Laptop network troubles

[ShotInTheAss86]

I've had a laptop with a really strange fault handed to me that I've failed to fix - so thought I'd see if anyone on here had come across this issue and/or offer some friendly advice (even if it's "throw the damn thing in the bin")

Problem is it wont connect to any network - either through LAN or WiFi

if no cable is connected to LAN port it displays as expected "local area connection - Network Cable unplugged"
when a cable is plugged in - instead of saying connected it just reads "Enabled" - it does not source a IP etc but does detect the speed of the connection and shows activity on the network port (lights are on)

when running IPConfig it doesn't even display the LAN ethernet adapter or wifi adapter? only options are the bluetooth and tunnel adapter

Have confirmed the network adapter is present in device manager and installed both the original drivers and the latest drivers

Wifi is in a similar boat - it can detect the nearby available networks, allows me to attempt a connection (prompts for web key where needed) but then does not establish connection and Windows eventually times the connection attempt out.

Laptop is HP Elitebook 8460p and running W7 32bit

I'm starting to think the network card may have had it

 

[LizardKing]

First thing i'd do is grab a live linux distro and give that a try.

Its strange how both wifi and nic fail to work, that suggests its a software/configuration than a hardware/drivers issue.

Is the DHCP client service running?

 

[ShotInTheAss86]

yup checked DHCP service is running and restarted it

do you mean boot from a linux CD? I dont have one here but might be able to dl one at home and bring it in to try - though I've never used linux so it could be interesting lol

 

[LizardKing]

Do you have the "client for MS networks" listed as well as the usual?

Linux is pretty intuitive to use so you shouldn't have any problems

 

[ShotInTheAss86]

gave up with trying to isolate the fault and ran a system restore (which actually worked) - as expected it wasn't hardware as everything is now working again

Thanks for your help LizardKing