Need Help Connecting to Internet....URGENT !!

Hello Guys, hope you all are having a good day......well I am not since Wednesday night !!

Alright, this issue might be seen at alot of places if you guys have been searching and it might even be solved somewhere else in the forum, if so please post a link.

This is gonna be long so please bare with me and listen to my story.

I am college student taking computer Engineering technology. I am very handy with computers and have alot of knowledge about several aspects of computers and usually slove my problems bt myself without a lot of help from the internet. but this time, i have failed. I have been trying to find a solution to my problem since wednesday night and still....NO LUCK. So I have turned to you guys hoping for help and quick replys:

MY PROBLEM:
I had a programming exam on Thursday and I was trying to study for that and all of a sudden my network adapter(DWA-542) stopped working. Now usually when that would happen I would just goto the Device manager and disable/enable the adapter and it would work fine but that was a substitute to the real problem(which I still dont know what it is) so I thought to get rid of the problem once and for all. I uninstallled the drivers and reinstalled fresh drivers. Oh and btw, I have been using Windows 7 since quiet some time now, I am using Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. I was using drivers from Atheros and not D-link since they didnt have the drivers for Windows 7. So when I restarted my computer, I would say at the bottom right of the taskbar that "NOT CONNECTED. NO CONNECTIONS FOUND". Now I got worried since it is very unusual for my computer to do that !! I tried reinstalling the drivers and yet, still no luck. I finished my studying using my laptop and decided to call D-link support. they had me with the for over an hour and I never got anywhere, and as a matter of fact, the guy told me that my adapter died out on me and since it was well over a year old, the replacement was out of the scene. anyhow, today I wend to Canadacomputers and bought a new adapter(DWA-552) came home with a happy face and installed the component and downloaded the windows7 drivers for the product and installed it just to know that the problem is still there !! I got really pissed thinking that I might have bought the adapter not having any HARDWARE related problems with my previous adapter. anyhow, I contacted d-link support again and talked to them for over an hour for my new product and yet still NO LUCK. the guy told me to try a different pci slot, I did but I asked him brighten up since I told him that the device was being showed in my device manager and even the drivers are being installed. He ended up asking me to grab a USB adapter and see if that works out. I tried that and went back to exchange the product with a |USB ADAPTER(DWA-140) and guess WHAT ??? SAME PROBLEM !!!

MY computer specs should be in my profile if anyone of you guys need to take a look. IS IT MY ROUTER(DIR=615)....HELL NO since I have my xbox 360, my ps3, 2 laptops and 1 other desktop all connected wirelessly and also the laptop I am typing with right now is also connected to my router as we speak.

I also found something very intersting, Whenever I would try to install the new drivers for my products (DWA 542, DWA-552, DWA-140), at the end of the installation it would tell me that "WIRELESS ADAPTER NOT FOUND. PLEASE INSERT THE ADAPTER NOW). Another thing I noticed was that when you are in Control Panel > Network and Sharing > Adapter Settings, FOR DWA-552 I saw that it said that it was ENABLED and CONNECTED while on the bnottom right of my taskbar, it would still say not connected. no network found(I refreshed it about a thousand times), but for my usb adapter(DWA-140), it said Disabled and when I try to Enable it, a popup window would come and say....Enabling.....Enabled but on the icon, it would still remain Disabled and I tried that abour 20 times.

Can it be my PCI slot.....Absolutely not because if that was the case, the usb adapter would work just fine !!

I tried looking through the forums with similar posts but didnt find any solution at all guys. I am hoping to find an absolute solution to this problem !!

Any questions ?? Feel free to ask and I will reply very soon !!

Thanks alot again, I apriciate your work guys !!

by the way, before you guys ask......ALL MY FIREWALLS ARE DISABLED and my ANTI VIRUS IS NOT RUNNING. I SHUT IT DOWN. Kaspersky Internet Secutiry 2010 !!

Guys I honestly think its an issue regarding some setting I might have changed unrealizingly because I have tried a set of 5 different drivers and yet, no resposne. I am gonna see if you guys gimme a solution that works with my current DWA 140, then I will go back to them and exchange it with DWA-since it has a better range cuz I have my desktop in my room and my router in the basement !!

See if you can System Restore to before this happened. Might be able to make it work with the old drivers that you uninstalled.

64 bit is sometimes tricky with network adapters. Never got Linksys to work with 64 bit, had to swap USB adapters to get them to work in 32.

Have you checked your basic protocols under the adapter properties? Does the system see the adapter under ipconfig? Do you have a wired connection you can use to connect to Microsoft update?

gregrocker said:

See if you can System Restore to before this happened. Might be able to make it work with the old drivers that you uninstalled.

