Connects with DSL Modem - Not with Cable Modem

My uncle has an HP all in one unit Omni running Home Edition SP1 64 bit that connects using a cable modem. The other day it stopped connecting and Ipconfig displayed an invalid IP address - 169 something.

I brought his unit home and connected it to my DSL modem. Immediate connection. IP address 192 something. I took it back to his house and it didn't connect again. He had the cable guys there for 3.5 hours Tuesday. They showed him that their laptop connected using his modem. I wasn't there to see it.

However he has an ancient XP laptop that connects just fine using his modem.

I now have his unit here at my house, and, once again, it's working perfectly.

The ONLY fly in the ointment is that when I took it back to his house it stayed on the Starting Windows screen. For about 5 minutes. We never got the merging balls. I held down the power button till it turned off, got the Repair your computer or Start Windows normally on the restart, selected start normally and this time got the merging balls and the desktop. I also got the yellow triangle on the network icon in the notification area.telling me taht I had no internet access. When I brought it back to my house and my DSL modem it again froze on the Starting Windows screen. I let it sit there for 20 minutes before I powered off. On the restart I again chose to start normally, but this time when the desktop displayed there was no yellow triangle, and I had internet access. I have no idea if this figures into the cable / DSL problem, but in the interests of full disclosure I thought I should add it to the info.

A chkdsk failed to find any problems.

Just so we're on the same page....these are modems that are not in the same physical area. The cable modem is at site A - the HP never connects, and always has a 169 IP address. The DSL modem is at site B - the HP always connects, and always has a 192 IP address.

I have uninstalled the network driver and turned the HP off, but the cable guys also messed with the Windows updates protocols so it's got 72 updates it's been installing for the past hour. Every single one of these seems to take several minutes to install, so I probably won't get to see the driver reinstall for at least another half hour. But I'm not sure what that'll tell us since the HP is now at site B, where it always connects.

Seems like there should be a better way to test this than constantly shuttling this HP the 10 miles between my house and my uncle's. And I have no idea what tools to use to try to diagnose the problem. And where would I use the tools if I had them? Site A - the cable modem? Or Site B - the DSL modem?

Updates completed, so the HP shut down. I removed the ethernet cable and the power cord, re-attached them and restarted the PC, now without an ethernet driver. It's been sitting on the Starting Windows screen (prior to the balls) for at least 10 minutes. I'll let it alone for another 30 minutes and report back.

Never budged. Held in power button. Restarted. Ignored startup repair and started normally (the only 2 choices). It spent what seemed like an inordinate amount of time configuring the updates (9 minutes), then it started normally, and the network icon has no yellow triangle. My IP address is 192.168.xxx.xxx and I connect immediately to the internet, so apparently the network adapter has reinstalled.

But I've seen this scenario before. I have a horrible feeling that if I take it for a 10 mile drive it won't connect.

As mentioned and if possible, try a different network cable. Other options are to power cycle/reboot the modem. You could also try running ipconfig/release and then ipconfig/renew from the command prompt window.

Thanks, but I've had enough... I've restored to factory settings and am installing Windows updates. So far, no freezing at the Starting Windows screen. And it connects every time. How it will do at my uncle's is anyone's guess.

I can't see how replacing any of the cables would mean anything. We've had 2 laptops connect without a hitch to that same modem using those same cables.

boweasel said:

Thanks, but I've had enough... I've restored to factory settings and am installing Windows updates. So far, no freezing at the Starting Windows screen. And it connects every time. How it will do at my uncle's is anyone's guess.

I can't see how replacing any of the cables would mean anything. We've had 2 laptops connect without a hitch to that same modem using those same cables.

It wasn't obvious "not to me anyway", that another PC had used that cable so that's why I mentioned trying a different one.

alphanumeric said:

It wasn't obvious "not to me anyway", that another PC had used that cable so that's why I mentioned trying a different one.

From my initial post:

I brought his unit home and connected it to my DSL modem. Immediate connection. IP address 192 something. I took it back to his house and it didn't connect again. He had the cable guys there for 3.5 hours Tuesday. They showed him that their laptop connected using his modem. I wasn't there to see it.

However he has an ancient XP laptop that connects just fine using his modem.