No network connectivity - "Media disconnected" strange issue & solution

[ClickRight]

I had a customer contact me last week -- his PC would not connect to the internet and he wanted to drop it off. He said he had already spent some time on the phone with his ISP who was unable to solve the issue and told him that he would probably need to replace his network card.


When I got it and hooked it up, the internet worked immediately. Checked all configuration and everything was ok. I called the customer to tell hime and he brought the PC back home. It still wouldn't connect. I had the customer run ipconfig /all and it said "Media state: Media disconnected" I then had him take the same network cable and plug it into his laptop, the connection worked fine. Bringing it back to the PC, it still said "media disconnected."

I had him try another network cable and all was well again; why the other cable worked in one computer and not the other is beyond me, but I just though I would share in case anybody else runs into this.

 

[rballard77]

I had the same thing happen to me before. Very strange that the cable works on one computer and not anoher.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Maybe it was the cable type (i.e. crossover, straight through). Maybe the PC was older and can only detect patch cables where the laptop is newer and can detect the difference and adjust to the required format.

 

[ClickRight]

Maybe it was the cable type (i.e. crossover, straight through). Maybe the PC was older and can only detect patch cables where the laptop is newer and can detect the difference and adjust to the required format.

Hmm, good point, I didn't even think of that at the time. His computer was quite new though, Quad core w/ 4GB RAM.

 

[usacvlr]

Just an intermittent fault in the cable most likely.

 

[iptech]

Any suspect patch cable should be cut & binned. They're not expensive to buy ready made and It doesn't warrant risking data loss, downtime and the chances of another lengthy diagnostic session sometime in the future.

 

[iptech]

Apologies for double post, but did you actually test the cable? A simple continuity test can often save a lot of head scratching.

 

[ejsaunders]

Test the cable first, if its fine use a USB NIC 'box' thingy, or a different NIC, if that works with that cable, perhaps the NIC is faulty in the PC?

Or, check all the settings, perhaps its not assigning the right IP from his router, I'd imagine yours is DHCP, maybe he has to put in an IP or something esoteric (I've seen it happen in the UK) and its confused, or one of the settings is a bit off.

Try deleting the NIC and let it reinstall, OR, try one of the BART/WinPE repairy disks or a bootable Linux and see if can connect with the same cable on the same PC, then you know its a settings based issue and not the NIC.

 

[ClickRight]

Apologies for double post, but did you actually test the cable? A simple continuity test can often save a lot of head scratching.

I would have if I had access to it. This was a PC that was dropped off at my office, not an on-site visit.

 

[ClickRight]

Test the cable first, if its fine use a USB NIC 'box' thingy, or a different NIC, if that works with that cable, perhaps the NIC is faulty in the PC?

Or, check all the settings, perhaps its not assigning the right IP from his router, I'd imagine yours is DHCP, maybe he has to put in an IP or something esoteric (I've seen it happen in the UK) and its confused, or one of the settings is a bit off.

Try deleting the NIC and let it reinstall, OR, try one of the BART/WinPE repairy disks or a bootable Linux and see if can connect with the same cable on the same PC, then you know its a settings based issue and not the NIC.

Thanks for your response, but please read my original post. The problem was solved before I even posted here. I was just trying to help anybody that comes into this issue with a customer as I know we're not all on-site based service providers.

 

[ejsaunders]

Do apologise, it was rather early in the morning when I replied, and I guess my mind didn't read everything, just the faulty bit!