Lose Internet Access after Vista Windows Updates?

Matt Van Dam · 7 Jan 2008 at 15:33

Hi folks,

I've got an annoying issue here and I'll apologise in advance for the details being sketchy but here it goes;

This morning I booted up my desktop to find that i could connect to the Internet, (no access error in Firefox/IE), also that my MSN and Windows Email would immediately crash upon opening.

I've had this before, many times since moving over to Vista Home Premium and each time I've had to system restore to a date prior to the last windows update in order to resolve it. Surely I should be able to update windows without this happening each time, it's nuts!

Again sorry for the lack of detail, but Browser error is typical of when your connection is died (can't remember the exact error) and MSN and Windows Mail won't open without crashing, so it only seems to affect Internet based programs.

I'm having trouble finding anything on google/Microsoft Knowledge Base as it's difficult to know exactly what to search for as the symptoms are pretty wide.

Any help appreciated.

Matt

tolien · 7 Jan 2008 at 16:31

Anything in Event Viewer?
The actual errors you're seeing might be useful too...

Kainz · 7 Jan 2008 at 17:01

It might be update trying to update your network card drivers, which will or should cause temporary disruption whilst the update takes place. In my experience though when it tries to update the drivers for my onboard Realtek NIC's the whole PC just locks up for a few mins before things are back to normal but without net access. A router reboot then restores internet connectivity.

Matt Van Dam · 7 Jan 2008 at 18:51

I dont think its a network card issue as it stops programs from loading rather than just denying access. I'll make a note of the actual error when it happens again but symtoms are the following;

1) IE/Firefox will load but will display an error (cannot connect etc)
2) Windows Live Messenger - Crashes on executing, tries to send report to Microsoft.
3) Microsoft Mail crashes on executing.

When i run system restore to any point other than prior to the Windows Update the problem isn't resolved, so it must be to do wth the update. Very fustrating!