All of a sudden - no connect!

[JPHenry]

New XP user here - this site looks great - really knowledgeable people - so I think I'll take advantage! (sorry for the length - but hopefully it will give someone some ideas for me)

- have had it for about a month and everything was running fine. Have it networked with two other computers through Linksys Router - The XP machine can talk to the Me computer but not the 98 (although the 98 can talk to the Me - go figure!) but that didn't really bother me.

But now, all of a sudden, when I boot up my computer, it doesn't connect anymore - I get a weird IP address (not the usual 192.168.1.101 or 102 that I usually get) that doesn't work at all.

I've found that if I disable this MAC bridge I have and then enable it right away - then it will work. But when I enable I get an error message that says "Network Cable unplugged" - but then 10 seconds later it disappears and says enabled and all is fine.

Another problem that has popped up is that when I click on a program - it takes ALOT longer to load up (before the splash screen comes up). If I close it and then reopen it again, it pops right up. When I look at the Task Manager the file WMIPRVSE.EXE is there whenever I have a slow problem and not there when everything is running fine.

Emailed Dell tech support and they told me to do a System Restore - didn't work on the last date - went back to another one and it seemed to work great - the WMIPRVSE file didn't load up and I could connect right away....until today!

Same problem (although now no WMIPRVSE), disconnected bridge, reconnected, same err message and then all is fine.

Hopefully someone here will have some info to help me out.

Thank you

 

[JPHenry]

Thought I'd let those who might be interested how I resolved this.

Dell suggested uninstalling network card, rebooting and then letting Plug and Play reinstall it.

Uninstalled it, rebooted, computer hung up at a black screen. The white arrow was there and I could move it around - but nothing more.

Turned my computer off and considered throwing it though the window.

An hour later I turned it back on - with the network cable UNPLUGGED - it booted up SUPER fast, found the card and reinstalled it.

I SKIPPED the wizard.

Plugged the network cable in the back, clicked on my workgroup computers - and for some unknown reason my Windows 98 machine was there!!!!!!

So it worked.

There must be something to do with networking when XP is first turned on that causes everything to run slow because now when I reboot, it does take a bit longer then it did without the cable plugged in - but the network still works out OK.

Hope this helps someone.