Win7 update ruined my Local Area connection?

[sonoferu]

Yesterday I shut down, and it had to go through that Windows update stuff ["update 3 of 16" etc]. After starting up again, I cant connect to the internet. My wife's laptop can connect with her wifi but my deskop with ethernet cable cannot, both use the same router [Linksys E1200]. In Networking, it says it is identifying, and then "Unidentified network".

Here are the clues. I know some stuff but no expert

* desktop is Win7 64bit, adapter is Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
* I cant connect to or ping the router from the desktop but can from the laptop
* I tried plugging the desktop cable right into the cable modem and still cant get it to identify
* Tried network props for desktop - set to dhcp, set to assigned IP's, neither make it work
* tried to refresh it, and ipconfig /release gets error saying
An error occurred while releasing interface Local Area Connection : An address has not yet been associated with the network endpoint.
forums

So I figure either the network driver is broken [which I think I can figure out] or I also see internet pages that suggest resetting tcp/ip and winsock with netsh [that gets beyond my knowledge, I dont want to reset things and then find out I lost settings that are not in the defaults]. I could start trying things but would rather not just take shots in the dark

Can a Windows Update mess things up like that?

 

[sonoferu]

and I have restarted the router and modem more than once

 

[postmortemIA]

Yep, it can if WU also installed a driver. But driver installs are optional on Win 7 as long as you already have a driver for the device.

 

[sonoferu]

ok, so does that get me into the netsh stuff? would WU mess with those?

another place suggested uninstalling the update. I went to Control Panel / Programs and Features and got into the View Installed Updates, but for Windows there were only 8 and the update was telling me "now installing 3 of 16" so I expected 16 of them.

and how to know which one was the culprit??? just undo all of them from yesterday?

I looked up the numbers on KB for the ones that werent "Windows Security" and they were for the migration to Win 10 - either for the popup or to enable Win7 to do the change

 

[VirtualLarry]

Are you running any non-Microsoft security suite / anti-virus / firewall software? Like McAfee or ZoneAlarm? They can lock out your network adapter.

Open an Administrative Command Prompt. What does "IPCONFIG /ALL" show? Does it show your ethernet adapter? Or does it say nothing? (What can happen if your adapter is locked out by security software.)

I would download the drivers for your ethernet NIC from your mobo mfg's web site for that OS, and put them on a USB flash drive, and then reboot the PC, delete the NIC out of Device Manager. ("Uninstall"). Reboot. Then install the drivers off of the USB.

 

[sonoferu]

The desktop is a custom built machine and I have the mfg disk with all the drivers [NIC is onboard]. I ran Repair on it already, for the NIC, but didnt do remove from dev Mgr. Should that make a difference?

I run AVG Free but it seems to show the NIC in ipconfig all

I have it currently set to a specific IP. When I tell it to do dhcp I get an IP with 164.*.*.* and 255.255.0.0 for mask

C:\Users\Fletcher>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : felecha
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 10-BF-48-7B-8B-CC
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::31b1:f28b:fa2a:e54%11(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.123(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 235978568
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-17-A0-9A-31-10-BF-48-7B-8B-CC

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 173.44.120.32
173.44.120.33
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter isatap.{A67305D9-A0BD-49CC-A1D5-74B9734302EC}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

 

[sonoferu]

I uninstalled from DM and reinstalled from the ASUS disk, no luck.

It defaulted to dHCP and I Retried with a specific IP, no luck

BTW when I ping the router it says destination host unreachable. But i can reach it from the laptop of course

So I guess I can only go to trying the netsh ideas for "reset". here is what I found on different webpages

* At the command prompt, type netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt

* Reset TCP/IP stack to installation defaults, type: netsh int ip reset reset.log [why is the filename different in this one?]
Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults, type: netsh winsock reset catalog

Any advice there?

 

[sonoferu]

it looks like the reset for tcpip is simple, with nothing to worry about.

but the winsock - that seems to go back to defaults so anything else that was set would need to be set all over again? Is that right? If so how would I know what needs to be restored?

 

[sonoferu]

I just noticed that in the Status dialog for the adapter, it says 0 bytes received, and also where the cable plugs into the port on the box it never has the blinking light going and on the router where it is plugged in the blinker there is dead in the water too. So that makes sense? The poor thing just cannot receive any bytes?

I did try resetting the netsh tcp thing, no luck.

I still hesitate to reset the winsock defaults. Shall I just jump off the cliff and do it?

I really have no other ideas. I suppose the adapter itself has failed but I like to think that that is unlikely

what else can make a NIC just stop working. specifically, what kind of windows update could do that?

 

[Ketchup]

I have been known to uninstall updates a couple at a time to track down issues like this.

 

[sonoferu]

at this point I would just uninstall all of them, but I remain bothered by the fact that there are only 8 in the Windows section of updates, whereas the update said it was doing 16.

I looked in other sections for the same datetime, but there are none. maybe some were for Office and didnt get the secondary update treatment at startup, just at shutdown.

I actually shut down yesterday, and didnt restart until today so that might account for only 8

 

[sdifox]

Did you try a different port on the router or different cable?

 

[sonoferu]

of the 8 Windows updates 4 were for Windows, 4 for Windows Security. I did the first 4 all at once, thinking no problem with that, then it said I had to restart so i did and now it's 45 minutes of waiting at the log-off screen which says "preparing to configure windows, do not turn your computer off.'

That feels like a long time but .....

in any case, thanks for the help, this is over my head at this point.

I'm going over to friend's to see if he has an extra NIC lying around in his pile of junk hardware. If he does hopefully it will work.

that is, if Windows ever finishes shutting down ....

 

[sonoferu]

sdifox - I tried different ports, even plugged the ethernet cable into the modem directly, no luck.

unfortunately the cable is long, it goes from the modem all through the cellar and to my office, I dont have a way to try a different one unless I do a new cable, and i dont have a crimp tool any more

 

[sonoferu]

well, just as good - i brought the laptop to my office and plugged the cable into it and it works, so the cable is good up to my desktop port

 

[Ketchup]

If you want to check the connection, turn off the wifi on your wife's laptop and see if it will connect through the same cable. Edit: good, you got that test in.

If you have an extra drive, you could do a simple Windows re-install and make sure the NIC on your desktop is still working.

 

[sonoferu]

WHOA! WOW!

the reboot after uninstall of the 4 updates, and now I have connectivity again!

What a pain, but what a relief!

So ... what is to stop Windows from reinstalling the updates again next time I reboot? Wont it think it needs them?

 

[XLer8or]

Theres a curtain update that redoes windows update to auto remove it if you had it for windows 7. Security center and programs and features would point you to skip it.

If its not the driver it maybe ip stack, just rebuild it.

 

[sonoferu]

I already ran

netsh int ip reset reset.log

which should reset the tcpip stack, right? that didnt do anything [at that time]

and you said

Theres a curtain update that redoes windows update to auto remove it if you had it for windows 7. Security center and programs and features would point you to skip it.

I dont follow that. Can you restate it maybe in different terms? I googled for "curtain update". Did you mean "certain update"? Do you mean if Windows knows you already had it once then it doesnt include it in the next set of updates?

And for skipping it, I wonder because I'm only talking about the updates that run when you click to Restart. At that point it goes to the log-out screen and starts telling you it is updating and DONT SHUT DOWN your computer. I know no way to tell it to skip anything.

Anyway, I hope there IS some way that Windows wont try to run these updates again

thanks