Compaq desktop with Windows 7 won't reconnect to internet after wake-up from sleep mode

[Joaquin2]

Info about the computer: desktop computer Compaq SG3-150SC, processor is AMD Athlon(tm) II x2 215 with 2,7MHz, bios is American Megatrends Inc. 6.01, 23.4.2010 SMBIOS-version 2.6, RAM is 4Gb total. Operating system is Windows 7 64 bit home premium + service pack 2.

ABOUT THE PROBLEM

This problem has occurred only recently. After I switch on my desktop from sleep mode, it can't reconnect to the Internet, and I use only cable-internet to which the computer is attached through ethernet cable to the cable-internet-modem/router. The computer seems to be able to display all the available networks but it never succeeds in connecting to the Internet (after wake-up from sleep). At the same time the computer seems to have slowed down a lot, I have no real idea why, but I assume that it is trying to reconnect to internet and this process of reconnecting is eating up it's resources.

I have had some other problems with this computer during this past half year, but won't go into large details with them now. Those problems have been of losing some dll. file that was ment to show the normal/big Win 7 window of the periphericals attached to the computer, and some total system hangs/freezes after having updated AMD ATI Radeon 3000 graphics drivers. However these problems seem to have gone after Windows 7 service pack 2 update. Also I have scanned the computer many times with a well known and globally apreciated security software, no viruses or other major security problems have been found.

The only problem that the computer at the moment seems to have is just this issue I am trying to solve.

Any suggestions what to check up and do?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

A couple suggestions you can try...

1. Install the latest W7 ethernet driver for the Realtek RTL8105E ethernet adapter your PC has.

Download, unzip and run the setup application from the 2nd file on the webpage below.

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=7&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTy...

2. Go to the device manager, click to expand the Network Adapters device category.

Left click on the Realtek ethernet adapter.

Click on the Power Management tab and uncheck the box to allow windows to turn off this device to save power.

[Joaquin2]

Thank you for the quick and possibly correct advice. I did do as you suggested. The installation of Realtek driver update seems to have succeeded (the ethernet driver is updated to the latest possible) and I did change the energy savings setting of the ethernet connector as you suggested. So the problem might have been solved now, at least by one test of waking up the computer from sleep: the computer was able to reconnect normally to the internet, and it did that pretty quick.

However, I must say that the installation of the updated Realtek driver might not have happened all that well as supposed. After the driver update installation was done I did a normal shutdown & restart the computer, but the computer was not able to shut down normally. It just left on the last bluish screen and the small circle going round and nothing just happened. After a while I detached my external usb harddrive and after that I got a big blue screen error message telling:

"A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE

If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your comuter. If this screen appears  again, follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware of software is properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or sorfware manufacturer for any windows updates you might need."

And some more text that I won't write now as I believe those are general Windows 7 error advice texts.

Anyhow, I will be monitoring the situation and doing some normal check-up routins in the coming days to find out if the driver update went or didn't go well.

For now, lets hope the best!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Let's hope it was a one time glitch.