Windows Networking – Error Code 0x80004005 When Accessing Another Computer

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I have two windows machine on a home wired network, one running windows 7 (I will call it w7 from now on) and one running windows 8.1 (I will call it w8 from now on). Both machines could access each other's shared folders (shared using "advanced sharing", that is) until my internet service provider upgraded their modem over the week-end. Now w8 can access w7's shared folders, but w7 cannot access w8's shared folders. When typing the \w8 in windows explorer I get a message that says

Windows cannot access \\w8

and, in the details:

Error code: 0x80004005

Unspecified error

If I try the same thing in the start menu I get a different details section:

Error code: 0x800070035

The network path was not found.

If I enter \\[w8's ip address] either in windows explorer or in the start menu I get the same results as above.

I made sure that Client for Microsoft Networks was installed and checked on W7 and w8 for the Local Area Connection, as well as the connection to the Internet Service Provider.

There are no 3rd party firewalls on w7 & w8.

I made sure all these services were running on both w7 and w8

  • Computer Browser
  • DHCP Client
  • DNS Client
  • Function Discovery Resource Publication
  • Server
  • SSDP Discovery
  • TCP/IP Netbios helper
  • UPnP Device Host
  • Workstation

UPnP Device Host was not running on w7, but starting it made no difference.

Computer Browser & UPnP Device Host were not running on w8, but starting them made no difference.

I tried to map a network drive on w8 from w7 (using both ip address and name), choosing "connect using different credentials" as per a response on technet still yielded Error code: 0x800070035

I cannot ping w8 from w7 using either ip address or name, but w8 can ping w7.

There is also an xp machine on the same network. w7 & the xp machine can see each other. w8 can see the xp machine, but the xp machine cannot see w8.

It seems like this could be a Firewall configuration on w7. However, there are many, many inbound firewall rules, and I don't know which ones to check for.

Best Answer

Beyond the above solutions solving generic / classic issues with this error code, another new issue can cause 0x80004005.

Since Windows 10 1709, the old SMB v1 protocol is not supported anymore by default, which is still used by several PCs or other network devices like routers providing a NAS. Note that SMB v1 might have been uninstalled on older Windows machines aswell. Follow these steps to re-enable it and access such devices again.

  • Go to the classic Control Panel
  • Go to Programs & Features
  • Select Add or remove Windows features in the sidebar

  • Make sure Support for SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing is checked.

    Depending on what you need you might only require the client or server component, and also install the automatic removal (which tries to protect you from SMB v1 security issues), but if you have no clue what I mean, just check the parent checkbox.

Restart your PC and try accessing the device again.

A typical device not supporting SMB 2 or newer are older FritzBox routers (popular in Germany), and if you try to access a USB hard disk attached to act as a NAS, you'll be unable to reach the router trying to connect to it.

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