M4400 and 2k3 enterprise r2

geya all! found this great forum, and figured i'd post my "issue". =]

recently zapped xp pro, and moving to 2k3 ent r2. (love r2) so far, so good. got it back onto the domain, got most of my 'stuff' reinstalled. one, nay, two issues really.

the onboard nic and boradcom ush. unsure what the latter is, but the former. grrrrrr... i've been on google, on intel, and dells sites. nothing. i've tried a few different drivers, in hopes that ONE will work, but so far, i'm up kinda empty. i'm on the box now, using the wireless, which does work, but... lets be real, i need the onboard lan working too! =]

any help, or experience in this would be greatly appreciated. heck, i'd be willing to learn how to write a custom driver, for this ONE box, if possible....

thanks in advance!!!

 

Windows Server 2003 is an operating system for servers. Are you sure you want to run it on a laptop? Are there any reasons that you have to do so? It's not really a wonder that you're running into hardware compatibility issues, so I just wanted to tell you this in case you didn't know...

 

yup. i know its a server os...

there are lots of reasons for me to run this os. the wireless nic works, so... i dunno, its GOTTA be possible. lol!

 

If you REALLY want to do this, well.. you are of course free to do so.
Unfortunately, I don't really have any other ideas on how to find a driver other than what you already did. Maybe use Google not the direct way, but search for a Windows Server 2003 user forum, for example. If nothing helps, you can still buy a USB Network adaptor or something similar.

 

well, from everything that i've read, and tried, nothing seems to work. going to stop the sp2 download, and just take the bite, and move to 2008 ent... ah well, not a huge fan of 2008, but there is no way i'm going to 2000! lol! can't go BACKWARDS. thanks for the input, i'll throw the disk in now. =]

 

yup I can see the need for Server OS... you probably tried the Vista drivers (Dell or MS) and they didn't work right? Win 2003 Enterprise is 64bit right? So your trying 64bit drivers?

Sorry for the possibly obvious questions but hopefully something here will help.

Admittedly I don't own an M4400 and haven't tried this but from what I know the NIC is not that odd...

Maybe take a look at the latest HCL (Hardware Compatibility List)?

Beyond that, I am not sure, sorry...

--- Bruce