No network connection found

mediaman09 · 09 Oct 2011

Out of the blue, I lost my Network and Internet connectivity

Windows 7 gave me excellent troubleshooting tips like to check if I have a cable connected..

Device manager tells me that my network adapter is working properly (Realtek GBE)..

When I try to connect to a network it tells me no network connection found.

Any suggestions? I am dead in the water. The machine is still configured as it was out of the box (relatively new machine - Dell XPS Studio 9100 - Windows 7 Home Edition 64 Bit). It been working fine for almost a year.

I sincerely hope reformatting and reinstalling Windows 7 is not the answer to every windows 7 problem

richnrockville · 09 Oct 2011

Mediaman, can it be assumed that your ethernet cable is plugged in and you can see blinking lights on the jack where the plug is installed? Or is this a wireless? Have you tried to repair the connection by going to the network indicator and selecting diagnose or repair?

Rich

mediaman09 · 09 Oct 2011

It's a wired connection

I ran the windows network diagnostics. No luck.

I reseated all the cables and rebooted the router. No luck.

All my other machines have network acesss (one other win 7, many xp's, ipad, apple tv etc, etc.

This brand new win 7 machine simply decided to stop connecting to internet or the local LAN.

The Ethernet port is built in. I don't see any lights, but I don't think any exist.

I am at a loss as to what to do.. I would hate to rebuild any entire machine over this. Inhave made no software changes of late that would explain this behavior.

Control panel, network and sharing, the view active networks section says :you are currently not connected to any networks.

If I try to connect to a network, it says no connections are available. If I select troubleshoot, it tells me to connect a cable.

I am out of options

rogerfour · 09 Oct 2011

mediaman09, control panel/network & sharing center/change advanced sharing settings/ then turn on network discovery and any of the other options that you want to have...... then try to connect to network again.

mediaman09 · 09 Oct 2011

Thanks. Tried that but it did not help.

Windows 7 is the gift that keeps on giving. I rebooted the machine and got a BSOD. It flashed just enough so a user could not read it. Then it went into a chkdsk routine, and again flashed by just fast enough not be able to read what it said. Then it said "Welcome" for awhile but no change re the network issue.

To date, between my two Win 7 machines, I have, by far, spent more time fixing them than using them. So that translates to zero enjoyment and zero productivity. I am a professional engineer using pc's since they were introduced in 1983. needless to say I am most underwhelmed with Windows 7.

Looks like I am headed for a rebuild.. Unbelievable. New machine, relatively new operating system and still basic functions are this unreliable.

There goes another 20 hours I will never get back..

mediaman09 · 09 Oct 2011

I am into hour 2 now of restoring the drive to an earlier image.

As fully expected, the restore has failed. After all, its windows.

System now won't recognize any user profile (even Admin) as the user files are on D: drive which is hidden and deleted when I restore the c drive. What a day. During the restoration, I booted in safe mode with networking, and still no luck.. So I am going to abandon this brand new machine (with it's 2 TB of disk space, 18GB of memory, fast processor and Win 7 64 bit OS). One day I may reformat it and reinstall from the Dell OEM DVD..but it's going to sit dead for a while as I have no patience for this anymore.

After dealing with two Win 7 machines, I think I am pretty much done with Dell and with Microsoft. I can't afford the total time drain, and worse the stress it causes is extremely unhealthy. I would have thought that by 2011, after seven kicks at an operating system, Microsoft would have built a robust stable rock solid product, but alas, this will never be the case..

rogerfour · 10 Oct 2011

mediaman, sorry to hear of your bad experience. There are so many things that could have gone wrong but I guess at this point the system is now unrecoverable after these failed attempts. Any suggestions now would be useless. Getting BSOD's even briefly is bad every time, there must have been some event that caused this in the first place - Assuming that your cables checked out, It must have been Hardware - Ethernet, RAM, Virus or some combination thereof..... especially if you have other working machines on the same network.
Windows 7 is a solid OS - but I guess you can't win them all - stuff happens. Good Luck.

mediaman09 · 10 Oct 2011

After a nights sleep and reformatted the whole thing and started from scracth. Been at it ALL day. I did spend $1000 on this machine so I do want to get 'some' value out of it, desptie the pain in doing so.

I also moved the machine to a different room ( no easy task) direct to the router, to narrow down issues.

After a rebuild, I now have network connectivty again... but this solid OS wont let me install updates. It installed some, but for the big one ( 87 updates), it just sits at 0% for hours.

I searched for some fixes but most just suggest, ahem, resintalling Win 7- the standard answer for any issue. Done than about a two dozen times in the last month.

Saw another suggestion for elevated command prompt to stop windows updates - tried that - no difference.

Saw another one about Microsfot Security Essentials causing the problem. Too much irony there!. Anyway I cant see it Control Panel/Program so there is no way to uninstall it assuming I even have it ( can see it under Start Programs)

Its really is quite a joke the pain one must go thru to get Win 7 to work properly once there is a problem. One step forward, two steps back. Thank heavens for this forum. But it really is a sad statement.

Anyways, how do I get past the 0% download progress on Windows updates??

richnrockville · 11 Oct 2011

Mediaman, It is a shame what you have gone thru.
a couple of questions.

When you say you re-installed windows, Did you reformat the disk or just reinstall windows without removing the existing partitions?

When re-installing windows, I recommend a complete removal of the existing partitions so that any traces of the prior problems are obliterated.

Also, one thing about ethernet connections, there is an option for the OS to turn the power off to an ethernet device both wired and wireless when it detects that the connection is not used, this could do what you described earlier.

Exactly what version of Windows 7 are you installing? OEM or full version?

Also, before you install any microsoft updates, I recommend you make sure that all of your machine drivers, for motherboard, network and video are installed and up to date.

Hope this helps or commiserates with you.

Rich

rogerfour · 11 Oct 2011

mediaman, sometimes the updates get stuck for some reason and a particular update has failed which prevents it from going any further. Here is a suggestion which seemed to have worked for somebody:
Update install taking a long time
Applies To: Windows | Windows 7 | Install, Upgrade and Activate
I downloaded some system updates, but then because some of my programs wouldn't respond I had to force restart it. Now it's installing my updates, but it's been stuck on 20 updates out of 22 for hours which is unusual - it's never taken this long before.

I'm using Windows 7 (I believe its the Home version). I'm not sure if I'm using a 32 bit of 64bit version of Windows. I don't know when the last update was installed - it might have been a month ago. I'm also unsure of the update number of any failed updates.

Norton anti-virus is the only anti-virus I've used, and I'm pretty sure it's up to date.

Click 'Start' and enter in the search box: (without the quotes) "Windows Updates"
Click on Windows Update in the list that pops up.
Upper left corner of the Windows Update windows is the option to "View update history", click on it.
Your list of updates should be displayed, one of the columns is named "Status", scroll down the list until you find the failed update and write down the KB number.
Google the KB Number as per this example to down the update file and store it in a folder.
KB2534366 download - Google Search=
Then double click on the file you downloaded to install it.
Note: Sometimes a "Clean Boot" helps to insure the update installs.
How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7
How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7
(Perform Steps #1a, 1b, 1c, 1d and 1e)
Perform a clean startup to determine whether background programs are interfering with your game or program
Perform a clean startup to determine whether background programs are interfering with your game or program
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After the reboot the update I was having trouble with installed, so everything seems to be working. Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it.
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Mediaman, Maybe this will also work for you ?? I HATE giving up on stuff like this !! It’s just a silly machine…….