[Inactive] Internet connection problems with laptop

[bushka]

Hi.  I've gotten some great help here in the past, which solved some long standing problems I had with my home pc.  I'm having trouble with my laptop at my store, and thought someone might give me a hand.

I can get online no problem through DSL, but things go wrong when I leave the computer.  If I leave for maybe 15 minutes or so, when I coime back to the computer, and wake it up, it acts funny.  For example, the mouse cursor jumps around, trying to catch up with my movements.  Also, I can't get a connection to the internet anymore.  I have to restart the computer, and then things are normal again.  I get a lot of messages that the computer is looking for a wireless connection, but I have a cable.  My wireless button is turned off, but it looks for a wireless connection anyway.

I don't have any virus software on this computer as I use it only for email and occasional searches.

Thanks for any suggestions!

[Hoov]

Is your laptop set to go to sleep after a short period of time? Or hibernate? If it is and you have a third party firewall installed, that may be the cause. I have found that most third party firewalls do not like sleep or hibernate.

[bushka]

I only have the screen saver come up (black screen) after 5 minutes.  I have the plain old Windows firewall active.  I do not have any other third party software that I am aware of.

[Hoov]

what version of windows are you using?

[bushka]

I believe it is Windows XP.  The problem I have is that the laptop is at the store and I'm home now.  If you have some other things for me to check into I can get the answers Friday morning.  I may also just take it home Friday night and plug it in at home.  Although, I'd think diagnosing the problem with the connection it is on now might make more sense.

Thanks.

[Hoov]

Go to the power settings options and make sure it is not set to hibernate.  I am assuming that it is connected to AC power when this happens?

If you don't know how to do it, there are instructions here.  Scroll down to the Configuring Power Settings label.

[bushka]

Yes, it was set to hibernate.  I unchecked the box.

[Hoov]

Try it that way and see if it works better for you.

[bushka]

OK, so I think that worked.  I was able to get back online after a couple of times of leaving the pc alone.  However, I have other problems that I'm not sure are related or not.  About the third time I came back to see if the computer would wake up and go right online, I found that the blank screen would not return me to the desktop.  I tried everything to get the pc to respond.  This has happened many times, and my only recourse is to unplug everything and take out the battery.  This always seems to work.

I took some notes on what happened today:

1. Removed battery and reconnected power and cable.  After my desktop appeared, I got the message "CONFIG FREE Wireless communication is disabled.  Please turn on wireless communication switch."  Note: I never use anything wireless.

2. I hit OK and I get the message "Switching network device now."  All during this time my mouse is jumping around to catch up with my mouse movements, as it has done in the past.

3. I couldn't get online again, and windows tries to diagnose the problem, which it can't do.  By the way, how do I determine what modem I have?  There is no information on the bottom of the  pc and I forget how to get the hardware list back up.

4.  I restart the computer, but before it restarts, I get the message, "Ending Program: MciAsynchEventMgrWnd".  I hit End and then the pc shuts down.

5. After the pc restarts, I do not get the CONFIG FREE message, but I do get the "Switching network device now" message.  The internet worked normally from this point.

So the thing that started the problem here is that the pc just wouldn't wake up from the blank screen.

Any thoughts?

[Hoov]

Removed battery and reconnected power and cable.

Why did you do this?

As for the rest of it, it may help if I could see your event viewer logs. Follow the instructions below.

I need you to go to the administration tools in XP. They are in the Control Panel. Open the Admin tools, then open the event viewer. Over on the left hand side and click on System. Then up at the top click on Action and then click on Save Events As, type in system as the file name,  make sure file type EVT is selected, and then navigate so it will save the file to your desktop, then click save. Over on the left hand side and click on Application. Then up at the top click on Action and then click on Save Events As, type in application as the file name,  make sure file type EVT is selected, and then navigate so it will save the file to your desktop, then click save. Zip them both up into a single zip file, post them back here in your next reply as attachments.

[bushka]

Regarding removing battery:  To be more clear, I removed and then reinstalled the battery in the laptop.  The reason is that it wouldn't respond to anything else, even if I hit the power button.  Normally I have the laptop plugged in, so when removing the battery I disconnected the power first.

I'll reply with the event logs Saturday morning when I am back at work.

Thanks again! 

[bushka]

OK, Hoov, attached are the files you requested.

[Hoov]

From the logs, you are having a lot of problems with the DHCP server. What kind of internet connection do you have?

Try resetting your Winsock using the instructions below.

Click Start. click run, type: cmd, and press Enter
Type: netsh winsock reset, and then press the ENTER key.
Type: Exit and press ENTER.
Restart the computer.

[bushka]

I have a DSL connection from Verizon for my business.  I followed the instructions you gave.

[Hoov]

Let me know if the problem remains.