Lan adapter failed the media test

[barstant]

Hello members i posted a question about 4 days ago about my acer travelmate 2200 showing a blank screen after changing the hard drive but powers up, the same fault develoded on different acer travelmate 2200 a month before after removing hard drive, i tried the hard drive in my packard bell easynote and this also developed a problem where the screen is ok ( lights up) and lets me go into F2 SETTINGS, after trying different settings and even loading default settins now all that happens after coming out of F2 is a flashing - minus sign in the top left corner of the screen on ( the packard bell)
A friend has just brought a IBM THINKPAD and tried the hard drive in the acer but still the blank screen, after putting back the hard drive back in the IBM it shows this message LAN ADAPTER FAILED THE MEDIA TEST PLEASE CHECK THE CABLE AND REBOOT THE SYSTEM, why am i getting this message on the IBM THINKPAD and it also appeared on the PACKARD BELL a few days ago after swapping the hard drive as on both occasions the only cable plugged in is the power cable on each laptop, why would changing the hard drives develop these faults on three laptops where as before they all worked ok....
sorry this post is very long but i need to explain as clearly as i could as i am a Novice with computers, please help me as i am desperate to get them all working again, much appreciative for any help or advice and please feel free to E-MAIL ME to ask me anything regarding these problems.
THANKS BARRY

 

[DelJo63]

pick one system and work on it -- then begin on the other

which one is most important to you?

 

[barstant]

pick one system and work on it -- then begin on the other

which one is most important to you?

Hi jobeard... the ACER as i only bought it last week and it was'nt cheap, i can't understand why the other acer i tried 4 weeks ago did the same after just taking out the hard drive, and now my mates IBM as he only took the hard drive out but it would'nt fit the acer.
I got the PACKARD BELL going but only after putting in another hard drive in, so i'm not going to take that one out again.