Probelm = I do not know.

I was trying to help a new Daughter-in-Law get an older Dell PC online yesterday. ( without success ) It has Win2K ( I believe ) She does not have the recovery CD. All setting choices etc. seem to very close to this XP. It was I believe and old Office machine.

If this does turn out to be a driver broblem can I just get the Model number, go online and hopefully find drivers, burn them to a CD here and use them there. ( my answer is- "Yes I can" )

Or even MAYBE get a Recovery CD for it. I Also thoubht about bringing it here to work on. I could still ( I THINK ) get it set up to use her account. Sure would prove whether I could get it set to use a Router. Which BTW was ( still is ) our main objective.

Main problem right now is that we could not get the Keyboard to work so she could get it setup on her new Cable Internet connection. We could type her email name but that was it.

ie; We could type ss****. Then we needed the @ but could not get it. We could not get either shift key to work. Shift keys would not produce CAP letters either.

I have a STRONG feeling that either the keyboard has taken a trip South OR it needs Special machine specific DRIVERS. Would a regular PS2 Keybaord work ?

I had checked and all setting. They Seemed to be set OK for a LAN connection.

? light bulb just lit . There is also ( I believe ) a Dial-up Modem in that machine too. I did not even think about checking that as disabled. But at the moment I do not think that is the problem.

I had the machine plugged into the Modem with a Cat5 cable which I thought MIGHT be causing a problem so I unplugged it. Then up comes a little popup message saying the the Network/Lan ( or whatever ) was disconnected.

Also when I would to Network Places It would show the machine.

Does this mean that the cable connection was actually OK ?

Even though it is a Dell machine, shouldn't things be basicly the same as far as getting online.

Again. I ask because I honestly do not know. And I have already advised her that I would only got so far because the machine is doing OK.

BillyBob

 

Something that I forgot.

I forget just where but somewhere things gave me the impression that the machine was RECIEVING data.

BillyBob

 

TonyT Thanks for the reply.

I am in luck there. ( I think ) We are using the same ISP.

BillyBob

 

Thanks for the info. I did not think about that.

But at this time not knowing otherwise it would not do me any good to bring it here anyway unless I had another keyboard to use. I THOUGHT that I had one but I do not.

She is supposed to attempt to get one this week end.

I told her she just needs to be sure that it is PS2 capable. I know that one of mine is for USB > PS2. Or PS2 > USB. I am not sure which. I prefer USB > PS2 because it would then be available in DOS if needed.

BillyBob

 

If you are thinking what I think you are. I do agree.

But if I got it back on her machine before she got home from work it would be OK.

I did pick one up yesterday.

BillyBob

 

Latest news.

I got a call last night that a new keyboard had been install and she can now type in her complete e-mail info but still will not go online.

I THINK we are going to need to wipe out all existing info for connecting and make a new one.

She tried using the cable from her machine that does get online and it still did not work. So, unless there is something that I am not aware of, it is not a cable problem.

But again. I am working with a Dell machine and an OS that I have not had any contact with.

BillyBob

 

Hi TonT

As of right now I can in no way answer that question.

But as a Wild Guess I would say no.

As I mentioned ( somewhere ) before it was an old Office machine and we have just not yet found out where all of the settings are that may need to be changed.

And being a Dell with 2K it is more than likely all an OEM setup and I just ain't got the faintest idea where to look.

However a Question just popped into my thick head.

In the jungle of settings isn't there a setting to set a machine to " Work off line." ? I THINK I have seen such a thing. And of course when I do go looking I can never find it. But I am 85% sure that it does exist.

I am being asked to take someone somewhere so will be back later. I keep hearing " ARE YOU READY." Answer HE** no.

BillyBob

 

Thanks TonyT

I think strongly that you may well be quite correct about removing all network components and starting over.

One our main problem right now is timing. We can't seem to get time enough together to do the job. And I agree 100% with her. She would like to be ( and I think should be ) able to sit there with me so we both can learn. Because I have to be very honest with both her and myself. If I do not get the job done today, come tomorrow I may have no idea what I did.

Plus not only that but she can sit with me and have a pencil and paper handy and take notes as to what works and what don't. AND HELP ME remember

But I realy think that if we work with it ( and talk nice to it ) we can get it working.

BillyBob

 

Well folks as of last evening at about 10 PM the problem Computer

WAS ONLINE :

The Lady took it in and set it beside the one that did work.

Started comparing and redoing connection info. So as of this moment it appears as though the info was entered wrong.

I am thinking that the old keyboard ( may or maynot ) have been PART of the problem by entering the wong characters. And it just took time to get the bad info out and the good info in. ( the right places LOL )

Now, I have the next job of getting a Router installed.

BillyBob

 

Thanks for the reminder.

After what happened this AM, I need all the reminders that I can get.

Exitsting cable from Modem to machine goes between Modem and Router.

Regular Cat5 between machine and Router.

BillyBob