHCP connection is successful but when I try to ping
something most of the pings don't work. Looking at the ethernet socket I can
see the green LNK light goes out about once every 30 seconds.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled the driver as well as the device. Also,
since the machine is still in warranty the manufacturer replaced the mother
board which contains the ethernet hardware.

This one is baffling.

You have a driver for the Ethernet card that needs improvement. Lenovo
hasn't seemed that forthcoming, so far.
I have a poor workaround that will let you get the card working, but it's no
permanent solution.
Open Device Manager to the Ethernet Properties, and the Speed tab. Change
the setting from 'auto-negotiate' to the lowest setting, and test the
connection. Work your way up to the best speed you can get.
If it fails anytime after that, change lower, then back.
All this seems to 'reset' this driver enough to allow normal speeds for a
while, or till a restart. Mine seems to keep going all the time on the
lowest speed, which matches my Inet connection speed anyway. (slow
satellite)
I have no idea why this works, or how to inspire the driver maker to do
better.
--
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Mark L. Ferguson
..

"Ron Lautmann" <> wrote in message
news:01D9AA72-D429-4589-9B3F-...
> After installing SP1 on my laptop the hard wired ethernet works
> intermittently. The DHCP connection is successful but when I try to ping
> something most of the pings don't work. Looking at the ethernet socket I
> can
> see the green LNK light goes out about once every 30 seconds.
>
> I have uninstalled and reinstalled the driver as well as the device.
> Also,
> since the machine is still in warranty the manufacturer replaced the
> mother
> board which contains the ethernet hardware.
>
> This one is baffling.

Mark:

I tried changing the speed from "autonegotiate" to "10MB Full Duplex" and
"10 MB half duplex" and something changed such that the LNK light no longer
goes out but the networking performamce is still unreliable. Same with
changing it to "100mb full duplex".

Have you already talked to Lenovo support about this problem? What do they
say? Maybe if we get enough people with the problem they will do something
to solve it. The last time I called them they said that they would not help
fix the problem because it didn't occur with the original image on the
machine which was XP Professional. I updated to Vista Ultimate myself.

Also, what model Thinkpad do you have? And, have you heard of other people
with this problem?



"Mark L. Ferguson" wrote:

> You have a driver for the Ethernet card that needs improvement. Lenovo
> hasn't seemed that forthcoming, so far.
> I have a poor workaround that will let you get the card working, but it's no
> permanent solution.
> Open Device Manager to the Ethernet Properties, and the Speed tab. Change
> the setting from 'auto-negotiate' to the lowest setting, and test the
> connection. Work your way up to the best speed you can get.
> If it fails anytime after that, change lower, then back.
> All this seems to 'reset' this driver enough to allow normal speeds for a
> while, or till a restart. Mine seems to keep going all the time on the
> lowest speed, which matches my Inet connection speed anyway. (slow
> satellite)
> I have no idea why this works, or how to inspire the driver maker to do
> better.
> --
> Was this helpful? Then click the Ratings button. Voting helps the web
> interface.
> http://www.microsoft.com/wn3/locales...eAPostAsAnswer
> Mark L. Ferguson
> .
>
> "Ron Lautmann" <> wrote in message
> news:01D9AA72-D429-4589-9B3F-...
> > After installing SP1 on my laptop the hard wired ethernet works
> > intermittently. The DHCP connection is successful but when I try to ping
> > something most of the pings don't work. Looking at the ethernet socket I
> > can
> > see the green LNK light goes out about once every 30 seconds.
> >
> > I have uninstalled and reinstalled the driver as well as the device.
> > Also,
> > since the machine is still in warranty the manufacturer replaced the
> > mother
> > board which contains the ethernet hardware.
> >
> > This one is baffling.
>

I found a solution to this problem finally. Just go to
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Prod...?ProductID=879 and
download and install the Vista 32 bit driver. This fixed the problem
immediately.

"Ron Lautmann" wrote:

> Mark:
>
> I tried changing the speed from "autonegotiate" to "10MB Full Duplex" and
> "10 MB half duplex" and something changed such that the LNK light no longer
> goes out but the networking performamce is still unreliable. Same with
> changing it to "100mb full duplex".
>
> Have you already talked to Lenovo support about this problem? What do they
> say? Maybe if we get enough people with the problem they will do something
> to solve it. The last time I called them they said that they would not help
> fix the problem because it didn't occur with the original image on the
> machine which was XP Professional. I updated to Vista Ultimate myself.
>
> Also, what model Thinkpad do you have? And, have you heard of other people
> with this problem?
>
>
>
> "Mark L. Ferguson" wrote:
>
> > You have a driver for the Ethernet card that needs improvement. Lenovo
> > hasn't seemed that forthcoming, so far.
> > I have a poor workaround that will let you get the card working, but it's no
> > permanent solution.
> > Open Device Manager to the Ethernet Properties, and the Speed tab. Change
> > the setting from 'auto-negotiate' to the lowest setting, and test the
> > connection. Work your way up to the best speed you can get.
> > If it fails anytime after that, change lower, then back.
> > All this seems to 'reset' this driver enough to allow normal speeds for a
> > while, or till a restart. Mine seems to keep going all the time on the
> > lowest speed, which matches my Inet connection speed anyway. (slow
> > satellite)
> > I have no idea why this works, or how to inspire the driver maker to do
> > better.
> > --
> > Was this helpful? Then click the Ratings button. Voting helps the web
> > interface.
> > http://www.microsoft.com/wn3/locales...eAPostAsAnswer
> > Mark L. Ferguson
> > .
> >
> > "Ron Lautmann" <> wrote in message
> > news:01D9AA72-D429-4589-9B3F-...
> > > After installing SP1 on my laptop the hard wired ethernet works
> > > intermittently. The DHCP connection is successful but when I try to ping
> > > something most of the pings don't work. Looking at the ethernet socket I
> > > can
> > > see the green LNK light goes out about once every 30 seconds.
> > >
> > > I have uninstalled and reinstalled the driver as well as the device.
> > > Also,
> > > since the machine is still in warranty the manufacturer replaced the
> > > mother
> > > board which contains the ethernet hardware.
> > >
> > > This one is baffling.
> >

In article <012AFC44-AA57-49FC-B86A->,
Ron Lautmann <> wrote:
>
>I tried changing the speed from "autonegotiate" to "10MB Full Duplex" and


Have you tried this?

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/si...IGR-67255.html

I tried the driver posted on the IBM/Lenovo site but it didn't fix the
problem.

"the wharf rat" wrote:

> In article <012AFC44-AA57-49FC-B86A->,
> Ron Lautmann <> wrote:
> >
> >I tried changing the speed from "autonegotiate" to "10MB Full Duplex" and
>
>
> Have you tried this?
>
> http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/si...IGR-67255.html
>
>