laptop does not have internet after reformatting into xp

[kurtucky]

Hi,
When I orginally got my laptop from my company (IBM A30) it had windows 2000 professional on it. I did not know that it had internal wireless, so I bought a card for it (Belkin). After about a month of surfing with the card, I realized that there was internal, so I took that card out and the internal wireless internet worked for about 6 months. Then one day, for no explaination, the internal wireless card refused to find internet. So then I went back to using the belkin card. Fast forward about another 6 months, to where I had reformatted my 2000 pro into windows xp home. When in xp, I went to the ibm drivers website and downloaded all the drivers for it. The internal wireless refuses to find my internet, but will only find one named Netgear, which does not exist (my neighbors don't have wireless) and finding it is off and on. Then I put in the belkin wireless card and the same thing happens. Then I tried another wireless card (cisco) that I obtained from my company. Doing that had the same results. I have tried reinstalling drivers with no luck.

I am pretty clueless here.

THANKS!

[PrntRhd]

Welcome to the PC Guide forums!!
I would first look at whether the Windows Firewall was blocking the connection.
Also you may have had Windows load the wrong driver with XP, you may have to go to Device Manager in SAFE mode to delete it.

[Sylvander]

"it had internal wireless"
Wireless what?
Network Interface Card?

"will only find one named Netgear"
Is that what "Device Manager" shows as the name of the [PCI?] NIC?
Why does Windows think that is the identity of the card connected?
Is it correct, or has the wrong driver been installed for it?
Windows doesn't invent hardware that isn't [or has never been] connected.

Any time you connect a new item of PCI hardware you must then immediately "Force Update the ESCD" by going into the "BIOS Setup->PnP/PCI Configuration"->set "Reset Configuration Data = Enabled" and "Save & Exit Setup".
That forces the BIOS to detect all the connected items, make non-conflicting resource allocations, record those in the ESCD, then lock those by auto-resetting "Reset Configuration Data = Disabled".
To understand this a bit better:
Go into Device Manager, click "View Devices by Connection", click on "Computer" then "Numlock + *" on the keyboard to expand the "Device" tree.
Under "PnP BIOS" should be "PCI Bus". Every item under the PCI Bus aught to be recorded in the ESCD. To make certain of that it must be updated so that all items now connected are recorded. Windows can only see hardware items that the BIOS has so recorded.
It may be that a previously connected item of hardware is still recorded in the ESCD, but if it were no longer connected, then windows couldn't show it as connected and working normally.