Re: Inspiron 8600 BSOD at NDIS.SYS

Hi Ben,

Thanks much for the reply and information. I responded to this
earlier this morning, and tried again a few hours later, but for some
odd reason, they haven't shown up here. In any case:

On Nov 11, 9:12 am, Ben Myers <ben_my...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Before going much further, I would run extensive diagnostics on the
hardware.  Not the Dell ones.  Run MEMTEST Version 3.3 to test the
memory, and run the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostics AND HDAT2 on
the hard drive.  The failure in NDIS.SYS may be coincidental with
another hardware problem.

I booted into the Diagnostic program Dell has pre-installed on the
Laptop, and found no evidence of hardware failure there (the NIC
passed as well).

I have a bootable MEMTEST CD, which I have successfully used on
multiple other systems, but for some reason, when it would start
loading, it would trigger a reboot, so I was unable to run this. I
have no idea why this occurred - any ideas?

The Dell Diagnostic memory test completed without showing any
problems.

Given the fact that I continue to get intermittent notification that a
network cable is not connected, there is clearly something wrong with
the NIC, in any case, it would seem to me. This only started within
the last few months. The fact that the BSOD also points to the NIC
seems to confirm this, but I'm certainly open to any ideas.

FWIW, I had the Laptop on all day today, with sporadic use, and no
BSOD, although the intermittent "cable not connected" occurred
throughout the day.

You cannot replace the built-in Ethernet without replacing the
motherboard.  If the 8600 has a slot capable of handling an old time
PCMCIA card, you can install a 3COM or Xircom card, both of which have
XP drivers.

Given your other comments, this may end up being the way to go if the
BSOD recurs.

How does one disable the NIC that is built-into the motherboard -
through the BIOS or elsewhere?

Finally, the BSOD's started when I was in Brazil, with my Dell Power
brick plugged into either 110 or 220 (the brick says it supports
both). Could a power problem be the culprit here? It's only been a
day, but so far it hasn't occurred since returning to the U.S.

Thanks again.

Don
.

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