Windows 7 How connect a Dell Latitude E6510 laptop to the net?

Commander_Cool

Senior Member
Hi,

I just bought a Dell Latitude E6510 laptop and now I wonder how to set it up for internet access. I have a desktop PC and so I know that my connection is good. I tried just connecting it via the RJ45 socket on the PC, thinking it would configure itself once it sensed a live connection, but no go.

I cannot imagine that it is sold without the necessary hard- and software as it is no more than a couple of years old, but maybe it needs setting up?

The spec sheet says, under Connectivity:

10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet 56K v924 Internal Modem (Optional)

which I take to mean that the modem is not necessarily installed as a matter of course but, like I said above - who buys a PC in, say, 2008 and doesn't get internet connectivity in the deal?

I happened to have an ST Lab 10/100 Base TX USB to Ethernet adapter that I tried before posting this, but Windows didn't find a driver for it so I got one from driverscollection.com but didn't get a 'second chance' to install it manually although I had installed the driver and rebooted the PC.

I then ran Device Manager to see what I could see and, not surprisingly, there were unknown, driverless ethernet adapter entries galore. I then uninstalled those (the ones with an exclamation mark inside a yellow triangle) until I had a 'clean slate', then did a 'rescan for newly installed hardware' - no go.

Then I did the same on my desktop PC. That is, I didn't uninstall any drivers but plugged in the ST-Lab adapter, did a 'rescan for newly installed hardware', let Windows fail, then double-clicked the device name (the newly 'discovered' ST-Lab adapter) and when prompted, pointed Windows to the
folder containing the 32-bit Vista driver (they almost always work on Windows 7 and were my only choice anyway) after having first received an assurance that: "It's best to let Windows install device drivers automatically".

Now Windows could not find the driver which I had downloaded myself, per its own Help-page instructions and then pointed it to, solemnly
announcing: "Windows could not find driver software for your device.

Well, duh! In my opinion, Windows couldn't find six o' clock at five thirty, or find a driver if hit on the head by it, or so it seems at times like this.

"It's best to let Windows install device drivers automatically". What a joke! Hilarious! Seriously, though, it makes one envy Linux and Mac OS users.

As always, any and all help is very much appreciated. Thank you.

Kindest regards,
GoranView attachment Dell Latitude E6510 specsheet.pdfView attachment Dell Latitude E6510 specsheet.pdfView attachment Dell Latitude E6510 specsheet.pdf :cool:
 
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