network fails on reboot, xp pro - latest updates the cause?

[Ian L]

On july 13th i installed the following 5 updates:
KB839645
KB841873
KB840315
KB842773
KB823353

And starting this morning, after rebooting my machine, my network does
not work. I have an IP address of 0.0.0.0 and it also says i've sent
several billion packets, even though the machine has been up and running
less then a minute (0 packets received).

The repair button fails, and using ipconfig /renew i get an error saying
it fails to find some file (doesnt say what file). Rebooting doesnt help
since it just puts me back where i was.

The only way i have found to correct this is to go into the network
properties, manually enter in ANY ip address and click apply. Then go
back and set it back to use DHCP and click apply. It then works.

Its not a problem with my home network since i have a 2nd machine which
works fine. I'm not sure if one of those updates is the cause, but thats
the only thing i've installed recently on this machine.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[WinGuy]

On july 13th i installed the following 5 updates:
KB839645
KB841873
KB840315
KB842773
KB823353

And starting this morning, after rebooting my machine, my network does
not work. I have an IP address of 0.0.0.0 and it also says i've sent
several billion packets, even though the machine has been up and running
less then a minute (0 packets received).
!!!!

The repair button fails,

What repair button?

and using ipconfig /renew i get an error saying
it fails to find some file (doesnt say what file). Rebooting doesnt help
since it just puts me back where i was.

Indicative of a corrupted system file that sfc might be able to fix. Did you
try it?
Start | Run | cmd | OK
sfc /purgecache
sfc /scannow (might require CD, can take a long time to do its thing)
sfc /purgecache
exit

The only way i have found to correct this is to go into the network
properties, manually enter in ANY ip address and click apply. Then go
back and set it back to use DHCP and click apply. It then works.

Does the IP address then change away from how you set it? Meaning, is DHCP
then really working? Seems it should be, from what you say. Very strange.

Its not a problem with my home network since i have a 2nd machine which
works fine. I'm not sure if one of those updates is the cause, but thats
the only thing i've installed recently on this machine.

Anyone have any ideas?

So you use a router on your home network? It assigns the IP address to your
home computers via DHCP? You've tested a reboot of the other computer to
make sure the router is still assigning addresses instead of just using what
already exists? Could be you need to physically reset (and then reconfigure)
or power cycle (no reconfigure required) the router. Did you have any other
devices indicating that maybe you had a household power glitch? A rapidly
fluxuating power glitch could have caused file damage to the HDD, too. If
glitch is a suspect then it might be a good idea to run a thourough chkdsk;
get to Recovery Console by booting CD:
chkdsk c: /R (this will take quite a while, it does additional testing and
also checks for bad sectors on the entire hard drive)
exit
Can not hurt to do it even if a glitch is not suspect.

Does Event Viewer give any clues?

 

[Ian L]

What repair button?

when you dbl click (or right click and select status) on the network
icon and click on the support tab, there's a repair button. I think it
all it does is request a new IP.

Indicative of a corrupted system file that sfc might be able to fix. Did you
try it?
Start | Run | cmd | OK
sfc /purgecache
sfc /scannow (might require CD, can take a long time to do its thing)
sfc /purgecache
exit

Well, if that is the case, then why would it work at all? anyhow, i'll
try that later. I think i am going to try uninstalling all 5 patches,
and see if that fixes it. if it does, then i'll reinstall the patches 1
at a time to see if it reoccurs.

Does the IP address then change away from how you set it? Meaning, is DHCP
then really working? Seems it should be, from what you say. Very strange.

DHCP is working, i do get an IP address when i switch it back to DHCP.

So you use a router on your home network? It assigns the IP address to your
home computers via DHCP? You've tested a reboot of the other computer to
make sure the router is still assigning addresses instead of just using what
already exists? Could be you need to physically reset (and then reconfigure)
or power cycle (no reconfigure required) the router. Did you have any other
devices indicating that maybe you had a household power glitch? A rapidly
fluxuating power glitch could have caused file damage to the HDD, too. If
glitch is a suspect then it might be a good idea to run a thourough chkdsk;
get to Recovery Console by booting CD:
chkdsk c: /R (this will take quite a while, it does additional testing and
also checks for bad sectors on the entire hard drive)
exit
Can not hurt to do it even if a glitch is not suspect.

