[Thinkpad] T40 ethernet not working

[PLDT FOA- Rodrigo Amoranto]

Hi,
 
My friend has a T40 and he mentioned that the ethernet is not working.  He said that he has tried all the drivers on the IBM website and still no go. Since the ethernet of the T40 is built into the board, I would assume that this is not replaceable unless you change the board itself and since it is already an out of warranty machine, that option would be costly.
 
I told him to just use a PCMCIA card instead.  Is there any other option that I might have failed to tell him? Also he is concerned that since the ethernet failed, does this mean the mainboard is starting to fail or its just isolated to the ethernet component?  As a follow-up (might be redundant), once the ethernet fails does it spread out and begin to damage other baord components (don't know if that makes sense)?
 
Your opinions and insights would be appreciated.
 
TIA,
 
Erwin