Thread: PC not aquiring IP address. Need Help

Hi guys and girls,

A few weeks ago, my Mother-in-laws PC starting having this issue where it would connect to her router, but would not obtain an IP address. I've tried disabling her internet card, and updating the drivers, but it would only work once. Meaning it would make the initial connection and obtain the address. But after rebooting, it would go back to not obtaining that address from the router. I've tried using my phone as a modem, and installing a wireless card. They both had the same results as before. They'd make the connection and obtain the address, but after rebooting, they wouldn't work anymore. We thought it might be her router, but every other device in the house worked fine (PC, laptop, XBox, iPod, phone). I took it my house to use on my router, and it had the same issues.

Any idea what might be causing this? I mean, other than it's not a Mac?

is this an internal wireless card for a PC? is it on a card that you can pull, or is it integrated? if it is on a card, pull it and re-seat it in another slot.

if that doesn't work, buy one from BestBuy and see if that works. you can always return it and buy something cheaper on line (if that does solve it)

What OS is she using? Are you getting a constant link light on the NIC when the connection drops?

You can try opening up a command prompt and typing in..

netsh int ip reset reset.log

She's running windows XP. I didn't pay attention to any of the lights. I'll have to check that out later tonight after I get home.

it's possible that you may need to access the router via a website and tweak some settings while there.
Posted via Mobile Device

You can also try assigning a static IP address to the computer.

Creeping Death's solution might work too.

I would investigate possible malware on the system. There is an app called lspfix.exe that is pretty good about discovering issues with your protocol stack..here is a url.

LSP-Fix - a free program to repair damaged Winsock 2 stacks

I use it all the time at work, but it is a use at your own risk deal of course. Since the behavior follows the system I would say that rules out your router as being the cause. i would check your services to see if your dhcp client service is running and its dependencies. There are also some helpful utils and links out there to rebuild winsock if tcpip is the issue, but be careful where you download from. I would also rename your hosts file to see if that may be an issue.

It might be a tumor.

Open command prompt and type:

ipconfig /release
net dhcp stop
net dhcp start
ipconfig /renew

Not sure if it's gonna do anything but it's worth a shot.