Network issues, and computer hangs

[Cyali]

I've been having some issues with my new laptop. It's an Acer Aspire 5552 running Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. We have a network at home with two XP computers (my dad's and my desktops) and three Windows 7 laptops (including my own) and after a bit of work I got everything connected. I could access the network drive on my dad's XP computer from my Win7 laptop, I could access the public folder on my Win7 laptop from my XP desktop, and I could see the other Win7 laptops from my laptop.

A few days ago (Oct 14 or 15) I finally got around to installing a handful of updates from Windows. They were security updates and updates to the .NET framework. A couple days afterwards, I noticed I wasn't able to get to the network drive on my dad's XP computer. When I looked into it more, I noticed I couldn't see either of the XP computers at all, and I could see the two other Windows 7 laptops, but I couldn't access them. I tinkered around with some of the settings for Home networks, but I'm really not sure what else to try to fix this as I'm not completely familiar with Windows 7 networking features.

Later the same night, I began having issues with one of the games I play. It would just lock up for a minute or so, the game client would white screen, and the computer would just hang until everything unlocked. I already emailed their tech support, and they're checking out the game logs, but the next day I started to notice the computer would hang every now and then even after trying a fresh install of the game client. Every now and then, everything just freezes; nothing responds and I can't even move the mouse. It stays stuck for 30 seconds or so then everything is fine. Twice in the past few days the computer also got stuck for a few seconds while the game client wasn't even open. I initially thought maybe some malware got through somehow, but a Spybot scan turned up nothing.

Yesterday I went and uninstalled the 8 security updates, thinking that might have been what's blocking communication between my laptop and the XP computers, but that didn't seem to help. I also checked out the event viewer (under windows events > system) and saw a ton of errors like this:

Log Name: System
Source: atapi
Date: 10/18/2011 8:55:08 AM
Event ID: 11
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Tina-Laptop
Description:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort0.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="atapi" />
<EventID Qualifiers="49156">11</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2011-10-18T13:55:08.699032300Z" />
<EventRecordID>28537</EventRecordID>
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Tina-Laptop</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>\Device\Ide\IdePort0</Data>
<Binary>0000100001000000000000000B0004C00200000085 0100C000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000004100000</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>

Everything I found on Google said it was most likely a failing hard drive, or the cables connecting the hard drive were loose. This is a brand new laptop (I got it in mid-late September I believe) so it seems odd that I would already have hardware problems. Looking through the timestamps on the log, it seems like this error only occurs when I have the game client running. I tried running the WD Diagnostic tool to check for any bad sectors on the hard drive, and of course that didn't turn up anything (but I figured it was worth a try).

Just as an addition, I was having zero problems before I installed the Windows updates. I don't know if that caused anything or if it was something else entirely, but that's the only changes I've made to my computer over the past few days, and I know that no other software was installed on any of the other computers.

So my questions are thus:
What else can I try to be able to connect to the XP computers on my home network?
What else besides a hardware issue could cause the above atapi error, and what could I do to troubleshoot this error on a laptop?

[AnnMarie]

Hi Cyali, have you tried running System Restore and choosing a date before the problems occurred?

[It'sMe]

Newness of hardware doesn't necessarily mean no trouble. In fact, if there is going to be hardware trouble it will very likely be when it's new, IF it's something messed up when built.

Anyway, you don't need a lecture, right? Sorry.

I would have first jumped at cables or HD.

But there is thread at Microsoft that started last year and is even running into last month and maybe I should let you have a look at it, just in case your ealier search didn't throw it up for you.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...7-096bb4f059f4

Unfortunately, there are way too many reasons why that trouble could happen, but I'm not so sure the updates were the trigger. It's easy to think that, but that timing could be just a coincidence. One has to be careful about a "coincidence" creeping into a troubleshooting situation.

Anyway, good luck. You may have a bit of trouble nailing that one down, but keep good notes and turn it into a learning experience.

[Cyali]

@AnnMarie

That was the first thing I tried, but apparently there were no backup points. I usually set restore points fairly regularly, and prior to the updates installing one was created. When I looked into why none existed, I found out that the amount of disk space set to store these restore points was at 0%. So basically the restore points were created but there was nowhere to save them so they were discarded. I'm guessing this was the default setting, because I never changed it.




@It'sMe

I did find that article, but it seems like it was all for desktop computers and not laptops. I'm really nervous about opening up my laptop and tinkering around it firstly because I'm not sure if it would void the warranty, and secondly because I've never done it before and I'm not quite as familiar with laptop hardware.



One of the things the game's tech support suggested was turning off Windows Aero, so I've done that and will be keeping an eye on things for the next couple days (hopefully that fixes things). Unfortunately I cant really force the error to come up by doing any specific action, so this will be interesting trying to troubleshoot.

Any other things I could try?

[AnnMarie]

Originally Posted by Cyali

@AnnMarie

That was the first thing I tried, but apparently there were no backup points. I usually set restore points fairly regularly, and prior to the updates installing one was created. When I looked into why none existed, I found out that the amount of disk space set to store these restore points was at 0%. So basically the restore points were created but there was nowhere to save them so they were discarded. I'm guessing this was the default setting, because I never changed it.

No it is not so something has changed your settings. I'm now starting to wonder if your operating system may be infected even though you have scanned with Spybot. Atapi.sys is one of the files targeted by a particularly nasty rootkit infection. It wouldnt hurt to ask our Malware Removal Team to check your OS and make sure it's clean. If you decide to do this, start a new topic in the Malware Removal Forum and let us know how you get on.

[Cyali]

Well at least that's a starting point. I'll make a post in there and see if something's up with my system. Thanks.

[AnnMarie]

Good luck.

[Cyali]

Thanks for sending me to the Malware forum; everything seems to be working smoothly again =)

[AnnMarie]

Excellent and thanks for the update Cyali.