Help: Corrupted Wireless?

[Eluros]

Greetings,

My PC specs are in my signature. Last night, my PC (Windows 7 x64) worked without a problem. It shut down cleanly. This morning, when I turned on my PC after BIOS/POST but before the OS, I was taken to a black screen telling me to run CHKDSK. I couldn't get into the OS, but I was able to use the OS DVD to access Command Prompt and run CHKDSK. It found quite a few problems. I rebooted and launched into the OS to find that my wireless network could not connect. I have a PCI b/g card, and the card seemed to be physically undamaged.

I went ahead and ran sfc/scannow from command prompt, which found a bunch of corrupted files. I ran Malwarebytes, which found no viruses (and I was not doing anything, the night before, that would be an obvious way of getting a virus). Everything is working, now, except for wireless. I used netsh to reset the TCP/IP stack, which completed successfully, but I still had no connections (no available wireless networks).

I uninstalled the drivers for the PCI Wireless Card and installed drives for a spare known-good Netgear USB wireless card I keep lying around. I tried using the default Windows wireless configuration (it used to be Wireless Zero Configuration, although I don't know if it's still called that) and the proprietary Netgear drivers. Both sets could see a list of all networks, but would get "limited connectivity". Other PCs in the house can connect, including this one. I've tried both secured and unsecured networks.

I know this isn't any huge thing to brag about (and I'm not posting it to brag), but I'm A+ certified and Network+ certified. I work in an IT department, and feel like I should be able to figure this out. However, I have no idea what originally corrupted the files, and no idea how to fix my now-defunct wireless availability. I do not have a readily-available way to plug the PC to our router, given where things are located around the house.

I'm at my wits end, at this point. Any other suggestions on what to do or what to check? I'm about ready to repair/upgrade Windows, but I would really prefer not to do that unless necessary. I am willing to give almost anything a shot.

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[jamesmcuk]

have you tried assigning a Static IP? I take it is getting the same DHCP info as the other machines are?

Have check for IP address duplication / conflict.

One final thing that I have had on mine is the Adaptor MAC address not being picked up by windows (can be seen as all zeros in IPCONFIG) I had to go in to my adaptor properties and set it to one I found on the net and it all then connected fine so its worth checking.

 

[Eluros]

have you tried assigning a Static IP? I take it is getting the same DHCP info as the other machines are?

Have check for IP address duplication / conflict.

One final thing that I have had on mine is the Adaptor MAC address not being picked up by windows (can be seen as all zeros in IPCONFIG) I had to go in to my adaptor properties and set it to one I found on the net and it all then connected fine so its worth checking.

Thanks for the reply!

The USB Wireless Adapter that "limited connectivity" is not able to pull an IP address, so I haven't tried assigning a static IP to it. I can give it a shot, but I don't know that the problem is with DHCP. I did try restarting the DHCP service earlier, and it restarted successfully, but still no dice.

I'm not sure what, exactly, you're suggesting with your second point. Are you suggesting I set a static MAC address? I would be open to trying it, but I'm not sure what good it would do or why it would fix this sort of issue.

 

[jamesmcuk]

Thanks for the reply!

I'm not sure what, exactly, you're suggesting with your second point. Are you suggesting I set a static MAC address? I would be open to trying it, but I'm not sure what good it would do or why it would fix this sort of issue.

Well the problem I had was that if I went in to device manager and right clicked my network adaptor went to properties and then the advanced tab I have an option saying Network Address, this was blank and gave me the exact problem you describe. So I found a valid mac address and typed it in and its been fine ever since.

 

[Eluros]

Well the problem I had was that if I went in to device manager and right clicked my network adaptor went to properties and then the advanced tab I have an option saying Network Address, this was blank and gave me the exact problem you describe. So I found a valid mac address and typed it in and its been fine ever since.

Well, no go. I'm afraid that didn't fix the issue.

I'm currently in the process of ensuring that data is backed up. Figure I may need to reformat, at this point. Major brownie points if anyone can help me out.

 

[jamesmcuk]

Hmm well how about:

MAC Address filtering or some other security such as flood detection on the router is blocking you?

A Windows update installed and was implemented on your last reboot - try roll back / uninstall

A Antivirus / Firewall update did similar to the above


Did you try a static IP just to see if it was a DHCP problem

Also just to be clear are we talking about "Limited Connectivity" or a total "It won't even detect the wireless network" type problem?

 

[Eluros]

Hmm well how about:

MAC Address filtering or some other security such as flood detection on the router is blocking you?

A Windows update installed and was implemented on your last reboot - try roll back / uninstall

A Antivirus / Firewall update did similar to the above


Did you try a static IP just to see if it was a DHCP problem

Also just to be clear are we talking about "Limited Connectivity" or a total "It won't even detect the wireless network" type problem?

Well, I ended up "upgrading" Windows. Turned out to be relatively painless, and it did resolve the problem. I still don't know what caused it; hopefully it won't happen again.

At any rate, thanks for the help!

 

[jamesmcuk]

yeah very strange -but at least it is sorted

 

[JackMDS]

Greetings,

I went ahead and ran sfc/scannow from command prompt, which found a bunch of corrupted files. I ran Malwarebytes, which found no viruses (and I was not doing anything, the night before, that would be an obvious way of getting a virus). Everything is working, now, except for wireless. I used netsh to reset the TCP/IP stack, which completed successfully, but I still had no connections (no available wireless networks).

Scan now can refresh corrupt files but it can not change entries in the configuration system a that might go "haywire" when the computer run with the corrupted file.

If you only used "netsh to reset".
Then next time try this.

WinSock and TCP/IP Refresh.

Type Cmd in the Start Search text box.

Press Ctrl-Shift-Enter keyboard shortcut to run a Command Prompt as an Administrator. Allow elevation.

Type netsh winsock reset in the Command Prompt , and then press the Enter key.

Do the same process for refreshing the TCP/IP just replace the typed command with.

netsh interface ipv4 reset press Enter

netsh interface ipv6 reset press Enter

ipconfig /flushdns press Enter

Restart your Computer.