Please save me from having to format!

['Shy]

Hi all. Hope this is a general tech forum and not just a DAoC one. Here's a general run down of my problem, hoping someone has the knowledge.

It was freezing in game but thats fixed that I think. Reinstalled drivers, a friend messed about with the settings and such, and it was working fine. Went away for the weekend (with pc), played all weekend, got home and it took ages to boot up, froze a few times. Eventually booted up but (I think cos it may have been jolted in the car or something) now I can't get on the internet.

I use Virgin broadband. Uninstalled the (ugly) Alcatel modem, all software, etc. Reinstalled it all. When I click the button to connect it just doesn't. No error, no "not responding" thing, no "cannot connect you" thing. I called them and there's no problems, and if there were I'd at least get a message telling me so. I did think it was just ebing slow but after half hour of looking at the damn dial up window and clicking the button a few more times I decided it was fecked.

So I tried reconfiguring it manually. I get to the bit that says "connect to the internet with broadband.." etc and it's greyed out and I can't do it. Only option is the 3rd one that tells me my broadband connection is already installed and working.

I've reinstalled windows (XP btw) over the top and I've run check disk wotsit. Ohh and when I right click in My Computer to check properties it says something about a winsta.dll error - can't remember it all but I have that file in my computer - dunno what it does.

Hoping someone can help, and save me having to format. Oh yeah, and I really don't fancy 2 days worth of downloading Anarchy Online patches :/

 

[sieben_dapoet]

bit of a jumbled post m8

please list all system specs, are you using cat5 or usb connection for broadband ?

what does you network properties say EXACTLY when you enter them ?

does it show a connection or is it empty ?

hows your networking set up ?

are you using DHCP or static IP ?

are all the physical ports in the back of the {laptop presume} ok or are they damaged from being banged about ?

have you checked event viewer in the mmc to see if any errors are being reported by the networking components ?

any other relevant info you can think of include.. i'll keep an eye out on this post till forum drops in the wee hours and after it comes back up

 

['Shy]

Eeek erm I didn't understand all the questions but I'll have a go.

System spec is Althlon 800 something (?) omg I can't remember exactly, I'm on my spare pc right now and only one monitor/keyboard. I'll check for exact spec in the morning if it's essential as it's late now.

No network, just one pc.

USB Alactel speedtouch ADSL modem.

In network connections it's empty. It shows my ethernet card, but that's disabled, as I only use it when I got to friends with cable to connect via LAN.

I can't create a dial up connection at all, even tho I have a dial up modem installed. The same thing happens - it's greyed out so I can't select the option.

Not a laptop, it's a pc.

I've checked RAM is all there properly, and all fans working, it's not overheating. It was, but seems fine now.

Not sure about IP, but I guess static as it's ADSL..?

Physical ports are fine because it knows the modem is there, ie when I reinstalled it, it told me it had found hardware, etc.

Hope that's clearer.. thanks!

 

[sieben_dapoet]

hmm ok,

<Sieben thinks>

okay.. load up your pc and logon then goto 'start', 'run' and type in 'mmc'.

This is the microsoft management console. From here you need to goto... hmmm..

<Sieben currently at work on NT machine trying to remember exact layout of mmc>

goto 'File' i think, then choose 'add' {or 'add snapin'}, you get a new dialogue box, select 'add' again then look down list and choose 'event viewer'.

Click 'ok' or 'yes' or 'add' to add it in and ok back to mmc {you know what i mean}

now you should have three options here, if not panick

System / Security / Application

check out System and Application. Look for a line with a red icon next to it which normally means an issue has occured. Look in any of these that appears and do your best to discypher any which relate to your networking and post the message here.

While in the 'mmc' only mess with the 'event viewer'. Your fairly safe to mess in that, but any of the others and you may screw up your pc more

ok, with that said, let me think on other stuff... im using cat5 at home, not usb but if i remember right they simply assign a pretend mac address to the usb port. You've said you've spoken to your isp and they say everythings fine so i would guess this is ok.

What you need to do is check your IP settings, but i cant remember which route that is in xp and if its different if you use usb {im a bl00dy NT mcse, ive only used xp at home;}. i *think* you need to goto your network settings again and if there is no connection here try to add one.. what happens then ? if it lets you i would suggest setting it to DHCP {pick up IP address from ISP} as what you will find.... ahh never mind... just trust me on this, i cant be arsed to explain dhcp

i'll keep an eye out throughout the week on this post mate, i'll be at home for the rest of the week so will be able to check things out on my home xp pc rather then guess from my nt work pc

cheers

 

['Shy]

Hehe, thank you, I'll need to print all that out from work tomorrow and try it..

