No Network access (169.254.x.x) Help

[rstark18]

This is for a friend of mine that I was trying to help out. For a few weeks one of his desktop computers was taking longer and longer to recognize the LAN until the other day it just wouldn't. We did a few minor things (unplug power to router/modem, changed cables, verified connection lights, deleted the network card in device manager and also reset the TCPIP stack). Nothing. He is getting a 169.254.100.189 address for his network card (it's the onboard LAN). I had him by a cheap TPLink network card (at least he would get a gigabit connection as the onboard is 10/100).
He disabled the onboard network card and installed the new card and drivers. Exactly the same issue.

Why isn't he getting a DHCP address? All his other computers are working correctly (one ethernet and two wifi). He is running Win7.

 

[degrub]

This is for a friend of mine that I was trying to help out. For a few weeks one of his desktop computers was taking longer and longer to recognize the LAN until the other day it just wouldn't. We did a few minor things (unplug power to router/modem, changed cables, verified connection lights, deleted the network card in device manager and also reset the TCPIP stack). Nothing. He is getting a 169.254.100.189 address for his network card (it's the onboard LAN). I had him by a cheap TPLink network card (at least he would get a gigabit connection as the onboard is 10/100).
He disabled the onboard network card and installed the new card and drivers. Exactly the same issue.

Why isn't he getting a DHCP address? All his other computers are working correctly (one ethernet and two wifi). He is running Win7.

i had a similar issue under Win7. Had to do a disk wipe and clean install to cure it.
Did you try assigning a static address with the rest of the manual settings and try a ping of the router ? Did you change to a known working port on the router ? you could try looking in admin viewer (control panel, admin tools, services) and see if any of the tasks are stopped.

 

[rstark18]

i had a similar issue under Win7. Had to do a disk wipe and clean install to cure it.
Did you try assigning a static address with the rest of the manual settings and try a ping of the router ? Did you change to a known working port on the router ? you could try looking in admin viewer (control panel, admin tools, services) and see if any of the tasks are stopped.

Thx yes we tried to a manual address without luck. I wanted to avoid having him do a clean install because he's not sure where some of his program install disks are but he'll have to deal with that.

 

[degrub]

Just get a linux live cd or usb stick and confirm no hardware issues. You could do the same with win7 with a spare disk or ssd. Clean install to that. Just unplug the original and make sure you have a working clone of it.

 

[rstark18]

i had a similar issue under Win7. Had to do a disk wipe and clean install to cure it.
Did you try assigning a static address with the rest of the manual settings and try a ping of the router ? Did you change to a known working port on the router ? you could try looking in admin viewer (control panel, admin tools, services) and see if any of the tasks are stopped.

Excellent idea. I'll have him do a Linux boot.

 

[rstark18]

Just a little more info...
He went to start backing stuff up and two hours in to working on it the network came online. What could be delaying access?

 

[degrub]

flaky motherboard or power or corrupted registry perhaps.

BTW, would it happen to be an AMD MB ?

 

[TonyH]

Just a little more info...
He went to start backing stuff up and two hours in to working on it the network came online. What could be delaying access?

No system back up to restore? Tried directly connecting to modem? Tried different LAN port? Tried running 'ping localhost' ? Does this command take long time too? NIC has latest driver? What model is it? If it is Intel one you can run self test. What model MB? There is Ethernet-USB converter you can try.

 

[rstark18]

All troubleshooting is on hold as he is very busy this week.
-Nope no system backup.
+He has a modem/router combo (spectrum).
+We have tried different LAN ports.
-Haven't tried a localhost ping.
+NIC has latest driver
+It is a TP-Link TG3468 brand new but gets the same results from his onboard card.
+He has a HP P6310F.

 

[degrub]

All troubleshooting is on hold as he is very busy this week.
-Nope no system backup.
+He has a modem/router combo (spectrum).
+We have tried different LAN ports.
-Haven't tried a localhost ping.
+NIC has latest driver
+It is a TP-Link TG3468 brand new but gets the same results from his onboard card.
+He has a HP P6310F.

i think it was one of the win7 updates that nailed mine. Rolling back did not solve it, but you could try that approach first.

 

[TonyH]

Another question is was it working right B4? May tru HP user forum. Wonder if the MB has latest BIOS.

 

[rstark18]

Another question is was it working right B4? May tru HP user forum. Wonder if the MB has latest BIOS.

He was telling me on boots it had been taking a few minutes to recognize the network with it taking around ten minutes the last week or two.

 

[coxhaus]

The 169.254.xxx.xxx IP address on a Windows machine means you are not receiving a DHCP request which probably translates to no network access but not always. It could be DHCP problems. Check cables, check ports, etc.

 

[degrub]

He was telling me on boots it had been taking a few minutes to recognize the network with it taking around ten minutes the last week or two.

Exactly the same symptoms i had on an AMD based MB. Final solution was a reload from scratch. Windows update mucked something up at some point.

 

[TonyH]

Windows registry when messed up can do all kinds of funnies. If It happens to me, I'd try another power supply for the unit. When I assemble desk top I always choose high quality one with enough reserve capacity.

 

[rstark18]

Well I'm back and have this computer in my hands. He has been running this without shutting it down since May with the exception of two weeks ago. He was out of town and shut it down. When he got back it took 72 hours to reconnect. But it did reconnect and worked fine afterwards. He is going out of town for a few days (GW Shark diving... jealous) and dropped off the computer so I could wipe it clean. I reloaded Window 7 and nothing else (except the TPLink NIC driver). I tried both the on board NIC and the TPLink board he bought. I still get the same issue (network hangs trying to connect). I switched sockets on the TPLink NIC to see if that would help but it didn't. The MB was one revision off with nothing in the release notes about NIC issues but I upgraded anyways. That didn't help. Do you guys think it's the MB? Why would it work after a few day reliably?

BTW Windows trouble shooter says "Local Area Connection doesn't have a valid IP configuration"

 

[degrub]

Test with a linux live CD/USB.
did you test with just the plain vanilla win7 SP1, no updates, no TP link installed ?
if you can move memory to another bank or single stick , try that. Otherwise,
i'd dump the MB for a replacement. Re-use the CPU and memory if possible.