XP Service Pack 2: Missing Network Connection Icons

[mmcardle]

Hi there,

My company has installed SP2 on three identical PCs to test the SP before a full rollout.

The network connection icons have totally disappeared on two of the PCs, although they are still connected to the network. Also, the network adpator has disappeared from device manager. In short, anything to do with the network adaptor or network configuration has totally vanished on these two PCs. Can't create any new ones either.

We've tried all sorts to get them to come back, including disabling the firewall, going right the way through MS knowledge base article 825826, and generally messing about.

Anyone else come across this and fixed it?

 

[bcastner]

This worked for me:

Start, Run, CMD
regsvr32 netshell.dll
regsvr32 atl.dll
regsvr32 netcfgx.dll
regsvr32 netman.dll

See also:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825826

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;269019

It is important to check that the Plug and Play service, and the Remote Procedure Call service are running.

 

[mmcardle]

Hi!

Thanks for your reply!

Yep, we've tried all that and they are still hiding from us!

One of my colleagues has just pointed that the graphics card, hard drive controller, sound card, and several of the system bridges (e.g. PCI to PCI host bridge) have vanished from the device driver too!

As it stands, I think we are going to uninstall SP2.

 

[bcastner]

I don't think you have a choice.

Please report back whether removing SP2 restored all of these devices.

 

[mmcardle]

Hello again!

We have just uninstalled SP2 on one of the PCs, rebooted, and it has made no difference at all.

Useful huh?

 

[bcastner]

It actually is, because I do not believe the issue is directly due to SP2.

Could you check (Start, Run, services.msc) that the Plug and Play service is running?

 

[mmcardle]

Yes, the Plug and Play service is running, as are all the other services that the knowledge base articles suggests checking (RPC etc).