Win7 PC not seeing online Win10 PC after boot

I have a Windows 10 PC that is online 24/7, but when I start up a Windows 7 PC on the same network, it never sees the Win10 system after it finishes booting. I have to reboot the Win10 system while the Win7 system is still running in order for the Win7 system to get the Win10 system to appear in its network connections. They're connected via a Netgear WNDR3700v4 router.

I've been troubleshooting this on and off for the past few weeks but have yet to nail down what may be causing this. Anone have any idea what's going on here?

Thanks folks :)

try to disable the power safe feautes for the network cards

Techjourney said:

try to disable the power safe feautes for the network cards

I think you're referring to the "Allow the computer to turn off the device to save power" option in the Power Management tab for the network adapter listed in Device Manager for the Windows 10 system. I'll try it. But I have a 2nd Windows 10 PC on the network, and if it's running when I boot the Win7 system, that Win10 system is visible to Win7. And the power saving option for that Win10'a network card isn't disabled.

Well this is really odd... I was rebooting the Win10 system before changing that power saving option, and Windows installed some updates. After it booted, I booted the Win7 system and found the Win10 PC was visible. So I connected Win10 via wifi and tested again. Win7 still saw Win10 when it booted. I also have a USB Gigabit adapter on Win10. I connected via that and retested. The Win7 PC still saw Win10 fine when it booted. Hmmm... Will have to live with this for a while and see if the update has permanently fixed things somehow.

Glad it is working for you now.

Well this morning the problem was back. I'd left the Win10 system running and connected via the USB Gigabit adapter overnight. I'm guessing it's a problem with the Windows network adapter & USB drivers.

I shut both systems down. Connected Win10 via the standard ethernet cable and booted it. Then when I booted Win7, the Win10 system showed up in network connections. Will do some more testing and check back to see if anyone has any ideas here.

Hey ohante,
What vers of Win10 are you running? (winkey + r and type winver).

Eagle51 said:

Hey ohante,
What vers of Win10 are you running? (winkey + r and type winver).

It just updated to the latest rollup last week. So it's at v1709 build 16299.125 now Eagle

It just updated to the latest rollup last week. So it's at v1709 build 16299.125 now Eagle

On the Win10 PC check if any of Networking stuff got reset.
1. PC is still Discoverable
2. Network Profile is still set to Private
3. Network & Sharing Center settings is still set correctly
4. 3rd Party Firewall (if you use one)

FYI ... This might be a SMBv1 issue.
Win10 1709 / SMBv1 - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...r-version-1709
SMB Check / Enable / Disable - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...in-windows-and

Hmm... I didn't have the problem this morning

Eagle51 said:

On the Win10 PC check if any of Networking stuff got reset.
1. PC is still Discoverable
2. Network Profile is still set to Private
3. Network & Sharing Center settings is still set correctly
4. 3rd Party Firewall (if you use one)

Yes... Everything looks unchanged in there Eagle. I'm using Window's firewall and not a 3rd party firewall. I notice that Windows 10 has ditched the designation "Network & Sharing Center" for simply "Network and Internet" and its interface GUI matches the that of the rest of the new 10 settings.

FYI ... This might be a SMBv1 issue.
Win10 1709 / SMBv1 - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...r-version-1709
SMB Check / Enable / Disable - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...in-windows-and

Not being familiar with that I did google information on it, but I'm still a bit fuzzy on it & how to check if it's causing me problems. This Github page https://github.com/docksal/docksal/issues/382 directed me to the "Windows Features" settings where I see SMB 1.0/CIFS Client disabled:

[X] SMB 1.0/CIFS Automatic Removal
[ ] SMB 1.0/CIFS Client
[X] SMB 1.0/CIFS Server

As the problem didn't surface overnight I'll wait to do further testing at this point. I do have a ffmpeg task set to run overnight that I know sometimes causes problems with the power profile where the the screen doesn't turn off after the time interval set. Not sure if that may be involved here.