Windows – Can’t connect to network on Windows 7 (Wireless or Wired)

networkingwindowswindows 7wireless-networking

I'm helping a friend that can't connect to the internet through a hard wired connection or through wireless. It's a laptop, that usually connected fine through both.

The error is that the WiFi bars have a red X. If you click on it, it says "Not Connected. No Connections are available"

It's a windows 7 OS machine. Here are the steps I have tried:

  1. Made sure hardware switches are turned ON on the side of the laptop (no switches found)
  2. Pressed the toggle on the keyboard to make sure it wasn't accidentally turned off (toggle didn't seem to toggle anything)
  3. Checked Device Manager for yellow exclamation points (none found)
  4. Clicked WiFi bars in System Tray, then "Troubleshoot" then got the message: An unexpected error has occurred. The troubleshooting wizard can't continue.
  5. Went to network adapters. LAN and WiFi say Unplugged and Not connected
  6. Tried disabling and re-enabling WiFi adapter (still doesn't work)
  7. In network adapters pressed "Diagnose", got: An error occurred while loading the troubleshooter
  8. Ran sfc /scannow from elevated Command Prompt. After a certain % it stopped and said: Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation
  9. Run chkdsk /r, pressed y, then enter, then restarted computer. Let Chkdsk run for a few hours, came back to find Windows at the login screen.
  10. Try sfc /scannow again. Same error as before.
  11. Uninstalled both network adapters, pressed Action > Scan For Hardware Changes. Still doesn't work

I'm out of ideas. What else could this be.

EDIT (for bounty)
I keep trying the same things as listed above, hoping something will just magically work, but it's proven unsuccessful. I've done everything I could possibly think of. I know the best solution would be "Just reinstall Windows", but right now that's not a possibility.

Best Answer

I had a somewhat similar issue with a Win 7 machine a while back. It wasn't wireless just wired but it was having this same issue.

After doing close to the same steps that you have done, I did these things:

  1. Did Windows Update update the driver for your NIC?
  2. If so, then attempt a Driver Rollback.
  3. If not, verify that the NEWEST drivers for the NIC are installed.
  4. If not, install them.
  5. If this does not solve the issue then go back to the place that you found the drivers for your NIC, download ALL possible NIC drivers including ones for Vista and XP.
  6. Attempt installing each one to see if the issue is fixed.

In my case it was simply that Windows Update had installed the newest driver for the NIC and I needed to rollback to a Vista version of the driver. Unfortunately, I am not intelligent enough to explain the reason that the 'updated' version of the driver failed.

Also, SFC failing may be some foreshadowing of a larger problem or it could actually be the problem.

Good Luck!

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