Issue with network card T61

Just bought this unit 2 weeks ago and found the issue with the NIC
On battery, boot up into Vista Business, plug in cat5 network cable, system unable to detect the network cabe being plugged in, do disable/enable, network card wakes up and get IP address......Flashed Bios to 1.14(latest), alll driver updated, all Thinkvantage software updates done....no go..checked power option and set to maximum performance....still no go...
It never happen when on AC adaptor.. Spoke with Lenovo tech, no clue....they said motherboard may be replaced, but no stock at the moment.....anyone has any idea? All issues happens only when starts on battery, very upset now.....

 

what is the NIC that came with T61 ?
it would help other notebook enthusiasts from putting this particular component on the list.
there seem to be issues with the battery from what I heard so far - screensaver issue when on battery on a R60.

 

the ethernet adapter on the T61 is from intel. I notice this issue once in a while, but in reality. Although it says that it is not connected, it really is. I pop firefox open and it works like a champ. About a minute or two of browsing and the little icon will say connected.

Again, this happens to me pretty rarely. If this is a frequent thing, uninstall the driver and then reinstall it.

 

I had a problem with this resuming from hibernation which the NIC would just die. Finally figured it out by updating to Intel's official drivers off intel.com (more feature rich) vs Lenovo's OEMs and tweaking it.

 

Thanks guys. I am almost certain it is the hardware issue....
Just purchased a onsite next business day repair, I guess they have to replace the motherboard....

The reason that it is not related to driver is as soon as I power up the machine and connect the cable, the link/act light is not on... However, in the case of on AC power, power it up->cable in->light on.