internet died while playing BF2

[Second Gunman]

Before anyone asks, my full specs are that the bottom of this post.

My computer has been running fine..........now suddenly I have no internet. I was playing Battlefield2, when the game and teamspeak both froze at the same time. I tried to relaunch TS, but it couldn't find the server. I launched Firefox, but it couldn't find google. I rebooted, and still have no internet. When I rebooted, the few apps in my system tray launched quickly, with the exception of ZoneAlarm, which takes a minute and forty five seconds to launch. During that time, if I double click on My Computer, I get a blank screen with a flashlight searching. It takes almost two minutes before I can do anything. It's never done that before......maybe it's because I have no internet. I unplugged the network cable from the pc, and the pc recognized that the cable was unplugged. This plus the fact that the network card shows as ok in the device manager leads me away from the NIC as a cause. When I plugged the ethernet cable back in, the computer is unable to find an ip address. I'm also unable to connect to the other computer on my home network.

My cable modem is working fine. My other pc is able to access the internet (I'm using it now). I've tried replacing my network cable. I've tried using a different spot on my router. ZoneAlarm spyware check turned up nothing. SpyBot turned up a few things, but nothing interesting. AdAware came up with something called WhenU (according to its description on McAfee I don't have it), but nothing out of the ordinary beyond that. I've rebooted and run SpyBot and AdAware again, they turned up nothing at all. I'd post a HiJack This log, but I don't have a floppy drive on my pc and my girlfriend has my thumbdrive. Since I can't access the network, I can't share it and post it from here. What is wrong with my poor computer???

The last hardware I added was new RAM about a month ago. I had a problem patching BF2 yesterday, and had to uninstall and reinstall the game.....that's a possible source of the problem, I suppose. I'd love to blame this on the game!! I tried a system restore to just before installing the last patch yesterday, but the system couldn't be restored to that point. I then tried a system restore to after I uninstalled BF2, but before I reinstalled it, but the system couldn't restore to that point either. After the failed system restores I started getting a message that my system has recovered from a serious error. I tell the system not to send the info to MS (no internet, can't send it anyway), and I get the same message two seconds later. This repeats until I restart my computer.

Asus K8N-E Deluxe
Athlon64 3200+
2GB Corsair TwinX PC3200
ATI AIW9800Pro
Onboard Audio
WD 200GB
WD 160GB
2 optical drives

[Scinto]

Re: internet died while playing BF2

hav you tried switching your router on & off?

hmm has zonealarm updated itself that sometimes cause's problems disrupting an internet connection.

i generally turn all Internet access seeking programs off when im playing online ie anti-spyware/antivirus and i dont hav the need for a personal firewall as the router takes care of that problem.

[WildLegba]

Re: internet died while playing BF2

From what you mention it is local to your computer, not a network issue, either in your provider or your router.

The fact that clicking My Computer results in a long wait is not a good sign. Frankly, if it were me I would probably revert to a restore point or do a fresh install of Windows. You have to weigh the level of effort required to diagnose the issue against the level of effort involved in doing a restore and/or a fresh install. If you have been a good boy and done backups and set restore points, this should be a no brainer, since tracking down the problem could take a considerable amount of time and effort.

[Second Gunman]

Re: internet died while playing BF2

I tried the usual troubleshooting stuff.......reseting router and modem, connecting my pc directly to the modem and resetting both, swapping ethernet cables, etc......

I've pretty much narrowed the problem down to my computer. I'm pretty sure the problem is not in the router, modem, or ISP. I tried pinging the router from my computer, and wasn't able to do so. I was able to ping the router from the other pc on the network. I'm thinking the onboard network chip in my pc is on the fritz. I'm going to stop at Fry's and grab a PCI NIC on my way home this afternoon.

The fact that clicking on My Computer takes so long is a little distrubing, but I think it's probably because ZoneAlarm is trying to launch the entire time that I'm waiting. My Computer and ZA both come up within a second or two of each other. If I wait until ZA launches to click on My Computer, it comes up fine.