IBM Thinkpad with a broken LAN connector. Any help?

Just buy a pcmcia or usb ethernet connector and forget about the built in lan.

It's fixable. You will have to take the computer apart, and see if there are any cold solder connections. You will need the proper soldering tools, and skills to re-solder the connector pins at the circuit board.

If the connector itself is defective, many of these are standard PC mount type connectors. You will have to match it up to a proper part number using the connector listings in the proper catalogue. There are many electronics parts suppliers that can supply these connectors. You may have to buy a minimum size order to buy the connector.

To change the connector, you will still require the proper soldering tools and skills. Removing the old connector without damaging the board is a task in itself.

Your best bet would be to bring the computer to a service centre that is able to change these types of parts and service computers. The greatest cost will be for the labour.

If you don't want to fix the connector problem, if the computer has a PCM slot for external options, you can buy a PCM type network card, and install it as your Ethernet connection. I have seen these PCM Ethernet cards going for about $40 to $70 US depending on the type and quality.

There are also USB-2 to Ethernet adaptors. I found that these are not always the best solution. They tend to have speed problems at times and sometimes other issues, but usually they do work.

First thing I'd do is take a peek inside the socket. make sure the wires that form the connection are not bent and can make firm contact with the right part of the plug. Sometimes people try to plug the phone wire in there and bend things. Not sure how the pins line up, but the 50V on the phone wire is not ethernet friendly...

Then, I'd take a Q-tip and some alcohol to try to clean off any gunk in there.

Then I'd put an oscilloscope on a tap at the other end of the wire and see if anything interesting shows up.

It's always possible, but if you don't touch anything and it's going on and off, it may not be the connection. Putting pressure in one direction or another may or may not make the problem better or worse, but it's an experiment worth trying.

"parrif snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@n59g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:

Fixable. Buy a USB-ethernet adapter and plug it into the USB port. Disable the on-board ethernet device. Or buy a PCmcia card ethernet adapter.

If your computer doesn't have USB or PCMCIA capability, it is too old to be useful for most purposes.

Alternately, replace the mother board.

Thanks everybody for the replies :) I'll let you know if I could fix it (or have it fixed... ;)

Not knowing with series and model IBM this is all I can tell you is to get that info off the bottom, go to the IBM web site, and download the Hardware Reference Manual (HRM) for this specific lap top.

If you think the LAN socket itself has developed a problem:

If this is an IBM that uses a mini PCI combo card that contains the LAN and/or modem on that card, chances are the sockets for the modem and LAN are connected to the mini PCI card with a ribbon cable. If that's the case those are the only two sockets on the back of the lap top which are removeable and you are in luck. Replace the cable/socket assembly. But also be prepared to do a full disassembly of the lap top - that cable runs underneath the main board and is held in place with double sided foam tape.

If the LAN connector looks ok:

Check the HRM for removal/insertion instructions for the mini PCI card and reseat it to see if that corrects the problem.

But before you do any of that run the IBM PC Doctor disgnostics to see what it has to say about the LAN hardware in this system. It should be on the system already. If not, download it from IBM.

Rick

The 8-pin jack is specifically designed so that the 4-pin plug can be inserted; it's intended for that. The middle 4 connections will go through.

Isaac

isw wrote in news:isw-E84892.20555722052007@[216.168.3.50]:

Yep, but a phone cord doesn't *work* worth a darn in place of a cat-5 cable.

I was called to check the ethernet drop in a room because they couldn't get a link light. I had to explain to them that the telephone extension cord they were trying to use was NOT an ethernet cord. :)