Brand new PC, and already something's wrong

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My laptop died on me a few weeks ago. It wasn't a huge surprise, it was old and the video card had already died on me once. Just yesterday, my new desktop came. It's a Dell Studio XPS 7100. The specs look great, the casing is new and shiney, everything's wonderful.

Except that it won't connect to the internet and can't run my Dragon Age DVD.

The internet problem is odd. My PC can connect to our wireless network, but it can't access the internet. It says it's connected to an 'unidentified network' with 'no access', but when I look into it, identifies the network, says it has excellent signal strength, and 'limited access'. I've checked firewalls on everything, and there shouldn't be any problems there. I tried 'renewing my IP address' through some IPConfig commands in the command prompt, but it tells me it 'can't connect to the DHCP Server'.

The DVD problem is one I think I understand. It acts like it's trying really hard to read the DVD, but just can't manage. That sounds like a driver problem, except that when I downloaded the latest driver onto my flash card and tried to run it on the PC, it failed to update (after just a second of trying, when it said it could take several minutes).

Can any tech wizards offer me any advice?

 

i would assume your running windows 7 correct? my mom just got a new windows 7 machine and was un able to connect to the network as well. heres what we did to solve it. pull the plug out of the router with the windows 7 box still on and waited like 10 secs then plugged it back in and that helped. if you need more just post again. as for the dvd drive problem im not sure how to fix that one. sence its a new dell try talking to them and seeing what they say. they may replace the drive for you.

 

I suppose you use Windows 7? The first thing I'd try in that case would be to let it check for connection or hardware problems - either you can trigger it through the control panel or it will iirc invite you to do so through the connection windows. It can fix some of such errors automatically, including and especially driver problems.

Vista ought to have a comparable capability.

 

A futilely spinning and laboring optical drive actually sounds like a hardware problem to me. Will it play CDs or regular DVDs? Is it set to autoplay? What happens if you manually try to run the DA .exe or setup utility or whatever?

Internet - try powering everything down, disconnecting your internet at the source (coaxial line in to modem), reconnecting, power up router, reboot PC, try internet, and 'repair' via local area connection properties if it still fails.

 

Tried connecting it to the internet via a cable and tried other DVDs?

FYI: LAboring optical drive does sound just like a bad optical drive - likely a dirty lens. The internet problem sounds like either you trying to connect to the wireless wrong or not having DHCP for your wireless.

 

You can also try connecting your PC to the router via a CAT 5 cable. If it works, and you are able to connect to the Internet, you know that it's a wireless issue and can troubleshoot it that way. If you still cannot connect to the internet, or get an IP address then there's likely an issue with your router.

I used to have this problem with my Vista PC quite a bit, where the PC would simply refuse to connect to the router/access point properly. In my case it turned out to be a flakey router. We replaced the router, but the vendor also gave me a couple of repeaters. This allows me to plug a repeater into a wall, run a cable from it to my PC, and connect at wired speeds even if I'm not close to my router. Perhaps your vendor can offer something similar.

 

Thanks for the advice. For an update:
Yes, I'm running 7, sorry for not mentioning that.

For the wireless network, I tried resetting everything as described and other ways to no avail. I tried the various troubleshooting programs, but they couldn't find anything wrong. Connecting to the router through a caple worked fine, but it's inconvenient. One of the tech people at Verizon said that certain wireless adaptors don't like certain WEP codes, but they don't tell. Based on that, I tried plugging in a USB wireless adaptor I had lying around. Sure enough, that works. I now have two adaptors connected, one useless and the other using up a USB port.

For the DVD drive, HoMMV works just fine, as did the install CD for the USB wireless adaptor. It's only DA:O (the one I really want to play) that's having this problem. One workaround I thought up was ripping the DVD to an ISO and running it from a virtual drive (Daemon Tools or the like), but I imagine DA has some protections. Still, I plan to try it.

 

you should have no problem running the game vi iso. the only protection im aware of is the cd-key and needing to have the cd in the drive. theres plenty of cracks for playing without the cd if you start looking online.

 

I'm grabbing an ISO of it now on a seperate computer.

Talking with Dell Tech Support, they said the following:

I deleted the LowerFilters registry entry, but there wasn't an UpperFilters one. Additionally, I downloaded the latest driver, but it won't install. The newest one available online is version A103, but the one currently on the PC is B103. When I tell it to install, the installer thinks for a second and then says the update failed.

After all of that, the DVD drive now doesn't freeze when DA:O is in it. Instead, it sounds like it's trying to run it, but nothing happens. When I click on the DVD drive, it says there's no DVD in the drive and then ejects the disk.

 

Wait...you're using WEP for your WiFi encryption? Have you tried WPA or WPA2? WEP is like security on Win98...just hit the Esc key, and you're in.

 

The router isn't mine, and there are several other systems connected to it. Some of which may actually still be using Win98.

Anyway, the USB adaptor is a better solution to the situation than changing the security setup.

 

Ugh...


If the router isn't yours, then do you have access to it?

 

Yes, it's my parents'. No, I'm not trying to steal my internet from the next-door neighbor.

 

Why not? You'd probably have fewer problems getting on the internet...


Back on topic, are you able to access the router's config page? (open your browser, and type in: 192.168.1.1 or sometimes: 192.168.0.1)

 

Yes, I can access the router, but only through the USB adapter at the moment.

 

Wait....what?

You've lost me here...and I'm on the verge of "F**k it...I give up." But I'm really trying to figure out what's wrong with your setup.

So as I understand it:

1. - You have a desktop computer somewhere in the house.
2. - You're not willing to run a cable from the router to your PC, so you're using WiFi.
3. - The interwebz is not working.
4. - Other people use the router, so you don't want to change anything.


Now...as to this USB adapter I quoted you in saying...is this thing the WiFi adapter you've got plugged in to your PC?

Also, these 'other people'...can they access the internet?

 

Ok, sorry for the confusion, allow me to start from the beginning (I think).

I'm living with my parents for the time being (I hope to change that setup soon, though). They have a computer room, with a main PC and a router connected to it. My father has a laptop which moves around the house, and my parents have a Wii. My wife has a laptop in our room and I have my new PC in our room. All of these other than my PC can regularly access the network and internet. My PC, as it came, has a wireless adapter built in which won't connect, even though it says it will. I can't connect to the router with this setup. I got a wireless USB adapter that was lying around and plugged it into my PC. With the USB adapter in, I can access everything just fine.

Does that answer your questions?

 

I think your safest bet would be to throw out every computer in the house (and any computer-related equipment) and buy new ones. Be sure to keep that USB adapter, though - you'll need to move it around and hook it up to to any computer that you want to connect to the internet.

You're welcome.

 

it sounds like you have a mac address filter on the router. you can connect to the router, sure, but it wont listen to you cause your not in its "my five faves".

in the router settings under wireless settings there should be a mac filter option. Is that enabled?

if the usb adapter was "lying around" it could already be on the router as "allowed"


As far as the DVD drive thing...can you go to devices and see the DVD drive? if so, can you tell it to update drivers manually? (locate on my computer, have disk, all devices, browse to folder, not necessarily in that order) you may also need to run the driver update setup file (setup.exe maybe?) as administrator manually. (sometimes the autoadministrator thing on 7 doesnt work quite right)

I dont know about the sizes of the DVDs its seeing, but maybe it wasnt able to read dual-layer DVDs (cheap early model dvd drive?)