Does Event Viewer give any clues?

Yes using a router, using DHCP on the router and yes DHCP is working.
Power cycling the router didnt do anything. And i dont think a hard
reset would help either since the other machine is working fine. Plus
there's the fact that the computer says several billion packets have
been sent as soon as it boots up. So the one thing i am pretty sure of,
the problem is on my PC and not with the router or anything else.

I'm going to try uninstalling those patches first and see what that does.

 

[Ian L]

What repair button?




Indicative of a corrupted system file that sfc might be able to fix. Did you
try it?
Start | Run | cmd | OK
sfc /purgecache
sfc /scannow (might require CD, can take a long time to do its thing)
sfc /purgecache
exit




Does the IP address then change away from how you set it? Meaning, is DHCP
then really working? Seems it should be, from what you say. Very strange.




So you use a router on your home network? It assigns the IP address to your
home computers via DHCP? You've tested a reboot of the other computer to
make sure the router is still assigning addresses instead of just using what
already exists? Could be you need to physically reset (and then reconfigure)
or power cycle (no reconfigure required) the router. Did you have any other
devices indicating that maybe you had a household power glitch? A rapidly
fluxuating power glitch could have caused file damage to the HDD, too. If
glitch is a suspect then it might be a good idea to run a thourough chkdsk;
get to Recovery Console by booting CD:
chkdsk c: /R (this will take quite a while, it does additional testing and
also checks for bad sectors on the entire hard drive)
exit
Can not hurt to do it even if a glitch is not suspect.

Does Event Viewer give any clues?

A 1 by 1 uninstall did not fix the problem and then a reinstall of all 5
patches also did not fix the problem. So if those patches screwed
something up, then whatever they did is not fixable by uninstalling
them. Either that or its just a coincidence this is happening after
those patches were installed. Guess i'll either have to try reinstalling
the network drivers or some of the suggestions you gave. Although if i
remember correctly about the sfc application, its going to check files
based on the original released version of XP. Meaning any files that
have been updates by windowsupdate are going to get flagged by that
program, correct?

 

[WinGuy]

A 1 by 1 uninstall did not fix the problem and then a reinstall of all 5
patches also did not fix the problem. So if those patches screwed
something up, then whatever they did is not fixable by uninstalling
them. Either that or its just a coincidence this is happening after
those patches were installed. Guess i'll either have to try reinstalling
the network drivers or some of the suggestions you gave. Although if i
remember correctly about the sfc application, its going to check files
based on the original released version of XP. Meaning any files that
have been updates by windowsupdate are going to get flagged by that
program, correct?

I think it probably just coincidence, as you mentioned being possible.
Here's the scoop on what sfc does, which someone else posted to this group
and I glommed onto for later reference!
microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support
"R. McCarty" Sat, 17 Jul 2004 15:53:59 GMT
http://groups.google.com/groups?q="...sread2.news.atl.earthlink.net&rnum=4&filter=0
So I don't think you have a valid worry in that regard about usage of sfc
and updates. Set a system restore point just in case, though!

This doesn't even smell like an infection to me, it seems more like some
sort of weird driver corruption (one that might only be in the cache, so
maybe just a sfc /purgecache might fix it?) It's the high number of
"transmitted" (!) packets that makes me think it's loopback or probably just
being dropped. The router couldn't possibly operate that fast, nor could the
NIC, I'd think, so it's not even getting out of the physical interface and
probably not even to the NIC. I suppose it could be a (new type of)
infection, though most want to maintain network connectability and just mess
with everything else to be annoying or worse.

Your idea about uninstalling and reinstalling network drivers is a good one,
but sfc /scannow might be required before that will show results. I'd try
uninstalling them, uninstalling the adapters themselves too at the same time
(and not just a disable), do not reboot, do the sfc /purgecache, sfc
/scannow, sfc /purgecache thing, do not reboot, then detect new devices from
control panel, finally do a reboot and then configure the protocols. Have
your drivers available before you uninstall things!

Interesting problem.