Got a laptop that refuses to get online

[SCS75]

A friend of mine asked me to troubleshoot his Dell Inspiron7520 that suddenly stopped making an internet connection. The network shows up as Unidentified Network, and the Windows Network Diagnostics troubleshooter says that both the LAN & wireless connections don't have a valid IP address.

Here's what I've tried so far:

-disabled IPV6
-removed Avast! since a.) it was expired anyway, and b.) I've had issues with their firewall preventing other people from connecting to the internet
-reset the network adapters
-reset the Winsock catalog
-reset the TCP/IP stack
-run scans with ADWcleaner, Malwarebytes, RogueKiller, and JRT to rule out malware (and holy crap, did he have some malware)
-flushed the DNS cache
-tried setting a static IP address, to no avail
-pinged 127.0.0.1, which resulted in a General Failure

When I do ipconfig /release, I get the error message "An error occurred while releasing interface Local Area connection: an address has not yet been associated with the network endpoint." Same error message for the wireless connection as well.

I'm not ruling out physical damage, since the laptop's been dropped at least once before. If that's the case, I'll likely end up getting a USB ethernet adapter.

Also, I'm attaching a .txt of the ipconfig /all I ran, in the event it helps.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[phaZed]

Couple things to try and IMO, in this order:

1. For me, I run a PXE network server so booting the network proves operation of the hardware. Otherwise, boot a Linux OS and check for connectivity.
2. In Windows, uninstall ALL interfaces including the isatap's, Toredo's and miniports. If available, when removing, click the check for "Uninstall Driver and Delete". Do a "Scan for Hardware" and let Windows find the hardware.
3. Uninstall Avast using the Removal Tool and look for any other previous traces of Norton, McAfee, NOD32, Etc. and run the Removal Tools for those AV's that are found.
4. Run D7 or D7II's network repairs or run Tweaking.com's All in one repair tool, or do both.

This does not include the regular Virus removal stuff as well as Chkdsk and SFC which you should always consider doing as your first operations as part of your standard procedure.

 

[tankman1989]

Uninstalling the device from device manager then re-installing sounds like the best option. I'd verify that the network is working and make sure the DHCP is working and or you didn't assign an already existing IP on the static route.

Installing another network device is an option to see if it is a OS issue or if it is hardware related. If you have a USB device that won't work on the machine than chances are the hardware is fine but Windows isn't handling networking correctly ATM.

Let us know what you find.

 

[Moltuae]

I would try booting it from a Live OS disc/USB to begin with -- Linux, Windows PE, etc -- which should at least reveal whether you're looking at a software or hardware problem.

 

[Bootman 650]

One of the first things I'd run would be Windows AIO Repair Tool from Tweaking.com. Usually works a treat for anything network related, has proven a gem with similar incidents time and time again.

 

[SCS75]

Thanks for all the replies. My apologies, I missed some information in my initial post.

I ran chkdsk, and it found errors, so I set it for a scan on the next reboot, but it failed to do so. After that, I ran sfc /scannow, which found errors. Incidentally, the autochk.exe file was corrupt, which is why I wasn't getting a boot-time scan. Once I replaced that with a clean copy, both chkdsk and SFC came up with no errors.

I also ran the Avast! removal tool, and I ran the Tweaking AIO tool...twice.

Gonna go with phaZed's suggestion first and uninstall all the interfaces, then see if Windows can find them. If that doesn't work, I'll throw in a Linux USB and see if that has any better luck.

I'll keep you guys posted.

 

[SCS75]

I'm fairly certain I'm looking at a Windows issue. Booted a Linux USB drive, and both the wired and wireless connections work just fine.

Also attempted to uninstall the devices (and drivers, where applicable) through Device Manager and let Windows find & reinstall them. No luck; still can't get online in Windows.

Last thing I tried was running msconfig under selective startup, and disabling all non-Microsoft services; he runs a lot of video game emulators, and I thought one of them might have been the culprit. Still nothing.

Got this nagging feeling I'm overlooking something blatantly obvious, and I'm going to feel like an idiot when the solution turns up.

If you guys have any more ideas, I'm all ears.

 

[glennd]

did you try safe mode with networking?

i had a laptop in recently, with networking not working. confirmed the hardware was ok by booting into linux. the customer had installed one of those cute automated driver update programs. windows was trashed so badly i had to admit defeat and nuke it.

 

[brandonkick]

Are you sure you got all of the malware off of the machine?

I'm suprised that tweaking.com AIO fix didn't help.


I'd make a clone of his drive first, just in case and then do the following.


Download rkill and use that before running rougekiller and MalwareBytes Anti Rootkit. For good measure, you can even try TDSS Killer and ComboFix.

Then try running the tweaking.com AIO fix again.

If none of that does it, I think your looking at a nuke and pave job.

 

[katz]

I haven't read all of the replies, but what A/V is installed on it? Did you try disabling/removing it?

 

[SCS75]

@katz - AV was Avast! Premier, which I did remove.

@glennd - Safe Mode w/ Networking was giving me the same problem.

@brandonkick - Thanks, totally forgot about Rkill. MBAR did find & remove one infection, and a subsequent run came up clean. Nothing turned up in TDSSkiller or ComboFix. I also ran the tweaking.com tool for a third time, and still no dice.

After further discussion with my friend, we've opted to nuke & pave. Thanks for all the advice.

 

[glennd]

starting to look like the whole windows network stack is trashed...

 

[layoric]

@katz - AV was Avast! Premier, which I did remove.

@glennd - Safe Mode w/ Networking was giving me the same problem.

@brandonkick - Thanks, totally forgot about Rkill. MBAR did find & remove one infection, and a subsequent run came up clean. Nothing turned up in TDSSkiller or ComboFix. I also ran the tweaking.com tool for a third time, and still no dice.

After further discussion with my friend, we've opted to nuke & pave. Thanks for all the advice.

I'd bet it's as simple as the network driver. Go to the chipset website and try the newest version. If that doesn't work, I'd use another network card. However, that has always worked for me.

 

[Jonathan.iv]

Did you try system restore?

Did you try system restore?

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Also, if it's windows 7, you could do an upgrade install from within the OS if it's running. That should keep the profile, and most data intact(do a backup just in case), but effectively doing the upgrade install is kind of like doing the old repair installs where they can keep most of their programs etc. Might be a cleaner way to do it so it's all familiar to the user. I would rescan it with a couple of quick tools though after I did that to make sure things are ok.

 

[DBA]

This looks like LAN Connection Settings. is there a specific IP Address its set too rather then being assigned by DHCP?

If not,


Log into the router and see the Routing Tables & rules. Router could be set up to do Static IP Addresses, and the laptop might not be accepting it.


If it was a hardware failure, 99.9% of the time, you wouldnt be able to access information of the device.

Troubleshooting step 2:

load up a LiveCD of say PuppyLinux or Ubuntu. can it connect then? if it does, its your LAN settings on the machine.