Driver Disconnected While Associating

Hello

Vista desktop (Dell Inspiron 530) running alongside two laptops in small home network.

Cannot say exactly when it started, but on both cold boot and restart the network is taking about 4 minutes to get itself straight which, apart from being a royal pain, importantly means that ESS fails to update.

Event manager always shows the same error as per thread title.

Have tried the following:

• Un/re-installing ESS - problem persists regardless, so rules out ekrn.exe strangling the network.
  
• Updating bios and broadcom network adaptor drivers - no change
  
• Resetting router (Netgear DG834GT) and updating firmware - no change
  
• Rolling back to oldest image I've got (Macrium) - no change
  
• Running various network related command fixes (resetting TCP/IP) as suggested in other forums - no change

Neither laptop replicates this - both connect (local + internet) in seconds, like the Dell used to.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

philby

 

Hi Philby,

I'm posting these in the event you haven't yet come across them, and that they may have some bearing.

Several problems occur on a Windows Vista-based computer when you work in a wireless network environment

Windows Vista cannot obtain an IP address from certain routers or from certain non-Microsoft DHCP servers

Comment by Simon Sparkes - http://www.geekzone.co.nz/freitasm/2392


S

 

Kind of you to post those - I have, as you probably anticipated, been there already...

Spent all morning tinkering around, but unfortunately still none the wiser.

Thanks very much though.

philby

 

Have, yes you've probably given the Internet Connectivity Evaluation tool a spin - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932134

I'll gather you've seen this page - Troubleshooting Windows Vista 802.11 Wireless Connections

How about the SSID .... has it remained the same throughout testing?

PS - Pls post the full event error if not a problem.

 

Connectivity has always been fine (2 years). The box has always settled in around a minute.

The router is compatible, therefore, and OpenDNS / assigned local ips have always worked. I get no drop outs once the connection is established.

Incidentally, boot time is now much longer - around 30 scrolls instead of about 6 and then there's a further 2 minute delay while internet connectivity is established.

The conflict/failure must surely be in the box, rather than the router, as the other wirelessly linked machines are very snappy on start up.

Autoruns shows nothing suspicious loading and I only have ESS running at boot.

This pm, I rolled back then un/reinstalled the Broadcom driver again but
still no change.

I am clueless.

Thanks for your help.

philby

 

Thanks for that.

I have indeed already been there and tried switching from g only to b&g. No change.

It's like starting the car and not being able to drive for 5 minutes.

ESS not updating is a little more important though.

philby

 

Have you started to suspect something at the hardware level .... a connector or the card itself?

 

Have these problems started about 2 weeks ago? I have a lot of these problems lately on my windows XP SP3 and I'm starting to suspect the recent security update of microsoft.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms09-jan.mspx

Strangely the disconnections/reconnections happen with a much higher frequency when I have outpost installed.

Panagiotis

 

Yeah, I surely wouldn't doubt an update in the spokes.

 

I think around a month - hard to say as I don't normally reboot. It's my wife's "production machine" and she tends to be looking elsewhere when starting up...

Two laptops (vista sp1 / xp sp3) have no connection issues at all. All three machines are fully patched.

Your issue may well be Outpost related as I'm not running it and only have this issue on boot.

Thanks for posting

philby

 

Hardware is a mystery to me.

If it was the Broadcom adaptor, wouldn't I be having disrupted or no connectivity rather than just a long delay while the adaptor driver associates?

Once the connection is finally made, it is trouble free - local and internet with no drop outs at all.

philby

 

Won't even ask - http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread79535.html

 

Thanks for staying on the case - I hadn't found that one

I have, however, tried many of the changes suggested there but to no avail.

What I don't understand is how doing things like disabling IPv6 , link layer topologies etc. should be necessary when connectivity has been trouble free for literally years.

Why should changing to channel 12 help? Things have run smoothly on 6 from initial set up in 2006.

The issue is the driver not associating only initially - it does eventually.

I think the problem would probably be easier to solve if I simply couldn't connect at all.

philby

 

Would you kindly spec the current driver please, thanks.

 

Version 4.170.25.17 dated 12/10/2007

(I pulled it from Dell support as I couldn't figure out the Broadcom website!)

Problem is there whether I roll forward or back...

philby

 

One other thing there Philby, the item - Broadcom 4321AG 802.11a/b/g/draft-n Wi-Fi Adapter?
Problem is there whether I roll fore or aft ... sounds like something needs to be re-initialized?

 

All I know is it's a Broadcom 802.11g - can't seem to get anything more from device managaer under advanced or details.

Quite posiibly - but what ... and how?

Tiresome.

philby

 

Stapp

I just booted in safe mode + networking.

Speedier start up but the network icon settled as the "double monitor" showing local only (no globe and the red X for internet in the network and sharing centre map). Strange, as the internet was connected and worked fine. (??)

Regarding the long lag for a connection though, this didn't happen.

Does Vista load drivers differently in s/m?

I did think there may be a driver failing to load, so I ran a bootlog that shows the following drivers are not being loaded:

Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\kbdhid.sys
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\srv.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS
(well did the above one load or not?)
Did not load driver kbdhid.SYS
Did not load driver Wanarpv6.SYS

There are others that don't load, mainly from intel and logitech, but that's because I've disabled a lot of start up items - like the intel wired adaptor...

I don't know if there's anything significant here?

philby

 

Seeing how Stapp may have fractured the proverbial pinyatta, it sorta sounds like somebody's running interference. Load Order can show you both views with one shortcoming: it doesn't capture the "image path," meaning, you'll be obliged to print out a screen-shot or two for comparisons sake, run merely as a second opinion alongside bootlog. This isn't to say I don't have my doubt's when it comes to the Vista, Broadcom union ....

*Ah, in addition I see there's also DriverView which claims to confirm loaded drivers. Supposedly OK on Vista.

 

Thanks all for your input.

I think this one's beyond me - will probably just leave machine on full time from now on.

philby