Local Area Connection Shows Network Cable Unplugged in WinXP

[dslqueen]

I work for a large ISP in the technical support dept. for DSL. Lately my colleagues and I have noticed an influx of calls from customers who cannot route or who have no Link light on their router or modem.

One of the obvious steps is to go to Network Connections and make sure the Local Area Connection is Enabled and also that the actual cable is physically plugged in. However what we have been finding is that the LAC, is enabled and the cables are fine but the icon shows "Network Cable Unplugged" even when its not.

We have tried switching cables, reversing ends, reboots, changing NICS, and everything and so far cannot come up with a reason for this. Is it not supposed to show unplugged when it is actually unplugged physically? Is this a scripting error?

If anyone has any suggestions I know myself, my co-workers and customers would very much appreciate it.

thanks
Jan

 

[mithrilhall]

Since you're posting this in the Windows XP forum I'm going to assume that the only complaints you've received have been from people running XP?

How many of them are up to date with Windows Updates?
====================================
I love people. They taste just like
chicken!

 

[dslqueen]

Unfortunately I have not asked customers if they are up to date with their windows updates, and I dont think it would be within my support boundaries to direct them to do it either. Good thought though...I'll think to ask them that next time...any other thoughts? and yes this is only XP that this happens

 

[PCSAARON]

We have seen the same problem here with one of our windows XP machines on our network. It seems to actually lose connection for a breif second. The "Unplugged Network" icon shows up and then it connects again, then dissapears. Not sure why this was happening. It was a frequent thing, every 5 to 10 minutes. It doesn't happen anymore, but we made sure that all of the windows updates were made. The network card was a 3com 905tx. It also had the newest driver from Microshaft. So, try the windows update and make sure all of the drivers are installed.

You might want them to look at the link lights on the network cards. I have seen a Windows 2000 machine do this.... The link light on the network card used to go off and then on again. We put the network card in a higher slot on the (ASUS) motherboard and it cleared the problem up. Obviously there was a conflict of some sort. If these machines are the same machines and are having the same problems, that may be the case.

Aaron

 

[roban]

I had the same problem with my XP machine running on cable. I had installed a software package then uninstalled and it took something with it. I reinstalled XP over the original install and everything is fine. if it weren't for flashbacks I'd have no memory at all

 

[karlehenry]

i have came accross this problem many many times. however the problem was different everytime...Most fo the time it was teh nic card. Have them call their support vendor for their pc to check troubleshoot the nic card, and if they dotn have a support vendor, they may need to purchase a new nic card and install it. this isnt a 100 proof fix.

I used to work for a retail store and tehy run a peer to peer network with 2 registrs and one pc as the server. when this happned i eithr had to replace the pc, replace the nic card or replace the registers. Since they are running xp... it could also be a driver issue.

karlehenry@aol.com
P2C solutions provider
Computer Consultant/Desktop Specialist/Help Desk Administrator

 

[dslqueen]

thanks for the ideas...i'll bounce them off my colleagues...we'll start trying them and see what works *ducks and hides* "don't shoot me i'm only the messenger!"