Following a BSOD, I had a problem on my DEV machine where:
- Ethernet (wired) connections quit working altogether.
- Wireless adapter was only working temporarily.
- The “Change Adapter Settings” page was blank. No network adapters were listed or found.
- Network Icon in the System Tray had a Red X.
- Device Manager showed a Orange ! Triangle on all physical hardware network adapters. With various error codes such as “The parameter is incorrect.”
- Wireless eventually stopped working (after re-installing the wireless card).
- All IP & DHCP communications ceased to function. However, my wireless network card DID authenticate to a WEP encrypted wireless network, but no IP address was assigned.
- Virtual Hamachi adapter was also missing.
- Adding a new physical NIC to the motherboard did not solve the issue nor could I obtain an IP address with a newly installed NIC.
I had a strong suspicion that the BSOD I previously experienced goofed up some obscure registry setting deep inside windows’ networking sub system. Somewhere. After hours of searching, I found this small suggestion:
If the Network Connections window starts to open, but then closes immediately or "hangs," complete these steps:
- Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then press ENTER.
- Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL-MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network
- Right-click this subkey, click Export, and then save the selected branch in a file.
- Click the Network subkey again, and then delete the Config entry. Do not delete the Network subkey. The Config entry will be reconstructed when you restart the computer.
- Restart the computer. You may have to manually turn off the computer.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825826#Method_4
This did it for me. Finally, I can re-enable my network adapters and use the internet once again.
Hope this helps,
Brian Chavez