Clamshell iBook no ethernet link

[ScutBoy]

I came into a first gen clamshell iBook recently. First thing I did was toss in an OS 9 disk and wipe and re-install the OS. For the record, I believe it was 9.04. There was no Airport card in the machine, so I plugged in an ethernet cable but got no connectivity. Looking at my switch, I don't get a link light. The same cable/port works OK with other machines.

I guess next steps to try would be a different switch (I have an old 10MB only hub for older machines) and/or a newer version of OS 9. Don't really want to put OS X on this guy, but I could, I guess.

If none of this works, I guess the next thing would be to pull it apart and make sure the ethernet port connections are all good on the logic board.

Is anyone aware of any other issues like this where I might be missing something?

 

[Androda]

OS version is not likely to make a difference. This sounds like a hardware problem, the Ethernet port has a bad connection like you mention or maybe something's wrong with the driver chipset.

 

[ScutBoy]

Yeah - feels like hardware to me, too.

 

[Elemenoh]

Have you inspected the pins on the port? My first guess would be one or more of them is bent.

 

[ScutBoy]

Have you inspected the pins on the port? My first guess would be one or more of them is bent.

Good call, but the pins in the port are all lined up... When I get some other stuff off my bench, I'll pop this guy open and check out the connection of the port to it's board. I _can_ use an Airport card, so all is not lost, but on-board ethernet is so very convenient sometimes