No Internet connection using Windows 10

Hi,
Win10 upgrade on my Sony Vaio laptop from Windows7 had no such problem. I suspect you are troubleshooting a complex environment, and you should recall the old Computers 101 saw that says: "KISS=Keep It Stupid Simple". Troubleshooting this kind of problem is pretty near impossible on a dual-boot environment; They are notoriously unstable. When I was with dispatch while working at IBM, many of our field network engineers had up to 5 OSes including Windows multiple versions running on their laptops. They were always failing, and every time one of the OSes were update, upgraded, or messed with, sure enough, they'd have to bring their laptop into the office (most were mobile workers who telecommuted from their homes); where my tech team and I would have to resolve their problems. Our Management got tired of us spending weeks trying to recreate such multi-boot entanglements, and forbade us from doing it anymore. So, every engineer who brough in their laptop scrambled in a multi-boot debacle, was given a single OS laptop that was fully functioning. Then, if they proceeded to scramble it again with multi-boot they had their company laptop provided privelege revoked and were forced to purchase a laptop out of their own pockets in order to do their jobs!
This little anecdote may tell you why you are barking up the wrong tree with your troubleshooting methods. After 25 years in IT and 44 years in the Computer Industry you learn some things.
I recommend you wipe the drives of both your laptop and desktop (by the way, it would help to know their Makes/Models), after backing up any personal information you wish to retain from them to external media of course), and reinstall Win7 from scratch. Remove the Xeno NIC from the equation. Attempt the Win7-->Win10 upgrades on both computers using the built-in Ethernet ports or wifi (for both or just the laptop; as many newer desktops have embedded wifi now). If the built-in network adapters still fail, I suggest you have another hardware failure in one or both of those computers (RAM, Motherboard, PSU, etc.), and they will need to be fully tested; starting with the Hard Drives of both computers.

Testing your network adapters will be a lot easier if you are using single-boot configurations on each computer. So, you know until July 2016 or so, Microsoft has said that Windows10 hardware drivers including network adapter drivers are compatible with Windows8/8.1 until the Manufacturers begin changing firmware on their Motherboards to take full advantage of new advanced features in Win10. So, all you need to do is verify with Xeno that their NIC is compliant with Win8/8.1 WHQL. If it is, it should work on the upgraded desktop if you follow my suggestions. If not, it could be defective and should be returned or exchanged to them. If their NIC won't work on 8/8.1 then it won't work on Win10. Since you have skipped 3 OS versions on this upgrade, that wouldn't be too surprising. If you have access to a friend with Win8/8.1, of course you can try your NIC in that friend's computer. If it fails, that would support my hypothesis that the card is defective since it won't work on Win8/8.1, as it should if it was certified to that level. If not, or the card was only certified with Win7 drivers; you can try to exchange it with them for a newer card, or do a PXE firmware download if they offer it. Many high-performance NICs such as server NICs offer remote flash upgrade capabilities. Otherwise, have them mail one to you on their dime!!

Get back to us with your hardware specs, and let us know how it goes!
Best of luck,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

P.S. I've been doing Windows upgrades since Windows1.0 came out in 1985!

 

Sure, no problem. To answer your question, over the years, there have been many problems with Windows drivers sharing the Registry on a single hard drive, even though you haven't run into it yourself. When you support hundreds and even thousands of computers worldwide you see a lot more squirrelly problems than you might supporting a dozen or so PCs for your friends and family. Windows often will search for a missing or non-functioning driver on the entire disc drive, when you get the driver troubleshooting wizard, and unless you are careful to explicitly tell it to only search the "Partition" of the current Windows install, it WILL search all Windows Registries on that disc drive. The Windows troubleshooter will often grab a driver from another Registry on a different partition by mistake, and voila you get network or other driver contention issues. Perhaps you never ran into this.

Part of the reason I suggest you wipe out your multi-boot configurations, is that often that's the only way you can be sure your Windows (7 or 10) is only attempting to use and install network drivers in one copy of the Registry at a time. This cannot be guaranteed in a multi-boot configuration as I alluded to. However, that's besides the point. They are your computers, you do what you want. You asked for help, and if I was billing you directly for $45 hour or $290 hour, I would tell you the same thing. The advice here is free; what you do with it is up to you. I've solved hundreds of problems just like yours, and I gave you the troubleshooting modality I would most likely use. And I've been doing it successfully enough at it to make a living doing it for 25 years.

Best of luck to you, and thanks for your reply. If you do get it resolved, and it's a simple driver problem, please post back to share with our other forum members.

You never did mention whether or not the Xeno Pro was WHQL certified with a Win8/8.1 driver?

Best,
<<<BBJ>>>

 

I upgraded to Windows 10 - for half an hour of use. I then had to uninstall - great sadness because I really liked what I saw. Neither ethernet or wifi would even start. I have Broadcomm NetXtreme Gigabyte and Intel Wifi Link 5300 AGN adapters - neither supposedly suitable for Windows 10. Since I returned to Windows 7 because I could not stay offline, and trying to research the issue on my phone was just too hard, I have read some comments that after I upgrade I delete the Intel device and it will magically work when it reinstalls. However Intel says it won't work so I am loath to spend many more hours reinstalling and find for my particular PC, it still won't work. I have an Acer Travelmate 7730g. Acer is also no help saying the PC will not run Windows 10 but everything I tested (excluding network) seemed to work well.

Does anyone know whether the wifi will work? If I get a USB wifi are they any good. I really don't want to buy a new PC. I have brought so many over the years for the family and me.

 

Thanks so much for you quick response. I guess I can try and find a USB WiFi (in Australia) that is "guaranteed" to be Windows 10 compatible. I have a 3 year old on - was very cost effective even then - which I used to bridge a gap but I do not want to risk it not working after the upgrade. All of this upgrade work has to be done late at night after my other obligations (work and voluntary) and I just cannot afford to be offline.

 

Hello,

I just upgraded a desktop to Win10 from Win7 x64. I also have the Killer Xeno Pro NIC. That NIC came with my Alienware computer in 2009, and is designed for XP and Vista. See this, noting supported OS:

(I can't post links yet, so Google revisioned-killer-xeno-pro-detail.html on the visiontek website.)

That NIC didn't work cleanly even with Win7, and had frequent blue screen crashes when awakening from hibernation. With Win10, the behavior is the same. No Win10 drivers are available on the visiontek website.

I installed the Win8 drivers, and I'm still getting blue screen crashes (most of the time, but not all) upon waking from hibernation with Win10. The crashes cite a page fault in a non-paged area related to Xeno7x64.sys, which I assume is a driver file for that NIC. Other than those crashes, the NIC works fine with Win10. There has been a long, 5+ year legacy of faulty drivers with that NIC. I have about had it, and am thinking of shitcanning that NIC and going with my built-in Ethernet ports. >-{

If anyone knows of a way to stop those crashes, please post some help.

Thank you.

 

Please post a link to the Win10 certified driver for the Xeno Pro that you mentioned. As I wrote above, no Win10 driver for the NIC is available on the Visiontek website (only Win8 and earlier).