Hardware

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Rear Plug for IBM ThinkPad

0 helpful
12 replies

by gooser12 1 view

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

We have a bunch of IBM thinkpads of vaious model types. We have found that the rear plug won't work for our network and that we have to use an ethernet card and dongle. With these, the network will run fine. I have tried the connection wizard and traversed (in vain) the IBM website for solutions to this. We have found this problem in the docking stations as well.

Note: We also have a few Dell laptops, and they work fine from the rear network port. Makes me wonder what's going on with our ThinkPads.

12 replies

by sgt_shultz

make sure is not media type/speeed issue. try hooking thinkpds up to known 10mb then known 100mb ports. you may have the thinkpads locked up to 100mbs and hooked to 10mb hub/switch ports, see? or vice versa...

by gigelul

I work every day on a networked IBM ThinkPad.
I'm heapy with it. It works very well.
Maybe if you tell us what you tried and the results of the tests, I will can help you.
What models do you have?

by burtonizer

Make sure that your Thinkpad actually came with a NIC installed ~ we bought a bunch of A series IBMs and only the modem was installed....you will still see the ethernet port, but the internal card is modem only. Check out the model's properties, or better yet, look at the card and see if it's a modem, or a dual multi port (modem and nic). Because we had this same problem, I tend to think you may as well! We just bought the multi port cards and swapped them out with the modem card. I believe the card was located under the keyboard in the models we had to change.

Good luck!

by burtonizer

Make sure that your Thinkpad actually came with a NIC installed ~ we bought a bunch of A series IBMs and only the modem was installed....you will still see the ethernet port, but the internal card is modem only. Check out the model's properties, or better yet, look at the card and see if it's a modem, or a dual multi port (modem and nic). Because we had this same problem, I tend to think you may as well! We just bought the multi port cards and swapped them out with the modem card. I believe the card was located under the keyboard in the models we had to change.

Good luck!

by gooser12

Sorry to Clarify it is the back plug of the docking stations that isn't working for us. Not on the computer itself

by burtonizer

If ALL of your docking stations are suffering from this problem, I would make sure that it's not Token Ring or some other format NIC other than Ethernet.....

This discussion is closed to new replies.