Help- System will not connect to internet

Question

I have a Dell Dimension 8400 and yesterday morning when i left home it was working fine but when i came back i could not connect to the internet. Internet explorer just fills up with random numbers, letters and symbols. whole page is covered with them. I have telewest broadband and phoned them and went through everything possible with them and everything was working fine from there end and it was showing i was connected. So then i phoned their specialist line as they thought it might be software related. So i went through loads of things with this guy and in the end he said i had a corrupt system file and told me to find the installation disc and go to start -> run -> sfc /scannow. so i did that and my system will still not connect to the internet. just a bunch of mess on the screen. Does anyone else have any ideas. in dire need of some help here as i have exhausted all other resources. many thanks for any help.

Owen824 · Answer

Yes i have done the restore point to a few weeks prior. I also uninstalled ie7 as apparently that has been causing problems. i also uninstalled any software that might stop an internet connection from working in the computer ie firewall, security, etc. still keeps coming up random numbers, letters and symbols when i open a internet explorer.

europa303 · Answer

Have you tried running a System Restore point to a date prior to the problem?  Worth a try.

jmwills · Answer

Please go into the Device Manager and see if there are any Yellow Excalmation marks associated with a network adapter.  This is not an IE 7 issue but sounds like suspicious malware.

Owen824 · Answer

I have just ran home on my lunch hour and checke dand there are no yellow exclamation points in network adaptors or anywhere in the whole list for that matter. I have had a lot of experience and have never come across this in my 15 years of using computers. absolutely mind boggling.

Owen824 · Answer

yeh i went through that with the telewest technician. and still to no avail i have no connection. i am almost to the point of doing a full reinstall which i really do ot want to do.

jmwills · Answer

Google for a program called WinSockFix for XP and run it.  This will reset the connection.

jmwills · Answer

At this point, I would uninstall the device, reboot, and manually reinstall the driver. Message Edited by jmwills on 12-04-200603:36 PM

Delierious · Answer

I take it that you have checked View | Character Encoding | and ensured that it is set to Uni-Code UTF-8?

Owen824 · Answer

Right i went home last night tried a few things and in the end used the symantec system restore which returned the system back to the original state when i got it from dell. everything was cleaned off and started fresh. Sure enough once it was all up and running again i tried connecting to the internet and nothing once again. I am at a loss. It is not software and its not the cable modem as the ISP can see me on their end so it must be something hardware related. I think i tmight be my ethernet card but it says device is working properly. any suggestions.

Owen824 · Answer

When i restored the system to its original state, i had to unplug all peripherals. So i unplugged everything from the comp apart from the keyboard, mouse and monitor. after everything finished and the computer started up i went through the process of setting up my modem and connection. First step was to plug the power into the modem (by this time it had been turned off for about 30 minutes or so), then power up the computer, then connect the ethernet cable and then try to set up the connection. I am on telewest and they give a disc thats takes you through the process of setting up the connection. but to no avail, connection could not be made.

jmwills · Answer

Power down everything and let it sit for about 5 minutes, this inlcudes the cable modem.   Power up the cable modem and let it stabilize, which takes about 3-4 minutes, then power up the PC.  You should now connect.

jmwills · Answer

If you look at this logically, the ISP can only see the modem and it looks to be functioning properly according to them.   The desktop shows no device errors so it has to be n the connection setup.  It should be set for DHCP (obtain address automatically) and no use of Proxy Servers.

jmwills · Answer

Why do you need software to install a cable modem?   What are 'exact' properties of your connection?  DHCP or STATIC?  Any Proxy Server involved?   Please post the result of an ipconfig /all Message Edited by jmwills on 12-05-200611:03 AM

Owen824 · Answer

Its a disc that telewest gives you that shows you exactly how to set up a connection to broadband because they are not allowed to actually touch your computers and install the broadband. Silly, but all they are allowed to do is hook the broadband up and bring it into your house to the modem. You have to do the rest for legal reasons. Anyways, i am at work now so when i go hme tonight i will do an ipconfig and post the results to you tomorrow. Hopefully it will be fixed as i have a friend who runs a computer company here in edinburgh and i am trying to get him to send one of his guys over to have a look. will let you know how i get on. thanks for the help so far.

lucidi · Answer

I realdy ran similar program and checked all that and I also don't use proxy server. Something happend to the windows installation while DELL had this computer and the Windows need to be reactivated. That is my conclusion.

Windows General

Help- System will not connect to internet

Was this post helpful?