inspiron 1720 network issues

I was looking through to make sure this was not duplicated thread, please let me know if it is...
My friend has a brand new inspiron 1720 and we went through everything we could think of to get this thing to connect to the internet.
We have a clear pipe through my work office with a switch and another laptop connected to the internet and this thing will not recognize the network. we have connected many other laptops and no problems. Another friend of mine suggests that somehow Dell had made this machine's two network controlers share the same interupt. is there a way to get around this without reformatting?

 

If you have Vista installed, I suggest you get on another PC and download the Vista SP1 update. There are several networking fixes that might help you out.

 

Thanks, I will try that.

 

Have you tried to direct connect the laptop to the router, or modem, so that it can establish a connection, i have noticed with my friends gateway that this worked, i did not have any problems with my 1720.

he finally went out and bought a new modem, and router, and has had no problems since, but thats an awful expensive fix for a minor problem, he justifies this because he said he 'needed them anyways' lol

 

ya, we tried that. thanks

 

service pack does not help issue, thanks for the suggestion though.
he decided to re install vista and get rid of the DELL image and it gave him an oportunity to add a bigger partition on the HDD. thanks for your info. I'll post again if this doesn't fix the issue.

 

Also make sure that you've updated all of the firmware, including the ethernet and wireless card firmwares and the BIOS.