PC only receives DHCP when booting, then DHCP doesn't work. A little help?

[CZroe]

I'm looking at a laptop here at work for someone and I'd hoped to be able to fix it with the limited resources available to me here. I have VERY limited Internet access here and I can't download tools or utilities.

It does not look like spyware. It's a Toshiba laptop that seems to have been only used to copy images from a camera once. It looks like a squeaky-clean install, and I'd think that it was a new laptop if the battery weren't completely non-functional and the McAfee products weren't nagging the user to renew the license.

Here's the problem: When I boot up with a LAN cable connected, I get DHCP. If I reconnect it or connect the RJ45 cable for the first time after booting, I don't. Wireless doesn't go active until the utilities are loaded, so it can't get DHCP either. A spare Xircom PCMCIA 10BT card confirmed that it does the exact same thing with all TCPI/IP interfaces (God, what did Intel do to Xircom?).

Though I don't suspect malware/spyware/adware/etc, I tried to grab LSPfix and throw it on my USB drive before coming to work to look at it, but the website was down and I just grabbed WinSockXPfix instead. Running it and restarting did not fix the problem.

It behaves the same way in "Safe Mode with Networking."

 

[Lemon law]

A few troubleshooting resources may be in order. Assuming you have windows XP or the similar vista--but advice is for XP (a) Go start---run--type msconfig in diaglog box. Press enter. In new window select services tab. DHCP should be present and checked. (b) Go to control panel--select administrative icon---select services icon which will show how various services including DHCP start with an ability to change from manual to automatic. (c) You can go control panel---select the side tab showing add remove windows components--which may then give you an ability to add whats missing.

Not 100% sure that will help, but its a place to start.

 

[CZroe]

Thanks. I was pressed for time in the window of opportunity I had to post that and I couldn't finish off the post with some of the important details. I already tried checking services and even removing/readding networking components to see if that would kick Windows into reinstalling (or at least, reinitializing) whatever part of this is botched.

It's Windows XP Home Edition, the DHCP Client service as reported in the Administrative Tools MMC snap-in is running & set to Automatic, and restarting it from there does not simulate the effects of rebooting as it still results in a DHCP timeout w/generated Autoconfiguration Address. What's next?

 

[spidey07]

Quick guess - the switch is running through the 30-50 second time before the switchport will forward traffic. Make sure you configure the switch properly to allow these ports to go directly to forwarding without the delay.

Second guess - repair the TCP/IP stack, search MS knowledge base on how to do.

 

[CZroe]

It came here from someone experiencing the same problem at home (on AOL) and I've already tried it on multiple switches in the building with multiple network adapters. Even with the same adapter, my Windows XP laptop pulls DHCP just fine (the same PCMCIA card or the integrated Broadcom PCIe Gigabit adapter).

Thanks for the suggestion. I have another minute online, so I'll look at repairing the stack. I've already re-added a TCP/IP binding from %SYSROOT%/INF (because it's not listed otherwise) and I'm restarting to see if that worked. I'm surprised that such information hasn't turned up in my google-searching (MSKB usually does if it's relevant).

 

[CZroe]

Didn't work, but uninstalling the supposedly disabled/inactive AOL and McAfee security applications did. The culprit? I suspect McAfee, even though the McAfee Security Center had all along offered to install the 30-day trial as if it was never installed and there was nothing related to enable/disable in the tray, Control Panel, or McAfee Security Center. Computer Associates (AKA "McAfee") "eTrust EZ Firewall" was in the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel and sure enough, it was the source one of the many McAfee dialogs nagging for license/verification checking... which popped up as I was uninstalling and bombed my initial uninstall attempt. I guess it just assumes that it's license expired when VirusScan does (the only one listed as installed in the McAfee Security Center; also showing "Expired"). The delay in it loading that dialog and whatever triggered it is probably why I could get DHCP on the initial boot and then no longer.

I swear, I've had more interferance from disabled security applications that I have from active ones... even since the beginning, when Zone Alarm was the only free-one in town that actively blocked out-going connections (disabling it entirely was STILL triggering application incompatibilities). This one wasn't only disabled, but it was pre-loaded by the OEM and never installed/used. The whole suite loaded several nag prompts about expired licenses, checking licenses online, verifying subscriptions, and confirming the cancelation of that verification, all of which were ignored/canceled and closed with each restart during troubleshooting (each prompt required a functioning Internet conntection). Also, why do I want to VERIFY a subscription that I know is expired and I just KNOWINGLY dismissed notification of that? Reundant nags. The software engineers need to be shot.

Since it's fixed, I just rant. Thanks for the help guys.