Unfortunately clearing the CMOS didn't do the trick. I tried it twice just to make sure. After doing that and setting IPv4 settings back to automatic, my ipconfig log looks the same as it did before when I was missing a default gateway and all that.
If that didn't work than something is pretty messed up, possibly a hardware problem, hard to say from way over here when I can't even see the machine.
If you havn't reset your router you should do so without hesitation, also try updating the router's firmware if you havn't yet. The rogue Ip that showed up in your ipconfig leads me to believe that your modem was giving you this rogue IP, which means the routers DHCP wasn't not working correctly for Windows 7. The firmware update would definately be required if this is the only Win 7 machine in your network.
I'm assuming you have all the required Windows updates installed for your system? If not try installing them.
If that doens't work then reinstall Win 7 and update your system with all important updates using Windows update.
Lately it's been nothing but impossible to solve problems for some reason. If I actually had access to some of these machines I believe the results would be much different.
Last edited by chev65; 13 Jun 2010 at 16:21.
Updating the firmware didn't seem to do anything. As for installing Windows updates, don't I need an internet connection to do that?
It doesn't seem like those things would logically be the problem anyway. I had an internet connection on the PC for 6 months straight. Not to mention a few days ago I had internet for a good 2 hours immediately following the Windows 7 re-installation before it stopped working for no apparent reason. I will most likely re-install Windows 7 again and just see what happens, but I have a feeling I'll run into the same problem again.
If it is a hardware problem, is there a specific component that is most likely to be causing the trouble? Would it more likely be the motherboard than, say, the RAM for example? Is there a way to pinpoint exactly where the source of the problem is?
Okay, so something strange happened. I was messing around with stuff and testing out random troubleshooting ideas. I have two network adapter drivers. One is for the wireless card and I think the other one is for ethernet. I decided to disable the ethernet driver and uninstall the wireless driver, then boot into safe mode with networking.
When safe mode booted up, Windows automatically re-installed the wireless card driver as I expected. I tried connecting to my home network once again and lo and behold it was a success! I had an internet connection. I opened up Internet Explorer and the MSN homepage loaded. I went to Google just to further confirm that I did indeed have internet and the Google homepage loaded up too.
Now for the frustrating part. I quickly rebooted back into normal Windows to see what would happen. Of course, I got the familiar "Unidentified network" error. So I recreated the exact conditions and repeated the exact same steps I took 2 minutes earlier when I got the PC to connect. Disable this driver, uninstall that driver, reboot into safe mode. Unidentified network. My internet connection is gone once again, and I can't replicate the success I just experienced.
I took a snapshot of my ipconfig log when my internet was functioning for those brief couple of minutes:
http://i47.tinypic.com/241v0oy.jpg
All of the IPv4 properties were set to automatic. I have no idea why on earth it worked all of the sudden after one reboot and then never again.
The ipconfig looks good but I'm not familior with those DNS servers, you might try using Googles DNS servers instead. Google Public DNS
Sounds like the drivers are somehow messing everything up which is strange. If you were able to connect in safe mode than most likely there is a third party program or some type of malware blocking the connection. Maybe running Malware bytes would help, hard to say. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware: Malwarebytes
I can't see what third party programs you have installed from here but if I could I'm certain that I would see something I didn't like.
Reinstalling the OP system may be the way to go here.
Last edited by chev65; 15 Jun 2010 at 21:10.
FINALLY!!!! A SOLUTION!!!
Okay, so after 5 days of troubleshooting the problem with every spare moment I had, it has finally been resolved. You were right, chev65. It was a driver problem. The driver that Windows 7 was automatically installing for my wireless card was somehow interrupting my internet connection.
I became really worried yesterday when I tried reinstalling Windows 7 and the problem persisted. At that point I really began to suspect that a hardware component was the culprit. Then, after hours of reformatting, reinstalling Windows 7, reformatting, installing Windows XP, putting the wireless card in another PC, and so on and so on, I finally determined that it HAD to be a driver issue.
In case anyone else is experiencing the same problem and stumbles onto this thread through Google or something, here is exactly what I did:
1. Manually downloaded the Vista driver for my wireless card. I had tried downloading the latest drivers from Realtek's website but they were no help, so I had to resort to driverscollection.com since it had drivers for my wifi card's specific brand and model (a Hiro H50069, for reference). The site didn't have a Windows 7 driver so I had to go with the Vista driver.
2. Opened Device Manager, looked for my wireless card driver, right-clicked it and then clicked Properties.
3. Clicked the "Update Driver" button.
4. Clicked "Browse my computer for driver software"
5. Clicked "Let me pick a list of device drivers on my computer"
6. Clicked the "Have disk..." button and browsed for the .inf driver file I just downloaded. Selected it and let the installation take over.
This was the only method I could figure out to manually choose which driver to install, because Windows was being a pain and insisted on automatically installing its own driver even when I changed the Windows device installation settings to prevent this.
Here's hoping the problem doesn't crop up again. Thanks chev65 and everyone else who helped me narrow down the problem!
Glad that you figured this out JoFo, I have heard the Vista drivers work better with older wireless adaptors. Looks like the auto install Win 7 drivers for your older wifi adaptor were the real problem in this case.
I'm sure the wired connection would have worked fine with the Windows 7 drivers but the older wireless adaptor sure didn't seem to like the drivers that Win 7 auto installed. Installing the driver though device manager always seems to work better in these situations. Nice work on that.
You're exactly right, chev. Yesterday I dragged my PC into the other room so that it was within reach of an ethernet cable. The PC could connect to the internet just fine when plugged in through ethernet. It was just the wireless adapter that was acting fussy.
Thanks again!
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