PC doesn't recognize internet

[Evil_Cronos]

Ok my parent's comp has always had issues with viruses and spyware but they have never had issues that affect hardware, I think. Basicly their computer no longer recognizes that the ethernet cable is plugged into the computer even when it is. I have tried my own computer through their cords and had internet working fine. In the device manager it says that the ethernet card is working properly. They are using NO32 antivirus suggested by a friend of of a friend, Windows XP pro, 256mb RAM. Any way of knowing if this issue is caused by a virus or a hardware issue or something else. Any help would be appreciated, Thanks.

[patio]

Is it onboard ethernet or a card ? ?
Either way buy a new card and install it...around 15 bucks.
If this produces no joy joy then try another ethernet cable....it's one or the other.

[masteromojo]

my computer use to do the same thing... the ethernet cord would connected but still would not show that it is connected. I Think i use to just screw around in my network settings to make it work.... btw i know this doesnt help much but ussaly when i  around with settings sometimes.. SOMETIMES.. it would fix my problems...



sorry for this pointless post.

[dahlarbear]

Start with the Network Interface Card (NIC)/port's status LEDs.  They are located by the ethernet port.  What LEDs does it have and what is their state (on/off, green/amber, blinking/steady)?

[patio]

Start with the Network Interface Card (NIC)/port's status LEDs.  They are located by the ethernet port.  What LEDs does it have and what is their state (on/off, green/amber, blinking/steady)?

Not all cards have LED's...

[dahlarbear]

Not all cards have LED's...

Good to know... Thank you.

[pudco]

Is it onboard ethernet or a card ? ?
Either way buy a new card and install it...around 15 bucks.
If this produces no joy joy then try another ethernet cable....it's one or the other.

I'll second this 100%  I had a card actually I bought two of them at the same time for two different computers.. The one worked fine for years and one day I started up my computer and no network!  Same thing though, device manager said it was fine, but it was dead... I couldn't figure it out.   Stuck another one in there and it worked great. It simply died.  It happens.  It was a Network Everywhere card, pci... And btw, I decided to fix up that other computer and use it a few days ago and guess what---NO NETWORK... and it's the other card that I had bought when I bought the other one that died.  So I'm thinking it crapped out as well.  But yeah try another card they're cheap, esp if you look online, you can get one for like $5 on ebay, haha.    Also off topic, and not the cause obviously, but 256mb of ram for xp (esp pro) is pretty bad, I would definitely consider upgrading that to 512, it should be almost twice as fast then.  Just a suggestion! 

Jay

[Evil_Cronos]

Thanks I'll try that and see if it works. Btw my parrents don't use their computer for anything but online banking, msn messenger, and online backgammon so more RAM isn't going to help them out too much.