Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Odd WinXP problem. . .

Any (useful) thoughts would be appreciated here . . .

I recently Upgraded my PC to windows XP from 98SE (fresh install)

Since installing WinXP, it will often lose its network connection after some random period of idle time (though it has happened at least once while it was active) The wierd part is, that XP still says the connection is active and all of the network card lights are on correctly, etc. etc. only I cannot access anyhitng outside of the local machine, not even my router.
It seems it is no longer capable of renewing the ip when this happens.

I have tried replacing the network card w/ a new one, disabling all power management functions (both in XP and in the mobo bios) trying to force IPs etc. all kinds of crap, still to no avail.
It has gone for three days at a time w/ no problem, just to do it 4 or 5 times over the next day.

also, I have applied all of the XP updates, and all drivers are to the latest levels.

OOps, hit submit on accident,

anyway, I want to thank all those who have offered help so far on this, you guys know who you are . . .

I would suggest looking for different versions or other compatible drivers from the manufacturer websites. Or sending an email. Sometimes the drivers on the MS website may not be the only drivers that work, or they may not have all the hardware drivers needed.

I'm running XP Pro and it's taken a lot of searching for compatible drivers to get everything running right on my pc. A good number of them were in addition to what was on the MS website.

If that doesn't work. Reinstalling everything piece by piece may solve the problem. It's a pita but if nothing else works...

Good luck! XP is a great OS once it gets running right.

Upgrading = bad!!! Hehe...in general I wouldn't recommend upgrading from another operating system. Especially when doing such an "invasive" upgrade. I've had a similar problem but it only affected my internet access and I resolved it by putting in the dns addresses for my cable modem. It looks like you've exhausted any possible solutions to the problem...I hate to say it but I might try a fresh install of the OS. *maybe* removing the networking protocols from the network properties and then re-adding them after a reboot might help. You got me man...

I have the same problem, my solution was to dissconnect with the connection manager at the network card, and then reconnect. It is very rare, so I don't worry about it much. I have a cable modem though a router, what setup do you have Rara? DSL?

Upgrading is bad sometimes, I agree.

If you found one that works, stick with it. Just because they promise 2% better speed doesn't mean it's worth it.

As someone else stated earlier (I have fixed something similar for a friend). Sometimes certain DSL access managers can cause this problem. In my friends case, he was using Bell's high speed Sympatico service and its access manager was at fault. He downloaded the latest access manager software which fixed it.

I've also ran into a similar problem with my Intel 10/100 card under XP but the card works fine in win2k and others. Anyway I dont this this is your problem. Access manager is probably at fault.

Rara,

Do you have cable, DSL, or dialup?

I have AOL DSL and I experienced a similar problem when I upgraded to Win XP. To make a long story short, I ended up having AOL send me a different DSL modem because the drivers for the one I had were admittedly not compatible with XP (took them 2 months to admit it to me). But it would do exactly as you describe...just disconnect for no reason (would say network cable unplugged or something), and for me to reconnect online I'd have to reboot my computer... Was a real pain in the a**!!

a little more detail.

I have a cable modem, that goes into my router/hardware firewall which splits off to the (now) XP box, and another box w/ win98SE.

The 98 box has ZERO problems w/ any sort of connection at all (well, it can't see the XP box when it drops its connection)

I have the latest drivers for my netgear nic, and netgear swears its fully compatible w/ XP.

I have tried to remove/reinstall all of the network components for the connection, and all of the repair crap, etc, w/ no change. (an attempted repair after it drops out comes back w/ a "can't renew IP")

Also, some may have misunderstood, this IS a fresh install of XP, I initially did do the upgrade, not expecting it to work very well, and I was right, so I did a complete flush of my system, even reformatting to NTFS and a full fresh install of XP Pro.

Keep the ideas flowing, somehting has got to work!!! This is so frustrating and random!

so if I understand correctly your 98 box can't see the XP box, can XP box can't see the 98 box at this time? could be a simple conflict with how MS keeps changing networking from one OS to the next...

me I would try installing XP on both and see if it will work correctly... just use your copy you have now and don't register it which would give you a few weeks of testing to see if that is the problem.

It seems you have tried most of the hardware things you can try, let's work on software. Some questions:
1) Do you have any programs accessing the net constantly?
2) Have tried accessing the net before you loaded any other programs when you installed XP?

If you can't answer two, you could try useing MSCONFIG to turn off all apps when you boot-up. Only turn off any 'User' processes. Don't use that annoying Diagnostic startup button, seems to cause problems with the registration.

Another thing to try is wait for the problem to happen again and see if you can access the router directly. This is a reason why I like Netgear stuff; Launch a browser, type in http://192.168.0.1
Your User name is 'admin'
and your password is '1234'
Unless you changed it.

Click on the DHCP table & system status and see what it says. Good hunting.