Expert: Carolyn Meinel - 4/18/2011

Question
hank you for your time. sorry that I had to ask, I myself is a software developer. but this is out of my comprehension.

here's my problem. i have a hp compaq c794 notebook with Windows 7 Ultimate. the other day there was a thunderstorm but i left the lan cable plugged onto the notebook. the next day i found that there's no more lan connection, it shows that the cable is unplugged.

the cable modem was gone, my ISP replaced it. but my LAN port is also dead. it is not working with the new modem. i am using an usb cable now.

is it possible that lightning fried the LAN port of the notebook as well? or is it has something to do with the os.

i see no yellow marking in the device manager. i uninstalled and re-installed the drivers (7 did auto reinstalling). the port is still not responding.

if the port is really fried wouldn't the computer not be able to find the hardware? it is finding the hardware and everything appears to be fine.

please let me know if i can do something about it.

Answer
Glad you asked, I live in "lightning land" (New Mexico mountains). Last summer we had two horrific storms and lots of fascinating damage. So I can easily believe your LAN port has a lightning problem (electromagnetic pulse).

Just because Windows believes that bit of electronics in your Ethernet port is OK does not mean the connector, too, is OK. Have you tried a new cat5 LAN cable? There could have been damage to the little copper strips where the cable mates to the ports, this damage could be on either or both sides of the connection and either or both ends of the cable. Your computer would not be able to detect damage there.

If the cable isn't the problem, then I don't know of an easy solution. The adapter on your notebook is probably integral to the motherboard so it could not be easily replaced.

If using a new cable doesn't work, and if you really want to use an Ethernet cable connection again, if your laptop has a slot for a PCMCIA card, you should be able to get a PCMCIA card that has a Cat5 port on it.

Hope this helps.