64 bit is sometimes tricky with network adapters. Never got Linksys to work with 64 bit, had to swap USB adapters to get them to work in 32.

I would do a system restore but the problem is that I didnt expect it to happen and it was all of a sudden that this happened to me so I did like 20 different installations of drivers (of which none worked) and 20 different uninstallations accordingly !!

Really appriciated, any other suggestions ??

RogerR said:

Have you checked your basic protocols under the adapter properties? Does the system see the adapter under ipconfig? Do you have a wired connection you can use to connect to Microsoft update?

Yes sir, I just checked the basic protocols. Both the version 4 and 6 are set to acquire the ip and dns automatically. And when I went to cmd and typed ipconfig, I couldn't really figure out if the adapter I am using was there, but all the adapters were set to 'Media Disconnected'. Yes I do have a way of going down to my basement and use a wired connection and do a Microsoft Update but I cant really do it right now as I just came back from work and its 7 in the morning here in Toronto. Also I have an external Water Cooling going on so its kinda not really a one man job so I will have to get my brother to help me out later on when I wake up. I will come back here in about 5-6 hours !!

Much appriciated guys, and more suggestions will be useful !!

Hello, coldbloded.

I, too, have had a similar problem to yours and I've managed to fix mine through a combination of methods. I read your whole post, so if I sound like I'm repeating what you've said, there's probably a good reason for it. I did some research myself when I was experiencing these networking troubles and found that a number of different things helped in some way. Please take the time to read over what I've written and I hope that I can help you get to the bottom of this mystery. I'll go over a few things that you can try that may help you.

Booting In Safe Mode

I don't know if you've tried this or not, but I'd strongly recommend booting in Safe Mode with Networking. Originally, I was able to have the Internet working for a limited time whilst in Safe Mode, so I'd suggest you give this a go. When booting in safe mode, there shouldn't be any interaction with your antivirus software which can often be what's causing the problem. Often your personal firewall will block 'svnchost.exe' (a necessary Windows file) for some unknown reason. I read that your firewall is turned off and that your antivirus is disabled, which is a good start.

If you decide to boot in safe mode, double check that your firewall and antivirus are disabled. If this doesn't work, I'd suggest going into MSCONFIG (Start, Run, 'msconfig') and navigating to the 'Services' tab. Make sure that your antivirus is turned off through here. Then scroll down and disable the IPSEC modules (search for it, it can be subtle). Try rebooting with these settings and see how you go.

Modem/Router Troubles

In my household, we have around seven computers. I'm the only one running Windows 7 and it was me who had trouble connecting to the router. For a time, I was the only person who had no Internet because I wasn't able to access the router from my laptop (which was puzzling at first). Everyone else was connected and on the Internet.

If my Internet's playing up, I find that rebooting the modem will restore a connection from my computer to the router. It worked perfectly after I did that, so I'd recommend you give your modem some scrutiny.

Other Notes

• When I was experiencing similar problems to you, my computer was able to see the network, yet wasn't able to connect to it. The signal strength was good, but it wouldn't connect.
  
• There was also a time where there were some IP Conflicts, so I'd suggest checking that your IP lease hasn't expired and that everything of that sort is working well.

I can't think of anything else that would be causing you trouble, coldbloded, so give this a go and reply letting me know how it went. I hope that I've been able to help in some way. Good luck.

coldbloded said:

And when I went to cmd and typed ipconfig, I couldn't really figure out if the adapter I am using was there, but all the adapters were set to 'Media Disconnected'.

Thats to be expected if the drivers are not installed

Yes I do have a way of going down to my basement and use a wired connection and do a Microsoft Update but I cant really do it right now as I just came back from work and its 7 in the morning here in Toronto. Also I have an external Water Cooling going on so its kinda not really a one man job so I will have to get my brother to help me out later on when I wake up. I will come back here in about 5-6 hours !!

The reason I suggest this is Windows Update is often better at finding a compatible driver than driver websites. Certainly easier than the garbage you have to wade through on some driver sites. Except when its in the basement.

hello guys.......I REALLY APRICIATE THE WORK YOU GUYS HAVE DONE FOR ME !!!

I DON KNOW WHY IT DIDNT COME TO ME AT FIRST, BUT I TRIED BOOTING IT IN SAFE MOOD AND IT WORKED LIKE A CHARM !!!!!

NOW I AM GONNA GO BACK TO CANADA COMPUTERS and RETURN THIS USB ADAPTER and GET MY DWA-552 BACK !!!

CASE SOLVED :)

And I just got my DWA-552 back and installed the drivers using Safe mood......EVERY THING IS FINE AND LIFE's BACK TO NORMAL !!