dodgy ethernet in Thinkpad R40

[free-zombie]

earlier this year I bought an IBM Thinkpad R40 on eBay. Everything tested worked and I am reasonably happy with the machine, but recently the ethernet port stopped working properly (I can't say since when as I use WiFi almost exclusively): When there's a link, it works find, but the link seldom stays up for longer than a few seconds --- it's not fit for actual use any more.

Has anyone had similar problems or an idea why this may be/if possible, how this could be fixed ? I wanted to have a look at the hardware, but I was unable to figure out how to open the case.

[pianowizard]

I had a similar problem and the ethernet cable was the culprit. Try a different cable, or at least test the cable you've been using on another computer.

[free-zombie]

I have tried several cables, and tested them with either a switch or a WLAN access point, where they worked fine...

[muscleflex]

this is a common problem with the R40.
we have a lot of R40's in the company and most of them have gone back to IBM for repair because of this.
it's not the cable but the actual port where you insert the cable into. IBM claims it's to do with the motherboard...

but it will be expensive to have it repaired. we got quoted £600 for a repair so we just buy pc ethernet cards as replacements

hope that helps

[free-zombie]

I suppose I'll have a look at PCMCIA ethernet cards then...