Laptop ethernet card won't configure

[Guest]

Got a Dell C840 back from one of the kids and the ethernet card (internal
3Com 3c920) won't configure. Downloaded the install drivers from Dell, ran,
and no go. Went into device manager, and an unnamed ethernet controller is
now under Network Client. Never have I seen this, and I'm not on a home
network. They are always under network adapters. The strange part is that the
Dell installation software installed the packet scheduler under network
adapters. I think the kid tried to install a network and somehow the device
gets listed under network client. Installed a wireless card and both hardware
and scheduler are under network adapters. Installed a spare PCMCIA ethernet
card and it works fine, with both listing under network adapters. Why does
the 3Com list under network client? How do I get rid of network client or
otherwise install the hardware? Help.

Ken

 

[Maincat]

Got a Dell C840 back from one of the kids and the ethernet card (internal
3Com 3c920) won't configure. Downloaded the install drivers from Dell,
ran,
and no go. Went into device manager, and an unnamed ethernet controller is
now under Network Client. Never have I seen this, and I'm not on a home
network. They are always under network adapters. The strange part is that
the
Dell installation software installed the packet scheduler under network
adapters. I think the kid tried to install a network and somehow the
device
gets listed under network client. Installed a wireless card and both
hardware
and scheduler are under network adapters. Installed a spare PCMCIA
ethernet
card and it works fine, with both listing under network adapters. Why does
the 3Com list under network client? How do I get rid of network client or
otherwise install the hardware? Help.

Ken

Have you tried to uninstall the device using Device Manager (right click on
the device and choose uninstall), then rebooting and seeing if Windows
install it again?
HTH.

 

[Guest]

When I try to uninstall it, it won't do it as it says it may be required to
boot the computer. Strange!

 

[Lem]

When I try to uninstall it, it won't do it as it says it may be required to
boot the computer. Strange!

That error message is very difficult to deal with. I've seen
suggestions to turn off Wake-on-LAN and to disable any BIOS settings to
boot from a network (PXE), but in my experience, neither of those
worked. If you have a System Restore point or Ghost image from before
the issue arose, restore the system and things should work again. Or,
you could try "Manually Removing Network Adapter Entries from the Registry"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/147797/EN-US/
but that KB article is not guaranteed to work for XP.

I seem to recall another way to do this, but I can't find the reference.
Sorry.