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XP Pro Networking component keeps dying 2

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Happo

IS-IT--Management
Sep 28, 2002
188
AU
Ok, this thread continues from here - when I thought the problem was fixed.

This computer is only a couple of months old and has functioned flawlessly until last week when the network dropped. It is a standalone system connected via ethernet to a Netgear DG834 modem/router. DHCP is turned on, on the router which is 192.168.0.1 and it assigns (or did) the computer ip as 192.168.0.2.

Last Thurs night, when the system was idle it abruptly dropped the connection to the modem and windows assigned its "Automatic Private IP Address". This was in the event viewer at the same time - The IP address lease for 192.168.0.2 for the network card with network address:(blah) has been denied by the DHCP server 192.168.0.1 (The DHCP Server sent a DHCPNACK message)- I have no idea what this means.

I tried assigning the ip as static, winsockfix, reinstalling onboard LAN drivers etc, nothing made any difference, couldn't ping anything (Destination Unreachable). It was finally fixed with a repair reinstallation of windows, that had some unrelated other hiccups (see other thread) but it fixed my networking problems.

Just as I was getting back to the way I like it, it happened again last night! I applied all updates well before that so it is not an update issue, nor a software conflict issue, I didn't change anything, it just dropped (while idle). Tried again what I did before - nothing works.

I can still access the net just fine on Knoppix which I think rules out any hardware faults.

Please help, I am out of ideas on this one. What does a repair reinstallation do to the networking component? Is there a way to do this without going through the whole process? Any networking fixes, resets, please advise.
Thank you for your assistance.
 
Happo,

As you are fine when using Knoppix, I will rule out any direct hardware issues.

Try, in XP, Control panel > system > device manager> find the network adapters and right click your NIC > select properties,

select the power management tab and insure that the "allow computer to turn off this device to save power if not checked.

If this was not enabled,

Flush the client DNS by running IPCONFIG /FLUSHDNS.

If this does not help You might also find some clues here:

WinXP Connectivity Issues (This a great FAQ)
FAQ779-4625

How to troubleshoot network connectivity problems



rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
 
It appears DHCP is failing in communicating to the router. Have you tried a power-off reset of the router itself?
 
Thank you for your replies.
@rvnguy
Power Management is off on the network adapter as suggested.
Will try the flushing the dns cache.
The FAQ (excellent work bcastner) and mskb article I found and worked through before I posted here.

@bcastner
I have hard reset the router about 6 times already to no avail.

This is the MD's system, that I now have at home to fix and he is getting a bit edgy about it (one of these ppl that hates computers but requires them 24/7), I really don't know where to go from here. I am almost certain it is not a hardware fault, software conflict - maybe? There is nothing particularly elaborate installed, Avast, MS Antispyware, Google Desktop Search, Messenger, Quicktime etc, typical home computer. He uses remote desktop and there are some games installed so his kids probably play online. He told me he updated the NVidia Drivers (6600GT) a few days before the first time it went down. Knowing how Nvidia seem to package all their drivers I assumed he updated the LAN driver as well, this was my first thought but when I reinstalled I used an older version back to around when the system was built and exactly the same thing happened. I could do a clean install but don't want to and it doesn't guarantee success seeing the repair install only fixed the prob for a couple of days. Are there any system files I can manually copy over from an XPSP2 cd to see if that helps?

Any other ideas appreciated, this is really beginning to get to me.
 
The APIA address being assigned is an indication of either a hardware failure (cable, flaky router) or possibly a stack failure.

The intermittent aspect suggests hardware.

You could do the steps in faq779-4625, as stack failures of any kind can lead to this.

My other thought when kids are involved is malware. This too can lead to your issues. See faq779-4625
 
bcastner said:
The APIA address being assigned is an indication of either a hardware failure (cable, flaky router) or possibly a stack failure.
The intermittent aspect suggests hardware.

If Knoppix wasn't connecting either, I too would think hardware but Knoppix seems to be running flawlessly - the Networking component anyway.
I have already been through FAQ779-4625, will try it again tonight after malware scans.

bcastner said:
My other thought when kids are involved is malware. This too can lead to your issues. See FAQ779-4625

I assume you mean the very well written (*wink*) FAQ608-4650, which I have used many times in the past, I will reference this again. I have only used the installed Avast and MS A/S so far, I'll let Ewido have a go.

Beyond that I am going home tonight with a known good cable and modem, I don't have a spare NIC but there is another onboard LAN port on the system that I will download the driver for and try. Ho hum.
 
Happo,

Thank you for the corrections and bearing with me. The Knoppix test is a good one, but not exactly identical to XP and its stack notion of the device driver status, or the status of the router to reliably respond to a DHCP request.

. Curious question #1: the current state of that router has issues with RAM > 1gb. on the client. I am told there is a firmware fix.

. Curious question #2: cable faults in perticular are intermmitant. Have you replaced the drop cable?

. Curious question #3: you might investigate this Hotfix:
Best regards to you Happo,
Bill Castner
 
Bill,
#1 The system has 1Gb Ram so...? I will disconnect the router tonight and upgrade the firmware on another system tomorrow if req'd.

#2 Known good cable going in tonight.

#3 Hadn't seen that but will keep it in mind, since Hotfix isn't readily available, I'll leave this one 'til last.

The more you say, the more I think about it, I really haven't investigated the hardware side of things (false sense of security w/Knoppix?) thoroughly enough, that will change this evening >:)

Thanks for your help,
Dan.
 
Happo,

Please post back with results as I can't wait to know what they are or what the final culprit might be.

