Network discovery & computer browser svc issue, but no error in EV

I have a small home network with a A)Win7 desktop, B)a Win7 laptop, and C)an XP desktop. I work primarily with A.

I did some network refiddling to replace a router. All seems to be working, but when I try to enable Network Discovery or File & Printer Sharing on A, they turn themselves right back off again.

Investigating this, I am informed that the Computer Browser service must be running.

This service isn't running. Started, it stops itself after a minute or so, with no error or warning in the event viewer, just a calm notice that the service has stopped. No reason given.

Just about all of the help I can find involves some sort of error code. I was misled into firewall issues, but the firewall doesn't come into it until Network Discovery is turned on.

Can anybody spare me some light to solve this?

Usually just resetting winsock will fix this problem. At an elevated command prompt use the following commands one at a time, hit enter after each one.

netsh winsock reset catalog (reset winsock entries)

netsh int ip reset reset.log hit (reset TCP/IP stack)

Let me know if these commands have any effect on the problem you are seeing. :)

Both commands completed correctly, though telling me I needed to reboot. I did so after entering both. I did have to restore my computer's static IP address, after which things were normal. Alas, this had no effect on my issues. Network Discovery, F&P Sharing, and the computer browser service all shut themselves off, and no errors in EV.

Bagby said:

Both commands completed correctly, though telling me I needed to reboot. I did so after entering both. I did have to restore my computer's static IP address, after which things were normal. Alas, this had no effect on my issues. Network Discovery, F&P Sharing, and the computer browser service all shut themselves off, and no errors in EV.

Well good then, at least we now know what is not the problem.

The problem you are seeing has quite a few different solutions but first I'd have to see a screen shot of the ipconfig/all from this machine in order to eliminate other possible problems. :)

Bagby said:

No problems there at all.

Are you running any A/V software? If so does it have a firewall enabled?

Have you tried running the sfc/scannow command?

I'm running TrustPort plain AV with no additional firewall. I have just the Win7 software firewall, and the router's firmware firewall, no others.

Sfc reports that it found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Its log is attached. Hope you can parse it better than I can.

System restore is an option but not ideal to fix this type of problem.

You might try running the Repair Install a few times to try and sort out those file problems.

I ran into something close to what you're experiencing...what worked for me, now this is just what I did. I removed the whole network and started from scratch, redoing everything. Once I set the network up and added all my PC's and gave all permissions for who gets to share what with who...all worked like it was supposed to.

chev65 said:

System restore is an option but not ideal to fix this type of problem.

You might try running the Repair Install a few times to try and sort out those file problems.

I'm afraid that's not really an option for me, as it would require total re-installation due to Microsoft's arbitrary restrictions, and it sounds like a don't-know-what-else-to-try-maybe-this-will-work sort of answer, not really trying to address a specific problem or issue at all.

From what I can parse of the log file, it's complaining about desktop gadget files, which I don't ever use at all.