Networks·41,424 discussions

Missing Network Connections

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Windows XP Pro with Lan and Wlan connections.

Suddenly all networkconnection icons are missing. I can see that the Lan connection is working if I use the ipconfig command, as it receives an IP adress from the DHCP server.

I’ve tried System Restore (it fails as usual) , reinstalling the device drivers, although they don’t show any errors in the Device Manager list, and tried Safe Mode with Networking.

Any suggestions?

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Clarifications

In reply to Missing Network Connections

Clarifications

Check this out

In reply to Missing Network Connections

How to troubleshoot missing network connections icons in Windows Server 2003 and in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825826

Thanks

In reply to Check this out

Thanks for the tip, but already tried those steps, and also the other KB articles that it links to.

It appears that the user have upgraded to IE8 prior to this error, so something must have gone wrong there.

Uninstalled IE8 and repaird IE7, and the icons in networing are back.

However, IE7 (and 8 as I tried to upgrade again) is in a terrible mess, not working properly. Tried the usual repair functions etc, disabling add-ons.

Installed Firefox, and it works fine.

Looks like the computer have a problem with the Windows Live suite, as it gives an error to one of these programs when loading Windows and the desktop. Also unable to uninstall or repair Windows Live using add/remove programs.

So the status is now:

Firefox works OK atm.

IE8 – not working
Windows Live – unable to remove
Drag & Drop / Copy & Pase – not working

Heading towards a complete reinstall of Win XP, if I get the user to backup his personal files and folders.

Repair..

In reply to Thanks

You could try System File Checker
(sfc /scannow) at the cmd prompt.

Or boot from XP cd and do a repair of OS.

Or, like you said, back up users profile and then do a clean install, if all else fails!

Good Luck!

Thanks for the tip

In reply to Repair..

Thanks for the tip, but I have alreday tried System File Checker, just forgot to mentioned that as ‘ve tried all I could find in Microsoft KB’s

Anyay, told the user to backup his files, as I am gonna do a clean install. Can’t spend to much time on a non-critical computer… 😉

Can you try

In reply to Thanks

a System Restore prior to installing IE8. I would try the oldest restore point, that I could find.

No luck…

In reply to Can you try

Thanks for the tip, but I tried System Restore fom Safe Mode as one of the first things as I noticed the last SW change was IE8.

However, all of the restore points fails…

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