The only thing that might not work is when I go to create a connection. That's where it's greyed out and won't let me do anything. But if the instructions you gave above that fixes that then no problemo

 

[sieben_dapoet]

k m8

note the 'mmc' stuff is simply an information source built into m$ software. looking in here wont solve your problem, merely hint to where it may be,

I would also seriously suggest you call your isp tech support again.

While the cable broadband guys are a lickle slow, they do get there in the end when probs occur, and if needs be send out an engineer. Not sure how other isp are with support though.

like i said before i'll check my home pc as you've said options are greyed out, this doesnt sound right to me, so will need to check this out.

 

['Shy]

My ISP tech support were useless. They didn't know what I was talking about and at 50p a minute I really didn't have the inclination to stay on the phone and try to explain and get talked through shit I've already tried myself.

[edit] It's ADSL, not cable, and they don't send engineers to fix that.

Anyways, I ran the mmc thing this morning and there's lots of pretty red crosses and things everywhere! I took some screenshots and brought them to work on a disk so can I email them to you please? Either that or I'll sign up to Geoshitties and upload them there at lunchtime. I also took screenshots of another error I found when trying to add a connection, and of the one I get when I right click on properties in My Computer. Most of them relate to Remote Access Connection Manager or RasMan, and there's a few for the CD drive too, which I haven't had a problem with (yet!).

Hmm.. I'm thinking is it worth trying to fix, or will a simple format sort it all out? I really don't want to format, but am a bit worried about messing in something I'm not too sure about :/

 

[Driwen]

Can it be some irritating virus???? Might be worth scanning for?

 

['Shy]

No, this happened in between leaving my friends house and getting home. Something prolly got knocked or corrupted in the car journey.

 

[Gabrial]

Originally posted by ~shy~
I use Virgin broadband. Uninstalled the (ugly) Alcatel modem, all software, etc. Reinstalled it all. When I click the button to connect it just doesn't. No error, no "not responding" thing, no "cannot connect you" thing. I called them and there's no problems, and if there were I'd at least get a message telling me so. I did think it was just ebing slow but after half hour of looking at the damn dial up window and clicking the button a few more times I decided it was fecked.

I have an alcatel aswell - does the list box appear next to your connection dialogue box? It should say something like

...
...
connecting to internet...
Validating username and password
Connection established

Obviously you are not connecting but what is in this section? If its not there you can select to view it from a menu.

 

['Shy]

No, absolutely nothing happens. I press the button and nothing after that. No error, no "not responding", nothing. I even input the incorrect password to see if it would say something but it didn't.

There's no menu that I remember to view this window. I've only ever seen that window when it's failed to connect and then it usually pops up to tell me.

 

[tris-]

not read all the thread but if your prob is not solves, post http://forums.barrysworld.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=96
there where all the General community people post about their tech probs.

 

[Gabrial]

Does the progress bar move at all?

There should be a menu option - one is for help (only option from here is About) but there is another to view connection details (or something like that - im in work atm so can check).

Once you start connecting, does the software become unresponsive - cant move the windows or cancel etc.?

 

['Shy]

No! Nothing happens ffs! It doesn't even start to connect! I just click the button and it does nothing!

Argh!

Anyways, if you read my above posts you will see I got networking errors too. I have a printout of something off microshite page I need to do when I get home that might fix that, then it might work.

 

[Gabrial]

Fair enough - sort it yourself then.

Just trying to get a little more info from you to assist further.

'Nothing happens' isnt particularly clear is it? Nothing happens as in the button doesnt even depress? Does the software hang or is it (internally) permanently trying to connect for example?

Not sure you will get much assistance when peeps try to help you taking to them like that - not from me anyway

 

['Shy]

Well sorry but I don't really know how to explain it any further.

I press it and nothing happens. I would expect for it to give me a "not responding" message after a while, or for it to freeze, yes, but it doesn't. I don't know how else to describe it :/



[edit] I can cancel the window and it closes immediately so I guess it's not even trying to dial up.

 

['Shy]

Hi again. Well I found some error 711 fix on the Microsoft website about re starting some services that had been stopped, and then got further errors trying to do that. They all seemed to be connected to each other, anything to do with networking and/or dial up network connections.

So in the end, with new patch looming, and withdrawl symptoms from the game, I just decided to format and reinstall.

It's working fine now, so we will probably never know what it was.

Thanks to all who tried to help

 

[Driwen]

Originally posted by ~shy~
Hi again. Well I found some error 711 fix on the Microsoft website about re starting some services that had been stopped, and then got further errors trying to do that. They all seemed to be connected to each other, anything to do with networking and/or dial up network connections.

So in the end, with new patch looming, and withdrawl symptoms from the game, I just decided to format and reinstall.

It's working fine now, so we will probably never know what it was.

Thanks to all who tried to help

\o/ , btw did you seperate windows from other stuff now or not? (with partitions )

 

['Shy]

nah dunno how to do that and cant' be bothered