First, try checking the network cables, if it just stoped working then that may be the issue, if not then try re-installing the network drivers. double check your network settings too, sometimes a program that you installed may try and change one or multiple settings on one, or both of the systems.

 

Good Luck

 

Chris

Nothing has made a difference.  Are hardware failures detectable?  What types of problems are not detectable?  Anything I can use to detect problems that I might not have already tried.  Bottom line here is I have 2 pcs that seem perfectly fine with every test I've tried, other than I can no longer get a network connection working between the two.

Still can't find anything that works, but now that I have both pc's side by side I've noticed that the network is not completely disabled: Every once in awhile (doesnt matter what I am doing) the network will briefly establish a link between the pcs (the "Network cable unplugged" indicator turns off then back on) but only for a fraction of a second.

It is possible that the NIC's (one or both) are failing. I have run into this issur several times. Try this.... Unplug boths computers completely and then open them. Remove the NIC card and let them sit for around 10 min. Then plug them back in and try again.    If that doesnt work, try replacing them. You can pick them up for only $15 or $20 at circuit city or someplace like that.

Fixed it, but not sure what the problem was.  Started swapping out stuff and it worked.  It appears to be some corrosion on the cabling was the problem.  I had cleaned everything, but when I started swapping stuff back in I noticed some of the connectors still weren't completely shiny.  That would explain the intermittent connection I was getting...  Thanks all for the suggestions.

It stopped working less than 24 hrs of being returned to original location.  Betting there is more corrosion I havent found somewhere, or hasnt been cleaned well enough.  Will probably start another message asking for tips on minimizing problems due to corrosion as I've never seen a computer so corroded: everything made of iron is rusting (much of the fan assembly looks really bad), some steel is rusting, everything copper is corroding, the aluminum oxidization is bad in places, lots of other misc corrosion.  Need to find a safe way to clean what needs to be (contacts especially) and to reduce the rate of corrosion.

I've never seen a computer so corroded

What environment were these machines exposed to?

Jim

"What environment were these machines exposed to?"

Just home use very close to the ocean.  Lots of salt air, mid-to high range humidity, some temperature change from 40s-80s F.  It must be the salt air...

Thanks, and agreed. I was asking because I have a friend living near the Pacific coast who has a relatively new Dimension 4600. There was some evidence of corrosion problems with her older machines, but nothing as severe as what you described. The 4600 is less than a year old, but I probably should pay her a visit and open the machine up and check for corrosion.

Jim

Opening a new message on this - looks like the corrosion issue may be a red herring - got network working for awhile then it slowed, stopped, and only works intermittently.

Poking around I found reference to Event Viewer in Windows 2000.  Ran it (EVENTVWR.EXE) and found:

"The value named IRPStackSize in the server's Registry key LanmanServer\Parameters was invalid. The value was ignored, and processing continued. "

After researching this problem, I found that a value of 11 decimal is appropriate and changed it.  System working again.  Must have been corrupted when I was uninstalling and reinstalling everything.

 

While the IRPStackSize key needed to be changed, turns out it's been a problem for at least 4 months, so it's unrelated to the actual problem...

At this point, I suspect at least of the network adapters (hardware) aren't working properly, as they do not work identically when i swap them with each other.  I'm getting a number of other errors listed in Event Viewer and they all seem to point to faulty hardware, though the hardware diagnostics say different.