Multitude of windows 8 issues.

[oneano]

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?

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Do you get the lights above the ethernet jack? On the switch/router end?

Tried a different port?

Do any of the pins appear physically damaged?

 

[Darkbreeze]

As this thread doesn't seem to be solved, I've pulled the solution.

Moved to networking.

FYI: The easiest way to contact a mod is to use the 'Report Abuse' button in the bottom right of each post - any mod can answer it, whereas PMs rely on me waking up on time and not having a minor crisis.

NP. Understood. Thanks.

 

[oneano]

Do you get the lights above the ethernet jack? On the switch/router end?

Tried a different port?

Do any of the pins appear physically damaged?

Ports, cables, I have swapped everything around.

No visible damage that I can see.


Why would ipconfig show that no media is disconnected?

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Whether you get the lights is the big question.

If there's no lights, it's almost certainly either a hardware fault or an issue at the other end. If you do get lights, it might be a software issue and the driver could be looking at an imaginary card or something.

 

[oneano]

Whether you get the lights is the big question.

If there's no lights, it's almost certainly either a hardware fault or an issue at the other end. If you do get lights, it might be a software issue and the driver could be looking at an imaginary card or something.

I see the light

So to backtrack here some. Should I uninstall my VPN's and then start this trouble shooting all over?

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Didn't spot the bit about VPNs. However, they shouldn't have much of an effect unless the clients are seriously poorly written.

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

Can you clarify that a little? Very very few modems will have multiple ethernet ports; most likely we're dealing with a combined modem/router daisy-chained to another router.

Can you download a linux ISO to a USB drive/CD and see if the ethernet works? That should separate hardware from software.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yeah, everytime I see one of these combined units it seems they almost always come with additional issues. Hope you're able to get this sorted out. I'm doubly interested in the cause now.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

TBH I've got a couple of router-only consumer things lying around, and they're no better.

Something tells me that my next router is going to be a box running PFsense.

 

[oneano]

My modem is a Netgear CG3000DCR

 

[Someone Somewhere]

OK. Looks like that's a small commercial router, and supports multiple WAN IPs. What you'll probably have to do is find an option in the settings to turn on NAT, or connect the PC to your second router (which I'm assuming is only used for WiFi at the moment.

 

[oneano]

Can you download a linux ISO to a USB drive/CD and see if the ethernet works? That should separate hardware from software.

I got ubuntu downloaded and gave it a spin. It works without issues.

I made a quick and dirty video to show ya

http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=27x46xi%3E&s=8#.U_WfWvldXzE

I am inexperienced with Linux so I couldnt do much ...but it was connected via the Ethernet and I disabled the wifi.

I am still convinced that this is a windows 8 issue, but feel free to prove me wrong. I am trying to learn.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

If Linux works, it's definitely a software issue. Not necessarily Win8, but...

Try uninstalling and reinstalling the ethernet drivers?

I'm sort of clutching at straws here; something is pretty screwed up if it says the cable's unplugged but the lights on the card are on.

 

[Darkbreeze]

If Linux works, it's definitely a software issue. Not necessarily Win8, but...

Try uninstalling and reinstalling the ethernet drivers?

I'm sort of clutching at straws here; something is pretty screwed up if it says the cable's unplugged but the lights on the card are on.

Now you see why I handed this off. I was baffled and frustrated. Also, we tried the Ethernet drivers in the beginning. At least I suggested it and he indicated he had.

 

[oneano]

I'm sort of clutching at straws here; something is pretty screwed up if it says the cable's unplugged but the lights on the card are on.

That isnt happening. The lights come on when the cable is plugged in.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Media Disconnected means no cable plugged in.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Did you in fact make the effort to reinstall the device drivers for your network adapter or did that part get skipped over? It should probably be done just as a matter of course to eliminate it as a possibility.

 

[oneano]

Did you in fact make the effort to reinstall the device drivers for your network adapter or did that part get skipped over? It should probably be done just as a matter of course to eliminate it as a possibility.

I have not had the time to do that just yet. . . nor do I know how so I will need to research it first.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You can start by going into device manager, double click network adapters, find your Ethernet adapter and right click and select update drivers, update automatically. That may work or you may have to go to the motherboard or network card OEM website and download the correct drivers for your device from there. It should tell you the type of adapter and give a description in the device properties in device manager.

 

[oneano]

Yes, I have uninstalled and re-installed the driver.

What I have nt done is go to the dell site and get the drivers they offer.

Even with the drivers that Dell offer, I still cannot connect.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Can you try the Ubuntu option? That would be quite effective in separating hardware from software.

 

[oneano]

Can you try the Ubuntu option? That would be quite effective in separating hardware from software.

I did, and I left a reply on the 21st about it.

I got ubuntu downloaded and gave it a spin. It works without issues.

I made a quick and dirty video to show ya

http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=27x46xi%3E&s=8#.U_WfWvl...

I am inexperienced with Linux so I couldnt do much ...but it was connected via the Ethernet and I disabled the wifi.

I am still convinced that this is a windows 8 issue, but feel free to prove me wrong. I am trying to learn.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Eugh. Too long thread, and it falls out of my head.

So. Software issue. Want to resolve without reinstalling windows. Reinstalling drivers doesn't fix it.

Can you post the result of 'ipconfig /all'? It's possible that you're looking at the 'media disconnected' from an IEEE1394 network or something.

 

[oneano]

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.2.9200]
(c) 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Justin>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Aetiology
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : wp.comcast.net

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : TAP-Windows Adapter V9
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-FF-25-E1-CF-5D
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 12:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 5A-5A-B6-83-B5-2F
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : F8-B1-56-B8-70-B4
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::41d2:57d7:6144:23ed%13(Preferred)
Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.35.237(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 368619862
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1B-60-75-64-48-5A-B6-83-B5-2F

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : wp.comcast.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Dell Wireless 1703 802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 48-5A-B6-83-B5-2F
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::1daf:ef36:441f:744a%12(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.101(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, August 24, 2014 3:29:56 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, August 27, 2014 9:37:36 AM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 256400054
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1B-60-75-64-48-5A-B6-83-B5-2F

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 75.75.75.75
75.75.76.76
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.{DCD25DD8-261C-42D3-B5DD-388C590CF2EA}:

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

Tunnel adapter isatap.wp.comcast.net:

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

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

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : TAP-Windows Adapter V9
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-FF-25-E1-CF-5D
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : F8-B1-56-B8-70-B4
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::41d2:57d7:6144:23ed%13(Preferred)
Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.35.237(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 368619862
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-1B-60-75-64-48-5A-B6-83-B5-2F

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Jackpot! It's the IPv6 tunneling that's disconnected. Your ethernet connection is connected fine.

Check that IPv4 DHCP is enabled, and try setting a static IP.

 

[oneano]

I couldn't figure out how to do this on 8 (it is so obtuse about some times) Can you point me in the right direction?