windows 2k oddity

I have an IBM laptop running windows 2k, the system has a built in nic, up-to-date AV and all relevant MS hot fixes. This morning it went nuts and every one here is at a loss as to what happened so any thoughts would be helpful. I got in this morning and the system had forgotten it had a network card, no networking info setup, no card listed in the device manager, this happened after boot up as it was off last night. I tried to detect plug and play devices, no luck. I then rebooted and made sure the card was activated in the bios...it was. I booted into last known good configuration...no luck. I booted into safe mode with networking…it still wasn’t there. At this point I called over the help desk staff so I could get a good laugh t the looks on their faces as they tried to get it to work. We where about to reinstall with the recover disk when one of the staff jokingly waved his hand over the laptop and said...I summon the power of certification...the nic prepared and started working. Any thoughts (I have already searched my system for backdoors and remote admin stuff...nothing there) oh I went through my systems access logs and our networks logs and couldn’t find any unusual activity...and I am safely behind a firewall (Cisco pix).

well, what can i say...

WELCOME TO THE WONDERFULL WORLD OF MICROSOFT
WINDOWS...

;-)

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i summon the vast power of certification

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funny, that's all i remember from the classes...

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dilbert is fantastic.

anyhow. next time this happens, try a PCI NIC. i try to avoid on-board devices.
you may consider looking for conlicts in IRQs/DMAs. maybe something is trying to use it's IRQ

or, guy really does have vast power....

Did you check at control panel - Administrative tools - urrhm and something (sorry can't remember it, I'm on linux now) ?
But anyway I know you can find lots of errors and rare stops of services and so....

See if you can find unexpected errors there ;)

Greetz,

I did check the administrative tools/servces nothing unusual stoped there...and nothing was started when he waved hs hand over the machine....on another note I would love to use a PCI card please 'splan how to do that on a NOTEBOOK computer? :D

that guy is certified...... a certified magician. or a trixster. he probably just fixed it an fooled you. most people don't hang around IT people too much, so we do all we can when we get to interact with "real" people

I don't he fixed it and didnttell me considering the fact that we where all standing there...and seeing as I'm the web admin and have controll over the logs with all the porn he surfs I doubt he would endanger that with a bad joke :)...humm perhaps I havent had the tech support people read enough bofh yet.

Which model Think pad was that, I've done support for IBM's thinkpads before and their a bunch of crap. You can check the known issues section of IBM's thinkpad support site.



PuRe

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Originally posted here by PuReExcTacy
Which model Think pad was that, I've done support for IBM's thinkpads before and their a bunch of crap. You can check the known issues section of IBM's thinkpad support site.



PuRe

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I have a type # of 2647

Well, that is most certainly weird but not uncommon with MS products. I have no explanation as to why it might have happened in the first place - unless the NIC itself is physically failing. I do, however, have a suggestion if it happens again in the future. Instead of praying to the Tech Gods, go into the W2K add/remove hardware manager and completely remove it from the system there. After that, run a reg. cleaner and remove any references there. I've had to do this multiple times in the past with some hardware that I've installed and it took several installs to get working right. My experience is that W2K will often use setup information that got created the intial time a device was installed, which may have been wrong, in subsequent installs of the same device. Removing this information will allow you to start over clean. Just a suggestion - but not an answer to your question...

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Originally posted here by Maverick811
Well, that is most certainly weird but not uncommon with MS products. I have no explanation as to why it might have happened in the first place - unless the NIC itself is physically failing. I do, however, have a suggestion if it happens again in the future. Instead of praying to the Tech Gods, go into the W2K add/remove hardware manager and completely remove it from the system there. After that, run a reg. cleaner and remove any references there. I've had to do this multiple times in the past with some hardware that I've installed and it took several installs to get working right. My experience is that W2K will often use setup information that got created the intial time a device was installed, which may have been wrong, in subsequent installs of the same device. Removing this information will allow you to start over clean. Just a suggestion - but not an answer to your question...

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It wasnt in the add/remove hardware, it was as if it had been removed or never installed..Ididnt check the registry for referances to it but it definatly wasnt listed as a device to remove/modify.

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Originally posted here by bballad


It wasnt in the add/remove hardware, it was as if it had been removed or never installed..Ididnt check the registry for referances to it but it definatly wasnt listed as a device to remove/modify.

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Did you check the option to show hidden devices?

Yup I had it show all hidden devices...I even checked hardware profiles to make sure one hadn't been setup....perhaps the machine is just possesed...I'm thinking of keeping a baby sledg at my desk th remind the systtem whos boss :)

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Originally posted here by bballad
I'm thinking of keeping a baby sledg at my desk th remind the systtem whos boss :)

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You may just end up having to do that...

That does sound very weird, but you can't put anything past MS... I honestly don't know what to tell you - I'm at a loss...

FYI, the PCI NIC equivalent in the laptop world is called a PCMCIA NIC.. heck you could even use a USB NIC if you have a USB port. ;)

Well we have a resalution, it happened a second time...it seems my docking station is dieing, when the laptop is docked there seems to be a intermitant short in the connection from the docking station to the laptop causeing the nic to die and vanish as windows thinks its been removed....the solution..well its a company computer under warrenty from IBM so I get a new system and dockingstation :)