Ethernet issues after reformatting..

[artemis_f0wl]

Hello,

I stumbled across this forum looking for answers to a puzzling issue with my e machines T4010. The machine needed to be reformatted, which has me working to gather all the drivers to be sure all is well again. I have downloaded the driver and it appears to have been correctly installed, but there is absolutely no cooperation between the machine and my network.

After several failed attempts to install the driver on my own, I found this readme file on the e machines web page that was rather helpful to this point. Now that the driver seems to be installed, and running some troubleshooting tests, I can't seem to find the malfunction.

The Ethernet port on the machine is attached to the motherboard, the lights are active when I try to force traffic. The machine seems to know when an Ethernet cable is plugged in and not- this cable goes directly into my router. The router is currently serving 7 machines via DHCP without incident, however this machine seems unable to get an IP address upon restarting the machine or enabling/repairing the device. I attempted to ping several hosts on the network from this machine and vice versa- unsuccessfully. I also ran the Network Diagnostics tool where several tests failed including pinging the gateway, pinging the DNS server (which I assigned manually along with an IP in hopes of changing the results), and the network connection in general.

I confirmed my BIOS is correct for this driver, now I'm at the end of my wits. Can anyone shed some light on how to overcome this issue?

TIA

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Welcome to the Windows Forum.

Not sure what the problem could be. If I were in your situation I would first check the Device Manager, and see if all devices are properly functioning, i.e. no exclamation marks on it; especially the network adapter, of course.

I would also try ipconfig on the command prompt, e.g. with /all parameter, perhaps you can spot anything in there that's wrong. Also try /flushdns and /registerdns, but that may be unsuccessful if you don't have any network connection.

Let us know how it goes. I may, later today, move your post to our Networking Board.

[artemis_f0wl]

Thanks for the prompt response!

After installing the driver, I did confirm the "?" went away for the Ethernet driver. There are still issues with other devices, but I'll cross that bridge once I get over this one. I checked ipconfig /all which returned what I expected (of course this is from me setting them manually), and upon trying your recommendations /flushdns and /registerdns, both were unrecognized by my system :(

Sorry for not putting this in the correct section, I really didn't look first- I'm just so frustrated with this I was excited to find some help!

[Hb_Kai]

Can you get your operating system to find the network address automatically?

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

/flushdns and /registerdns, both were unrecognized by my system :(

Sorry for not being more clear; I meant

ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /registerdns

P.S. I assume that you have Windows XP.

[artemis_f0wl]

Can you get your operating system to find the network address automatically?

I attempted to do this again, just to see what may happen, and "The connection has limited or no connectivity." :(

When I check ipconfig /all, the IP is 169... that's no bueno.

P.S. Love the ubuntu plug.. it's my OS of preference.

QUOTE (artemis_f0wl @ Mar 7 2009, 11:47) *

/flushdns and /registerdns, both were unrecognized by my system sad.gif

Sorry for not being more clear; I meant

CODE

ipconfig /flushdns

ipconfig /registerdns

P.S. I assume that you have Windows XP.

Sorry about that. I'm a little slow when it comes to windows... I do have XP home on this machine.

After trying to let windows sniff out an IP on it's own, I did the following:

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

Which unfortunately returned

An error has occurred while renewing interface Local Area Connection : unable to contact your DHCP server. Request has timed out.

:(

So I manually set these again and then:

ipconfig /flushdns
Windows IP Configuration
Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.
ipconfig /registerdns
Windows IP Configuration
Registration of the DNS resource records for all adapters of this computer has been initiated. Any errors will be reported in the Event Viewer in 15 minutes...

Then I tried to ping my router with 100% packet loss

[homecomputeraid]

Do you know the IP subnet, gateway, and DNS server that should be configured? If so, you can set these things manually by going to Start, Connect To, Show all connections, then right clicking on your network card and going to Properties. In "This connection uses the following items:" scroll down to Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), click on it then click Properties. Click the Use the following IPD address radio button, and fill in the IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway. Click on the Use the following DNS server addresses and input a DNS server or servers. Then click ok, and ok. See if you get connectivity.

Make sure the IP address you choose isn't the same as any other device on your network.

If you can connect after all this, there's a problem with DHCP. You should check the DHCP settings on your router. Make sure it's enabled and that it has a fairly large pool of addresses to give out.

[artemis_f0wl]

Thanks for the input!

I'm sure there is no issues within my router's config, it works fine with the exception of this one newly re-formatted machine (there are 4 others on this network). I have had no issues in the past with obtaining vendor drivers, but this emachine has been a nightmare!

Anyway, I set a static IP and DNS in the beginning, and I just did it again to double check that I didn't screw something up. All looks well, but there is still no data incoming. I guess it's time to cut the loss and just put a 3rd party ethernet card in this thing.. emachines tells me it's a brick because it's out of warranty but I'm not giving up that easily.