I got a Toshiba Satellite A100-551. It comes with XP SP2 preinstalled and a
bunch of utilities.
Of course it has a LAN port (RJ-45) and it is supposed to support 10-100
Ethernet.

My problem is I cannot get the NIC to work. It is not listed among the
devices when 'REALTEK Gigabit and Fast Ethernet NIC driver' is supposed to
be installed (entry in the menu 'Program' and listed as installed app in
Add/Remove app).

Since Ethernet support is usually quite trivial I just plugged a network
cable (coming out from a hub hooked to an ethernet adsl modem) : nothing.
I started to check the computer then I discovered there is no NIC listed
nowhere despite the REALTEK driver (also listed in System Info).

I checked the bios and Integrated Lan is enabled.

I also tried to install the latest NIC driver from TOSHIBA website (for that
specific laptop : Satellite A100-551 / PSAA2E). Didn't change nothing, even
unistalling first the 'installed' REALTEK nic driver.

Besides those drivers, I have installed or unistalled no other apps.

Frankly I'm quite puzzled right now. A computer without Ethernet support
enabled straight out of the box...

Anyway, suggestions welcome. Thank you.