horrible intermittent problem accessing XP machine

[Rob]

Hello

I am experiencing a very frustrating problem where all the other
machines on our small network (just: 2 w2000, 1 winME) can suddenly
not connect to winXP Pro with all the service packs installed. It's a
very simple workgroup setup. When trying to browse from one of the
other machines, the rsponse is exactly like the XP machine was
switched off (network name cannot be found). However the XP machine
can connect to all the others. When the problem occurs, it sometime
affects only 1 of the machines which are trying to connect - he others
can still access resources on the XP machine, then at some point
afterwards (from a few minutes to a few hours) the others are unable
to connect.

This problem will typically occur every 2 hours and the only solution
we can find is to reboot the XP machine after which all is OK for the
next 2 hours or so. However, after this occurs the XP machine cannot
shutdown or restart) successfully (it hangs on the "windows is
shutting down" message) although when the network is functioning
normally it can shutdown/restart OK.

The machines are all clone PCs and we do not experience any other
problems.

I have seen several messages related to shutdown problems, but the
only solutions I have seen point to this KB article
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q307274
However that concerns a shutdown failure where the machine hangs on
the "saving yout settings" message whereas my problem is hanging on
"windows is shutting down".

I have also tried the suggestions at this site without success:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

There are no messages in the system log to indicate any problam on the
XP machine.

ACPI is not installed (I have read that this is a common cause of
shutdwn problems)

Any advice/help is much appreciated.

Thanks
Rob

 

[Quaoar]

Hello

I am experiencing a very frustrating problem where all the other
machines on our small network (just: 2 w2000, 1 winME) can suddenly
not connect to winXP Pro with all the service packs installed. It's a
very simple workgroup setup. When trying to browse from one of the
other machines, the rsponse is exactly like the XP machine was
switched off (network name cannot be found). However the XP machine
can connect to all the others. When the problem occurs, it sometime
affects only 1 of the machines which are trying to connect - he others
can still access resources on the XP machine, then at some point
afterwards (from a few minutes to a few hours) the others are unable
to connect.

This problem will typically occur every 2 hours and the only solution
we can find is to reboot the XP machine after which all is OK for the
next 2 hours or so. However, after this occurs the XP machine cannot
shutdown or restart) successfully (it hangs on the "windows is
shutting down" message) although when the network is functioning
normally it can shutdown/restart OK.

The machines are all clone PCs and we do not experience any other
problems.

I have seen several messages related to shutdown problems, but the
only solutions I have seen point to this KB article
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q307274
However that concerns a shutdown failure where the machine hangs on
the "saving yout settings" message whereas my problem is hanging on
"windows is shutting down".

I have also tried the suggestions at this site without success:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

There are no messages in the system log to indicate any problam on the
XP machine.

ACPI is not installed (I have read that this is a common cause of
shutdwn problems)

Any advice/help is much appreciated.

Thanks
Rob

Swap out the ethernet cable. See if that helps.

Q

 

[Rob]

Swap out the ethernet cable. See if that helps.

Q

No, the problem persists :-(

 

[XPUSER]

Hello

I am experiencing a very frustrating problem where all the other
machines on our small network (just: 2 w2000, 1 winME) can suddenly
not connect to winXP Pro with all the service packs installed. It's a
very simple workgroup setup. When trying to browse from one of the
other machines, the rsponse is exactly like the XP machine was
switched off (network name cannot be found). However the XP machine
can connect to all the others. When the problem occurs, it sometime
affects only 1 of the machines which are trying to connect - he others
can still access resources on the XP machine, then at some point
afterwards (from a few minutes to a few hours) the others are unable
to connect.

This problem will typically occur every 2 hours and the only solution
we can find is to reboot the XP machine after which all is OK for the
next 2 hours or so. However, after this occurs the XP machine cannot
shutdown or restart) successfully (it hangs on the "windows is
shutting down" message) although when the network is functioning
normally it can shutdown/restart OK.

The machines are all clone PCs and we do not experience any other
problems.

I have seen several messages related to shutdown problems, but the
only solutions I have seen point to this KB article
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q307274
However that concerns a shutdown failure where the machine hangs on
the "saving yout settings" message whereas my problem is hanging on
"windows is shutting down".

I have also tried the suggestions at this site without success:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

There are no messages in the system log to indicate any problam on the
XP machine.

ACPI is not installed (I have read that this is a common cause of
shutdwn problems)

Any advice/help is much appreciated.

Thanks
Rob

========================================================
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313290&Product=winxp

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;810903&Product=winxp

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308029&Product=winxp
========================================================

 

[Jim in Canada]

Possibly the XP machine is putting it's network card to sleep and it is set
to not wake up.

Really......go to the System Properties, Device Manager, then double click
on your network card. Go to the Power Management tab and uncheck the "Allow
the computer to turn off this device to save power" and run the network for
awhile. If that works, then recheck it and play with the other options in
that same tab to see if it works.

Jim

 

[Rob]

Nope, that is not the case. I did check as you suggest, but in any
event I fail to see how that could be the problem, since on the XP
machine, I can browse to all other machines with no problem. On the XP
machine everything *appears* normal until shutdown. And, as mentioned,
this problem is intermitent.

 

[Rob]

========================================================
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313290&Product=winxp

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;810903&Product=winxp

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308029&Product=winxp
========================================================

Sorry, those were no help. They all relate to other types of shutdown
problems. But I did follow the suggested fixes and they didn't help,
or didn't appluy. My problem is that - when the problem occurs (it is
intermittent) - it hangs on the "windows is shutting down" message,
not on "windows is saving your settings" or "it is now safe to switch
of your computer" (in fact I never see the latter message).

Any advice/help is much appreciated.

 

[XPUSER]

"XPUSER" <[email protected]> wrote in message


Sorry, those were no help. They all relate to other types of shutdown
problems. But I did follow the suggested fixes and they didn't help,
or didn't appluy. My problem is that - when the problem occurs (it is
intermittent) - it hangs on the "windows is shutting down" message,
not on "windows is saving your settings" or "it is now safe to switch
of your computer" (in fact I never see the latter message).

Any advice/help is much appreciated.

==========================================================
Random / intermittent issues tend to point toward some kind of hardware
issue.
It is very hard to troubleshoot such issues.

I would suggest doing a BIOS update if available and then run a Repair
Install of
XP in order to integrate the OS with that updated BIOS. All XP critical
updates
would have to be re-installed after a Repair Install and if the XP CD does
not include
XP SP1, then XP SP1 should be uninstalled before running a Repair Install. I
also
suggest you do all possible device driver updates.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

Barring that, you could try clean boot trouble shooting -

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316434
===========================================================