Multitude of windows 8 issues.

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oneano

oneano

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Aug 16, 2012
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My current windows 8 install is like my arch enemy. It hates me...

Here is a bit of back story for you before I address the issues.

I had an older PC from 2007 that got a dozen upgrades and last year, I put windows 8 on it. It was great, really smooth, and except for a few things I was very satisfied with 8.


A few months ago, I got a brand new tower, put an SSD into it and installed windows 8 that is where it all started.


Firstly, my new tower has wifi built in. Windows 8 uses this by default and I have never been able to force an ethernet connection.

Second, after wakeup I have terribly network connectivity, I have not figured out how to turn off "disable network on sleep" and I will have to wait 5 minutes before I can use the internet on wake up

Third, I have the terrible disk usage 100% curse. Just try a google search and you will see hundreds of forum posts about this with no actual answer.

Now, I know that most people say to reinstall the os, but I hate that answer it doesnt teach me anything. So where do I start to fix these problems?
 
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You should be able to disable the onboard Wi-Fi by going into control panel, device manager and finding the corresponding adapter under network adapters. Right click on the adapter and select disable. That SHOULD disable it. If not, or if you've already tried that, let me know and we'll try a few other things.

Disabling that adapter may cure the sleep issue but if it doesn't we can deal with that once we get the Ethernet adapter set as default.

Also, it would be helpful to have all of your hardware info in order to recommend specific remedies. In the start menu box type msinfo32.exe and click on the resulting file or hit enter. In the system information windows that opens click on components and then you should be able to find each component (Or you can do it in device manager) and record the id information. It may be listed under Name or Service name etc. in the right hand pane once you click on the component.
 
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OS Name Microsoft Windows 8
Version 6.2.9200 Build 9200
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name AETIOLOGY
System Manufacturer Dell Inc.
System Model XPS 8700
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU XPS 8700
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 3401 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. A04, 8/23/2013
SMBIOS Version 2.7
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer Dell Inc.
BaseBoard Model Not Available
BaseBoard Name Base Board
Platform Role Desktop
Secure Boot State Off
PCR7 Configuration Binding Not Possible
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.2.9200.16384"
User Name Aetiology\AETIOLOGY\Edward
Time Zone Central Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 12.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 12.0 GB
Available Physical Memory 8.04 GB
Total Virtual Memory 19.2 GB
Available Virtual Memory 7.78 GB
Page File Space 7.28 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware Yes
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection Yes
 
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"You should be able to disable the onboard Wi-Fi by going into control panel, device manager and finding the corresponding adapter under network adapters. Right click on the adapter and select disable. That SHOULD disable it. If not, or if you've already tried that, let me know and we'll try a few other things."

I feel like I have tried this 100 times and it never works for me or I doing something wrong. Can you point me to more specific instructions?

Here is an image of what I am seeing. http://i.imgur.com/oru0y4d.png
 
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Anyhow, it doesn't matter. Go into the control panel. Under view, select either large or small icons so it doesn't show things by group, but rather it will show them by category. The view settings should be in the upper-ish right hand corner. If it's already set this way, great. Open Device Manager.

In the device manager window that opens there will be a bunch of listings of hardware. Double click on Network adapters. There should be several different network adapters listed there. Right click on the Wi-Fi adapter you don't want enabled and select "disable". Make sure the Ethernet adapter that is listed, if it is listed, is enabled by double clicking on it and seeing if in the window that opens it says "This device is working normally" or something else.

If it says something else click on enable device. This might even be a good time to click on the driver tab in that window and do an automatic update of the device driver for it, just to make sure that's up to date and not an issue.
 
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Ok, and don't think I'm asking you this because I doubt your intelligence, but I have to ask just to make sure this silly thing isn't being overlooked. When you disable the Wi-Fi adapter, do you have a LAN cable attached to your Ethernet port? Are you using a router? If so we will need the model number so we can go into the router configuration and make sure that for some crazy reason the LAN connection isn't disabled in the router.
 
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There is also a BIOS update available for your computer which is highly recommended to be installed.

Update is here: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=45DHF&fileId=3381797420&osCode=W864&productCode=xps-8700&languageCode=EN&categoryId=BI

Run the BIOS update utility from Windows environment
1. Browse to the location where you downloaded the file and double-click the new file.
2. Windows System will auto restart and update BIOS while system startup screen.
3. After BIOS update finished, system will auto reboot to take effect.
 
