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We've had the machine for 6 months working just fine. Three days ago my daughter was online using it when she got a slew of dialogs popping up from Symantec / Norton Antivirus. The messages said something about not being able to deliver a mail message. We couldn't kill the messages, so we cycled power. After coming back up, everything seemed fine.

Earlier in the day when they booted the machine, it ran a scandisk & did report a few problems that it automatically corrected.

It worked fine on Monday, but the dialogs started popping up again.

Ran Spybot (my wife ran it, so I don't know exactly what happened.) Spybot wanted to run on reboot to finish cleaning things.

After reboot, it will connect to my wireless router, but it doesn't seem to get an IP address nor connect to the internet. My other machines on the network all connect just fine, and the router sees the Acer machine & reports no problems with it.

It also will not connect if I connect it with a cable directly to the router.

Every time it boots, we get an error message that MemCheck.exe has generated an exception. From what I can find on the web, MemCheck.exe is Part of Ontrack's Fix-it Utilities Suite, although I didn’t know I had it installed (part of Norton?)

Another symptom: When I ping localhost I get trash characters on the line where the computer name should be displayed: “Ashleys [°ÿ]” instead of just “Ashleys”

I’ve deleted the wireless adapter from device manager and let it reinstall on reboot…no help.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by ICOULDSCREAM

Dani AI

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A focused troubleshooting rundown for (and applicable to ): the symptoms — the machine is seen by the router but never gets a usable IP, a persistent MemCheck.exe exception at boot, and a corrupted-looking hostname when pinging localhost — point to an OS-level problem (corrupt TCP/IP/Winsock, broken services or registry entries, or third-party software interference) rather than a bad cable or router.

Start with these quick checks from an elevated Command Prompt:

ipconfig /all
ping 127.0.0.1
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /flushdns
netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt
netsh winsock reset

If ping 127.0.0.1 fails, the TCP/IP stack is damaged; the two netsh commands above plus a reboot often repair that. If the adapter shows an APIPA address (169.254.x.x), DHCP isn’t working — check that the DHCP Client service is running (services.msc or sc query Dhcp) and that RPC is running, since DHCP depends on them.

Next checks: examine the hosts file at C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts for strange entries, run ipconfig /all and confirm whether DHCP is enabled and what the Physical Address (MAC) reports, and try Safe Mode with Networking (if networking works there, a startup program or antivirus is likely blocking normal operation). Check System Properties -> Computer Name (or the registry keys under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ComputerName) for corrupted hostname characters and rename to a simple alphanumeric name if needed. Use msconfig to disable non-Microsoft startup items for further isolation.

Because MemCheck.exe is failing and Norton/Spybot ran prior to the problem, inspect Add/Remove Programs and startup entries for Ontrack/MemCheck, Norton, or other recently added utilities; disable/uninstall them temporarily. If none of the above fixes it, try Last Known Good Configuration at boot, or boot a Linux live USB to verify the NIC/hardware. If Windows-only problems persist, back up data and consider a repair install or clean reinstall. Always back up the registry or create an image before editing or doing repairs.

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Oops...a little more data that might help:

Running Windos XP Media Center Edition

Tried to do a system restore point from several restores right before the problems started, but it would not restore (no more info given.)

Member Avatar for ICOULDSCREAM

My Acer Aspire One won't connect to internet. The icon in lower right hand corner tells me its successfully connected with excellent signal strength. However, when I go to IE, the web page cannot be displayed. My other 2 laptops are working fine with Belkin router. I did a full system recovery without success, still cannot connect to internet. I cannot get internect access even when hardwired to modem. This has never been an issue and I never had to jump through so many hoops. Any ideas on how to remedy this problem?

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