Help Start Up Problem

[Rubber Bullets]

I've had this issue since I built my PC about 10 months ago, so it falls into the irritating but hardly world ending category.

When I boot up the PC the network connection almost always fails to work (just occasionally it works fine though). To remedy this I open the device manager> open up network adapters> right click on the adapter > select disable> click yes> Right click again> select Enable.

This works and the network is fine for as long as the PC is on.

I have updated every driver I can find, and the PC bios too, but with no luck. In the end I just bought a cheap NIC and put that in instead and disabled the onboard NIC in the bios. This has made no difference at all (except perhaps a slightly higher incidence of a correct start), so I am now completely at a loss as to what to do next.

As I said at the beginning it is a pretty quick job to go through the procedure to get it working, especially as I have put a short cut to the device manager on my desktop, but it is a pain.

If anyone has any ideas how to fix this it would be great, but apart from that is there any way to create a routine that will run through those steps automatically at start up? It's hardly elegant but would make a small difference to me.

Many thanks in advance for any help at all!

RB

 

[old.Osy]

Do you use a home router? If yes, do you use DHCP?

Are you on some ISP modem/router? If yes, what kind of connection? PPPOE? Direct?

 

[Zenith.UK]

That was going to be my question.
My suggestion would be to hard set your IP address in the network properties.

Start > Run > Type CMD and hit return > Type IPCONFIG and hit return.
Make a note of your IP address, subnet mask and gateway IP address.
Now go to Start > Run > Type NCPA.CPL and hit return.
Right click on your network connection, select Properties.
Doubleclick Internet Protocol v4 (could be TCP/IP depending on Windows version).
Click the "Use the following IP address" button and enter the details you noted down before.
Hit Apply and close all the windows that were left open.
Now restart your machine and see if it works straight away.

If you have a problem, go through the process again and select "Obtain IP address automatically" to go back to the default.

 

[Rubber Bullets]

Thanks guys,

Osy, the answer is yes to the first 3 questions, I'm using an old BT Home Hub since my Netgear died. I'm not sure about the last bit of the question though.

I have no idea if the issue is with the router or the new PC but the network works perfectly with all the rest of the devices on it. Two other desktops and a NAS wired and laptop, netbook, wii, HomeMusic and Hero wireless.

Zenith, I went through you post but at the end I had no connection at all .

I don't know if it is important but my PC is connected to the network at start up, i.e. the NAS, but will not connect to the internet.

Thanks for trying, I do appreciate it

RB

 

[old.Osy]

I was trying to find out where the DHCP service is...

It could be somewhere at the ISP, on the ISP box itself in your home, or on your own private router which would sit after the ISP equipment.

It doesn't sound like there's anything wrong with your PC, maybe just a DHCP hiccup around your mac address and DHCP issuing you an IP address.

Have you tried changing your mac address?

edit: nvm, i read your post more carefully:

So you are connected to the LAN, but you get no internet access? I would guess Windows 7 as OS?

 

[Rubber Bullets]

Yes Win7 Home Premium 64

RB

 

[old.Osy]

Well, try what Zenith suggested 1st - set your IP manually, have a few reboots and see if that clears it.

Second thing you could try is when you boot up and have LAN access only, open up a cmd prompt and try resolving a few names:

nslookup google.com
nslookup freddyshouse.com

if the nslookup fails and doesn't return an IP address, then your problem is DNS related - run a 'ipconfig /all', make a note of the primary DNS IP, and try to see if you can reach it (ping), before disabling/enabling the adapter.

(Note that the DNS issues could stem from different sources - either the DHCP service doesn't issue the DNS servers properly, or the DNS registration fails on your machine, for whatever reason.)

Failing that, changing the mac address is a longshot, but worth trying. Just change whatever digit you want, it should suffice.

 

[MYstIC G]

Windows Network Problem Solver

^very useful

 

[old.Osy]

...for Win XP users

 

[MYstIC G]

You can pretty much ignore that and most of it still works.