# Computer Networking Issue

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-networking-issue/290236>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 15, 2005, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-networking-issue/290236 "2005-02-15T19:07:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-networking-issue/290236/1 "2005-02-15T19:07:24Z")

</div>

My boss has just got his laptop back from being serviced. They had to redo pretty much everything including reinstall the OS. The machine is a Sony Viao and it originally had Win ME and was upgraded to XP. That is what the store did - installed ME and upgraded it.

I am having a problem getting the machine to connect to the network. It seems that there is some issue with the NIC, but I have never seen anything like this before.

The machine recognizes the NIC, but it can’t get an IP address. In the properties under NETWORK CONNECTIONS the IP etc are all grayed out. When I go to the command prompt and do an IPCONFIG /ALL the only response is the next line says ‘Windows IP configuration’. I get the same response when I do a release or renew as well.

I’m stumped. Any ideas?

Thanks

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-networking-issue/290236/2 "2005-02-15T20:51:44Z")

</div>

Hm. If that happened to me, first thing I’d try is to uninstall the NIC and network drivers and reinstall them. Maybe something got corrupted.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![esquimalt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@esquimalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/esquimalt)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-networking-issue/290236/3 "2005-02-15T21:54:03Z")

</div>

Does it have a wireless adapter as well? You may need to toggle it off to get the Nic to work. I had that problem not too long ago.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-networking-issue/290236/4 "2005-02-15T21:57:42Z")

</div>

Thanks for the replies, but I now know what the problem is. The NIC is effed up. I pulled the NIC out of someone elses laptop and it worked fine. I’m glad it is something that easy. I was going out of my mind trying to figure why the protocols were not binding to the device.