Ethernet Card Fried. What To Do?

Yesterday there was a thunderstorm, and I'm pretty sure it fried my laptop's ethernet card. I've tried two different connections and I still get the "network cable unplugged" message, so I think that's the problem. Knowing almost nothing about computers, I'm not sure what the best solution is. Would a USB ethernet adapter do the job, or is that not an option if the ethernet card is not working? I suppose I could set up a wireless network (I'm on someone else's now), but I don't know if I real want to deal with that. My laptop is under warranty for this stuff, but if there's a simple fix, I'm not sure if sending it in would be worthwhile.

Basically, I'm just trying to figure out the best solution.

 

You named the two easy solutions.

Frankly I can't imagine owning a laptop that wasn't on a wireless router 100% of the time at home. I'd go that route. Otherwise a USB ethernet adapter would work fine.

Get a wireless router. Can easily be had for 30 bucks and makes that portable laptop much more useful.

 

send it for repair under warranty and say nothing about thunderstorm , will cost ya 0$

 

have you tried a different network cable and/or tried different ports on your switch/hub/router?

Also, have you verified that your drivers are in fact working. No working drivers, no working network port.

Do you have a loopback plug nearby and do you know how to test things out with one?

Yah, the thunderstorm could have fried something. But if nothing else in the house is fried, I'd do some more troubleshooting before panicking.

 

Most probably your modem is fried too, because all that current had to go thru it. Have it also tested. Easiest way to test is having a friend over with his own laptop and see if it connects.

You said you had tried different connections. What they were? With the same possibly dead modem?

I see lots of dead modems after thunderstorms. People in cities aren't as affected because phone and power lines are underground. Outside cities all kinds of things happen. I've heard that lightning strike on a telephone pole could kill a modem over 20km away.... or actually all the unlucky modems connected in that radius

 

How did we get from an inop ethernet/network card to a fried modem? The OP says nothing about a modem.

 

If he's testing his network card with the same modem but only different ports, it's possible that modem is fried but network card actually working. Or both broken.

It can be unplugged from the other end of the cable also

That's why I asked more exact how he did the testing so far.

 

You're probably talking about a DSL or cable 'modem' right? Not a modem that might be built-in to his laptop.

Clarity is important.

 

Yep, the external box with probably 4 lan ports he switched the cable with. That's my first quess It would be cheaper than motherboard to replace too.

While many consumer laptops have already dismissed traditional dialup modem, some models may have dummy plug left and newer laptops dont have even that anymore. It's been so long since I've used dialup (got my first dsl in -97) that I didn't even think about built in modem anymore