PC detects network, can't connect

[je1983]

What would cause the pc to detect the signal but not be able to connect?

I've been using my new pc without problems for the past five days, connected to the same wifi router, 3 feet away separated by a wall. Signal strength is strong I can detect other routers in my building. Other devices connect without issue to my wifi router but whenever I try to connect my pc, it says it could not connect. Troubleshoot network doesn't help. Uninstalling and reinstalling the adapter doesn't help. All drivers are up to date.




Specs:
TPlink 300Mbps router
Win7 64 bit
asus pce ac56 1300Mbps dual band pci-e wifi adapter

 

[je1983]

Excellent. Patterns are good news.

Are you still using the Asus pce ac56 1300Mbps dual band pci-e wifi adapter?

One link I found related a similar problem. Seemed that some USB drives drew more power and knocked off the USB wireless adapter. A low power USB device did not cause that to happen.

Your wireless adapter is PCI-e but still, of course, draws power.

The apparent pattern you have noticed seems to indicate that at some certain level of power load the wireless adapter drops out.

Then without the wireless adapter load the usb devices get "full" power.

The specific devices (including the DVD-R), their respective power draws, and the order of connection determines when the wireless adapter's power becomes too low for it to function. Or perhaps even recover if power is too low and it goes "off".

Seems to be swinging back to a power/PSU issue.

I'm still using the same pci-e adapter. It seems to be working fine when it's connected, the last two days I've had no issue with the speeds at all. I did read some other threads with people using usb wifi adapters kept disconnecting but all the ones I've read were mostly to do with drivers and limiting speeds.


I guess everything is pointing to a power issue. It's just weird how it only affects the wifi but I guess I should be happy it's not something more serious.


Since yesterday I've changed the drives up again, now having disconnected a 2tb drive and reconnected the 1tb drive. I'll look into the individual drive power consumption as you suggested.I thought maybe everything was fine as long as I only had 3 drives connected and not the four, but this morning I reconnected the dvd-r as well as the fourth drive, and everything is working fine. 3 restarts and multiple attempts to connect and disconnect the wifi but it's still working properly. Also, with my old pc having the same issue, I ran it with just one drive and it still couldn't connect to the wifi...

Last time I tried putting all drives back on it took a good part of a day before it started disconnecting again so I guess I'll wait a bit to see if that happens this time.

 

[je1983]

It's been running fine the past few days with everything. The other day I had the issue with the usb's transferring slow but today everything runs fine, wifi and usb 3.0.

I just don't get this shit.

I'll keep an eye on it to see if it goes back to how it was with the wifi issue.

 

[je1983]

Well it's been working fine for a little over two weeks now but I'm still as clueless as ever. Once the network took a few minutes to connect after startup but other than that, connection has been good. I"ve tried restarting, turning the wifi radio on and off disconnecting and reconnecting the network, each time it was able to connect normally.


The usb issues appear less and less too. Last night however, i had two usb 3.0's plugged in both front ports and after some time, I did lose connection. I was able to transfer files to and from the usb's, and the wifi was working for a good part of the afternoon and early evening before it started acting up. The first time it did I tried removing the usb's the wifi connected again, then the second time I tried, the wifi took longer to connect but it eventually did.
I tried removing one and keeping the other plugged in, that seemed to work ok but the issue disappeared before I could pick out any pattern. I even left both usb's in the front ports overnight but the connection was fine when I woke up.

I get the same DHCP errors on the event viewer, "computer was not assigned an address" or "not able to renew" type messages. Also, "Name resolution" warnings where specific websites timed out while the connection was out.
I have tried going into services.msc and a few other suggestions from the posts from your links and searches but they don't seem to work with my problem. Having skimmed through more posts over the past few days doesn't mean I understand any of it any better.

 

[Ralston18]

Probably not understandable until some consistent pattern is found. However, it could be just some "perfect storm" situation where some combination of rare occurences initiates the problem. Those situations are difficult to figure out: have you ever heard of "Gremlins"?

E.g.,/Definition: "an imaginary mischievous sprite regarded as responsible for an unexplained problem or fault, especially a mechanical or electronic one. 'a gremlin in my computer omitted a line' - an unexplained problem or fault."

Things like your automobile doing something strange until you take it to the mechanic - classic.....

Your problem does seem to have a center of sorts; power and USB related. Do you happen to have a USB hub with its own power supply?

No answer yet - still you are learning more about your computer and maybe more that than you want to know or even care to. I am always amazed at how much more there always is to know and learn. Especially with respect to IT.

Although the problem is a nuisance your computer is at least functional for the most part. Continue watching, try a powered USB hub for external devices, and something may turn up. Or someone else may read these postings and note something I overlooked.

 

[je1983]

Funny you mention gremlins, I was thinking supernatural forces just a few posts ago. Like everything I own my powered hub failed a few months ago despite barely getting any use. It's functional and there are no other signs of any issues but I'm wondering if I'm causing harm by continuing to run it like this, if it is in fact that psu. I think it's about time I get a new psu, I always intended to replace this current one, although not so soon, and I was ready to get one two weeks ago before everything started to work fine again.

I have to say I'm a little disappointed it all started working again. I was really hoping to be able to pinpoint the exact cause of this, and learn from it for the next time but I've learned plenty already in trying to sort this out, more than I care to learn in a short period of time. My main concern now, what if the problem continues after getting the new psu. I guess tearing my hair out would be next on the list of options for how I deal with this problem. I'll let you know what happens..