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Thanks so much for the help, and please assume the worst. While I have always felt that I am a power user, I feel that a lot of these issues are beyond my scope of knowledge.

My cable is connected directly to my comc*ast modem.

To backtrack a bit, when I installed windows 8 on my new system. I do remember a screen about using the wifi adapter but I do not recall what it may have said. Use by default? I do not know.

How do I determine which adapter I need to use?
 
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Do you use a VPN (Virtual private network) for something? Did you ever install an application or plug in name "Trust connect"?

After updating the BIOS we will go in and disable all the advanced power features that have anything to do with the sleep states. It may be that the Ethernet controller is disabled in BIOS or that for some reason it is not being allowed to wake even when the computer has not been asleep.
 
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Normally, Wi-Fi is automatically disabled or ignored anytime an Ethernet cable is connected.

 
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I would go ahead and do the BIOS update now, please make sure the computer model and everything is the same before you update (Check the info on the Dell webpage) just to make sure I got it right, I'm sure it's right according to what your system information screenshot says, but double check anyhow. Get back with me after you update the bios and we'll check out the network stuff.

Also, how can you have wireless connectivity if your Ethernet cable is plugged directly into the modem. Are you connecting via the free wireless that is transmitted from the Comcast modem? Do you not have a wireless router? It might be that the problem is that the modem is not properly provisioned which is a Comcast issue. The free wireless will transmit from your Comcast modem even if you have no provisioned connection to Comcast.
 
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Yes, I do have multiple VPN connections for work stuff.

I own my own router, I bypass it for a direct connection to my modem (my modem has multiple ethernet ports)

"Trust connect" is not familiar to me. At a glance it looks like adware of some sort. I do not have any issues with adware or spyware that I am aware of. I typically stay on top of computer maintenance and issues.

I will chime back in once the BIOS is updated.
 
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The reason I ask is because in the screenshot of your network adapters I am unfamiliar with the one named TAP-windows adapter version 9. Google results of this adapter suggested a relationship with trust connect installations. You know, now that I take a second look at your screenshot I see devices with yellow exclamations on them. This means they are either items with issues or the correct drivers are not installed. Find all items like that in device manage and right click and select update drivers and then update automatically. Once that's done for any items showing up like that, reboot and try your connections again.
 
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Yeah, I know it's not a network adapter. But many times hardware is interconnected and if a dependent component is not functional other devices may not function even though they are correctly installed and have current drivers. And like Blackbird told you in that thread, you should always have chipset drivers installed. If one of the bus's isn't functioning it can affect multiple devices.

I would recommend going here: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/xps-8700/drivers and installing the chipset driver for your motherboard. I don't know which board you have so you will have to go into the BIOS and find the motherboard identification string. Or it might just list the motherboard outright in the bios. Either way, install the correct chipset drivers the reboot.

Then I would also download and install the Realtek Ethernet driver listed there under network adapters. Sometimes the drivers windows installs automatically, well, suck, and you need to install or reinstall the manufacturers drivers.

Try doing both those things and if it doesn't solve anything for you we'll move on to trying other solutions but as previously mentioned, it's always good to have the drivers installed for all detected devices and never good to have devices installed without drivers. That in itself can cause issues.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/xps-8700/drivers
 
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i had issues with the 8.1 upgrade from 8 and none of my applications loaded after. so i reverted back to 8 and no issues since. have all current updates. so i am cautious to go back to 8.1 did i do something wrong? the applications would preload and then just revert back to the app screen? so what the hell? lol
i have a current asus laptop
 
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You can download and install Belarc advisor here, it will tell you everything about your system. You should be able to find a description of the chipset in there. It's free and totally safe and won't install any malware, crapware or any other 'ware on your rig. It will take a few minutes when you run the program after installion to analyze everything, you can click skip this step when it starts analyzing the network and then in the browser window that opens look under system board on the right hand side. It should tell everything we need to know.

http://www.belarc.com/Programs/advisorinstaller.exe
 
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I am going to take a moment to talk about my network connections so that no questions come up later. I use several online anonymity tools for various purposes related to my work.


HMA VPN - great due to the huge pool of IPs, bad because it can be detected.
TOR browser - great for some things, poor for others
PIA VPN - this one can stop DNS leaks but has a limited number of IPs.


This is what the TAP windows adapter is related to. But still doest really give an answer to the problems that I am having with the physical cable and modem.
 
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