Hi,

I tried noapic boot option, but the system hanged "Probing aic7xxx.o" all the same.
I looked for the PnP option in the BIOS, but didn't find it (my laptop has a very basic BIOS).

I then searched the forums with "new and better ideas", and found the solution:

First, issue :
Code:
sudo modprobe 8139too
No errors appeared, then issue :
Code:
netcardconfig
(I selected "No DHCP Broadcasting", and then I entered the configuration manually.... and it worked, and I'm happier than some time ago).

Thanks for the reply... even it was not the solution in my case, it encouraged me to keep trying.