As normal Bill is about 20 steps ahead of me but great leads for you to follow.


rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
 
Ok, I spent 4 hours last night trying to crack this puppy without success but I have narrowed down the possibilities.

First I booted into safe mode and ran a full scan with an updated copy of ewido - nothing. I tried netsh winsock reset and ipconfig /dnsflush - nothing.

After taking home from work a known good modem and cable I was still unable to acheive any connectivity whatsoever. I did hard reset the new modem 3 times FYI. I did manage to bring up the modem username/password screen once and only once while connected but when I entered the default user & password I got no further, the page never opened, it just timed out. I was unable to get to this point again - the intermittency continues. I have this modem up and running again at work this morning so I know the credentials I entered were correct, I was very careful. Unfortunately due to me being interrupted by freinds coming over (how dare they ;) and a 7am meeting this morning I simply didn't get time to try a USB modem, that will happen tonight.

I had been concerned about possible software conflicts so I went through in some detail what is installed on the system. There just isn't anything that I have ever experienced problems with, it's stuff like Nero, Office and BF2.

Remaining possible culprits - OnBoard LAN Ports or XP. Considering a repair reinstallation fixed it instantly last time I have to say my money is on a XP Networking issue right now.

As I said I will try a USB modem tonight but does this even use the same software components - I honestly don't know as I have never dabbled in USB modems - I hate the bloody things to tell you the truth.

Comments and suggestions more than welcome.
Dan.
 
Happo, Thanks for getting back. Sorry that nothing seems to be fixing this problem.

I looked back through your posts. As the MD is hoovering to get this back, Clean might be the mist expiedient method. I generally attempt to exhaust all other avenues prior to doing this, but I mainly try to keep only my systems running.

As you do not know where this PC has been, unlike you would for your own, I would first insure that you have all the CD's to install the required apps.

I would write zeros to the drive to fully clean it. Shut down, clear CMOS, boot back to BIOS & make any required settings, re-boot to Knoppix or DOS or. and format the drive. Shutdown and run the win setup, re-install all apps etc, and burn this in. If this were to be the fix warn about malware & the like and visiting unk sites(his children) where these can be picked up.

I know this is not what you wanted but add up the hrs you have in it now. You could first run on Knoppix for extended time to see if it manifests there also.

Good Luck

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
 
rvnguy,
Thanks for the response. I agree, clean install would be the way to go but there are a couple of things that still really concern me. First and foremost, I don't know what the problem is, it reappeared after a repair install so who's to say it won't after a clean install?
Secondly, there is over 120Gb of installed programs and files strewn across 2HDD's & 6 partitions, I don't fancy backing that up. There are zillions of mp3's and god help me if I trash the kids' online gaming profiles. If everything isn't exactly the way it was before, and it won't be, it will become my problem. I know I can do it but it is definitely a last resort.
I would feel A LOT more comfortable if I knew what was wrong with the bloody thing. One more try tonight and then I blame it on something the kids installed and explain the need for a clean install ;P
This hasn't beaten me yet.
/grabs usb modem under arm and struts out like I'm going into battle.
 
Happo,

Yeah that complicates things if the apps are installed on other drives. A clean install will wipe out all references, registry & otherwise as you have assertained.

I don't know if you have ever used the Trend-Micro online scan facility. They also have spyware/other scanning capability now.

Just keep going back to you running OK on knoppix, there is something not right on the HD's as the repair install should have fixed it with out return by all rights.

Just a thought, this is their link. just select scan now

Trend Micro

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
 
Ok. I don't want to speak to soon but it appears that it is working again. This is what I did:
Installed USB Modem (Modem 2), seemed to install ok but I still couldn't connect to it. Took modem2 to a friends place, he could connect to it via ethernet so I upgraded the firmware and returned home. Now I could connect via USB, entered details in the config page and I was online and starting to feel a bit more confident about things. Tried the same modem via ethernet now, no connectivity on either port. Connected modem2 again via USB and downloaded some different (older) OnBoard LAN drivers for both the NVidia and the Marvell port. Uninstalled both OnBoard LANs and then reinstalled, one at a time using older drivers. NVidia port - nothing, disabled that through the BIOS and tried the Marvell port - success!

Modem2 seemed to be operating fine on the Marvell port. I then connected the original modem (modem1) through the Marvell port and although confident I couldn't connect to it at all. Next step was reconnecting modem2 and downloading a firmware upgrade for modem1, went back to friends place and applied this and I was back in business. modem1 was now
connected fine through the Marvell port so I upgraded the driver on that port to a current version - disaster couldn't
connect to either modem now. Sooooo, then I rolled back the driver and I was all good again.
Talk about a lot of variables!

By this stage it was 1am and I have to get up at 6 so I called it quits. It was still connected when I got up this morning so things are looking promising.

What I suspect the problems were/are:
1. The NVidia OnBoard LAN port is flakey and has issues.
2. Various firmware and driver conflicts.

The fact that a repair reinstallation fixed it instantly really threw me off the track, I should have been looking at hardware all along. And as for Knoppix working throughout - ummm....I have no idea.

And in case you're wondering, I don't have my computer at home at the moment, it's being repaired after a motherboard
failure, this didn't help things.

To bcastner and rvnguy, thanks for your help and support /stars
I will confirm all is well tomorrow, I have already said the big cheese can have it back then, I am sick of him bugging me. Actually he's been ok it's just his kids are driving him and his wife nuts because it's holidays and they haven't got the distraction of playing BF2 for two weeks straight.
 
Happo,

WOW! All this over what should be an upgraded, better driver. This does happen. Glad you troubleshot it by re-installing the offending driver to confirm. Hope all is well when you get back to it.

Thank you for posting back your solution for the community.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
 
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