Okay, I'm doing a reformat/clean install of XP Home on a Dell Inspiron 8100, service tag 6NZV111. This unit has the internal Actiontec 82559-based Ethernet Adapter and Modem Combo (MP100IM) that plugs into the Mini-PCI slot, and has two small multipin connectors to connect to the RJ-11 and RJ-45 jacks.

The card was working normally before the clean install, but afterwards, it barely works. By "barely works" I mean that it seems to work very slowly, if at all. For example, it takes several minutes after the desktop appears for the IP address to be configured via DHCP from my Netgear RP614v2 router, connected in turn to my Comcast cable modem. Once the IP address is finally assigned, if I try to browse the Internet, it can take several minutes for a page to load. If I do ipconfig /release, the adapter releases immediately. But ipconfig /renew gives me a An error occurred while renewing Local Area Connection : unable to contact your DHCP server. Request timed out. error message. If I let it sit for a few minutes, then ipconfig again, I find that the address has, in fact, finally been renewed.

If I plug in a USB ethernet dongle to the same machine/cable/router/etc, everything works likety-split. So I'm thinking it's driver issue, as the card was not physically handled during the reinstallation process.

This page says that XP provides the drivers needed for the NIC/modem combo. But when the XP default drivers didn't work, I did try the MP100IM.EXE driver for Win2k and the R33877.EXE driver for Win2k, both downloaded from Dell. (I rolled back to my post-clean-install restore point after each attempt.)

Device manager reports the unit as an Intel 8255x-based PCI Ethernet Adapter (10/100) and says it's working properly. The currently installed driver isIntel Corporation 5.41.22.0000, dated 7/1/2001.

Any suggestions? Your help is very much appreciated.