Member Avatar for corlando52

I have a Dell Latitude (thanks for the sympathy), which is wirelessly networked via Netgear card to my DSL router. This router is hardwired to another computer which gives me no trouble. My daughter has a Toshiba laptop with its own internal wireless equipment. If I am on my laptop, and my daughter goes online with hers, mine will either freeze, or reboot. This happens every time without fail. Any ideas why, or how I can prevent this. It doesn't seem to happen with any other wireless laptop if a friend or relative comes over and uses my network.
The computers are not linked for file sharing or printer sharing or any other sharing. We cannot "see" each other at all.

Chris

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This is an unusually repeatable failure tied to a single other laptop joining the same Wi-Fi, so focus on isolating a network conflict vs. a buggy driver/firmware on the machine that reboots. already noted the event log shows nothing; that can happen when a network driver or firmware crash causes an immediate freeze/restart before Windows writes useful events. As suggested, the order of connection is a useful clue—run a few controlled tests and capture evidence.

Quick checklist and capture steps to narrow it down:

  • Turn off automatic restart so any stop error is visible and a dump can be written: My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Startup and Recovery -> Settings -> uncheck "Automatically restart". After a reboot, check C:\Windows\Minidump for dump files.
  • Gather network info on each machine before/after the incident. From a command prompt run:
    ipconfig /all
arp -a

    Compare IP addresses, physical (MAC) addresses and the router DHCP client list to rule out duplicate IP or cloned MACs.

  • Check for Internet Connection Sharing, virtual adapters (VMware/VirtualBox), or any bridging software on the other laptop. Those can accidentally become DHCP servers or send odd traffic.

Practical isolation steps:

  • Update the Dell wireless driver and the router firmware. Also disable the wireless adapter power-saving option: Device Manager -> Network adapters -> [adapter] -> Properties -> Power Management -> uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".
  • Reproduce with the Dell connected and the other laptop arriving, while watching the router DHCP/log page. Try the reverse order again and run tests with the other laptop's wireless temporarily disabled or with sharing services stopped.
  • If possible, boot the Dell from a Linux Live USB and repeat the test. If Linux does not crash, the problem is almost certainly the Windows driver or a third-party Windows component.

If the problem persists after driver/firmware updates and the above isolation, save any kernel dumps and the adapter driver version and escalate to Dell or the wireless-card vendor with those artifacts for further analysis.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

WOW ,never heard that one before ,what happens if she's connected and you turn on the Dell and connect it to the router .I'm guessing its a chost.

Member Avatar for corlando52

I KNOW! Weird, right? Nothing happens to her laptop if I connect after she's on.
There really is no host. All computers are independently connected wirelessly, except the desktop, which is hardwired to the router. But I don't use that one much, because it's a really slow (500MHz) computer with 500M Ram.

Member Avatar for corlando52

I guess I've stumped everyone? Not even a starting place to look? My events log is clear after each incident.
Come on, guys! Throw me a crumb!

Chris :)

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