One computer is not visible from the others in the network icon

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  1. Posts : 8,059
    windows 10
       #11

    Run this on all pcs does it see everyone and who is master browser NetBScanner - NetBIOS scanner

    this often kicks it into life
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 2,177
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit v22H2
       #12

    madbrain said:
    I have 4 computers running Win10 on my home LAN. I have network file sharing enabled on each computer.
    All the computers can see each other's network shares, except for one machine that's doesn't show in the "Network" icon from anywhere, not even when locally clicking on the "Network" icon. The other 3 computers have their own names in the network icon showing up. If I type \\hostname , I can access the shares on the broken machine just fine. I would like to be able to use the mouse, though.
    You have already discovered a workaround but failed to take advantage of it. See how I used this in the following post. Inconsistent Computer Visibility Across Win10 Network
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 37
    Windows 10 x64
    Thread Starter
       #13

    MisterEd said:
    You have already discovered a workaround but failed to take advantage of it. See how I used this in the following post. Inconsistent Computer Visibility Across Win10 Network
    Thanks. This is a helpful workaround, and I will use it. However, I'd like to fix the real problem of the one machine's invisibility. I use 4 computers, many with dual-boot, and different operating systems, and this workaround doesn't really scale well.

    It's all the more vexxing since that machine had the OS fully reinstalled from scratch a few weeks ago, and already has the network messed up.

    I'm stubborn and am trying to find the root cause. The machine in question normally boots from the internal NVMe drive. But it also has a SATA hotswap bay, from which I can boot, and I have a few spare SATA 120GB SSDs I can use to test with.

    So, I took it upon myself to try to figure out what caused it today. I spent a couple hours. I used Acronis Nonstop Backup to backup the whole drive every 5 minutes, or manually. This is the recipe I followed :

    Install Windows 21H2 from USB drive without network on SATA drive

    Rename machine

    Install Winaero from USB stick

    Disable web search in Winaero

    Enable autologon in Winaero

    Run Netplwiz

    Bring up Task Manager

    Click “More details”

    Remove Edge from Desktop and Taskbar

    Reboot

    Select volume 6 on boot

    Pin Control Panel to taskbar

    Install Acronis from USB stick

    Enable TrueImage nonstop backup to local dynamic disk

    Change regional settings / change data formats - set 24 hour time

    Language / options : remove US / QWERTY keyboard

    Winaero : disable Windows update
    Winaero : turn off driver updates via Windows updates
    Winaero : disable hibernation

    Use SystemPropertiesAdvanced to select default boot menu
    Use SystemPropertiesHardware to disable device driver download

    Disable People / Task view / Show Cortana in task bar
    Reboot

    Force nonstop backup

    Install AMD chipset drivers from USB stick
    Reboot
    Suspend/resume nonstop backup
    Install nVidia drivers

    Change center display to main display
    Suspend/resume nonstop backup
    Install Hauppauge HVR-1265 drivers

    Reboot

    Suspend/resume nonstop backup
    Disable onedrive
    Install Echo Audiofire drivers

    Set Audiofire to 96 kHz in Echo panel

    Reboot
    Suspend/resume nonstop backup
    Install Kensingtonworks from USB stick

    Suspend/resume nonstop backup
    Install Marvell / Aquantia 10Gbps NIC drivers from USB stick

    Allow PC to be discoverable on network

    Local machine is now showing in network folder

    Suspend/resume nonstop backup
    Reboot

    Local machine is no longer showing in network folder !!!

    The network got messed up very quickly, without running any Windows updates, which were disabled. I hadn't even gotten all the drivers installed for all my devices. The Asus USB Bluetooth dongle still didn't have drivers per device manager. Neither did the USB to RS232 Prolific device. Everything else connected had drivers.

    I'm at a loss as to what step above actually caused things to be messed up, especially since the machine worked correctly right after installing the NIC drivers, and then stopped working immediately on reboot, without anything else having been done in between.

    FYI, this is a pretty loaded machine. The motherboard is an Asus Prime Pro X570. CPU is AMD 5950X.
    All the PCIe slots are full. There are a number of USB devices connected, with multiple hubs. My home network has over 70 devices on it. The other 3 PCs on the same network have no problem, though. 2 of them use the same Aquantia AQN-107 NIC.

    When I say above I installed Windows 21H2 without network, I disabled the Intel NIC on the motherboard. Windows doesn't have drivers for the Aquantia NIC in the boot ISO. So, it literally had nowhere it could connect from and get network. I set it up with a local account. If Windows had recognized the NIC, I would just have booted with Ethernet cable unplugged to accomplish the same. The other 3 machines are all setup without Microsoft account also, and with 21H2.

    - - - Updated - - -

    So, I made a second attempt. Cleared the SATA drive with diskpart, and tried again. This time I installed the network right after the install, and added drivers one a a time.

    Here is what I did. It helps to have 3 monitors and a KVM switch to write all this down while doing it.



    Boot USB of 21H2
    Install to empty drive
    After reboot, choose United States region
    Choose French keyboard
    Want to add a second keyboard layout ? Skip.
    I don’t have internet
    Continue with limited setup
    Enter name
    Enter password twice
    Fill security questions
    Privacy settings : uncheck all
    Cortana : not now
    Install Aquantia drivers from USB stick
    Make PC discoverable
    Complete Edge setup
    Go to Windows update
    Check for updates
    Go to network folder. Local host present
    Turn on network file sharing
    Click “restart now” in Windows update as all updates are installed
    Wait for updates and reboot
    Wait for updates
    Login
    Go to network folder. Local host still present
    Rename PC to chose host
    Reboot
    Login
    Go to network folder. Local host still present
    Open Edge
    Download and install Firefox
    Make Firefox default browser
    Reboot
    Login
    Go to network folder. Local host still present
    Install and run WinAero 1.33
    Use WinAero to “Enable user auto logon checkbox”
    Run Netplwiz
    Uncheck “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer”
    Apply
    Enter password twice
    Click OK
    Reboot
    Go to network folder. Local host still present
    Disable useless junk in Taskbar - Cortana, Task View, News & Interest, Meet Now
    Open language bar / language preferences
    Click English / Options
    Click US / QWERTY under Keyboards
    Click Remove
    Reboot
    Go to network folder. Local host still present
    Install True Image 2019 build 17750 from USB stick
    Click Start Application
    Click “I accept the agreement”
    Click Do not show again / Dismiss
    Dismiss “Create acronis account”
    Click “Start trial”
    Name new backup “Network folder test”
    Under backup source, select SATA boot drive
    Set destination to “D:\Local backups” (this is an 8TB SSD stripe)
    Click options
    Schedule : do not schedule
    Scheme : incremental scheme
    Click “create only incremental versions after the initial full version”
    Click OK
    Click “Backup now”
    Reboot
    Go to network folder. Local host still present
    Go to Windows update
    Click optional updates
    Driver updates
    Check Kensington Mouse
    Check BCM20702 Bluetooth
    Click download and install
    Reboot
    Go to network folder. Local host still present
    Go to Windows update / optional updates / driver updates
    Check AMD System 5.12.0.38
    Check AMD SecurityDevices 5.17.0.0
    Download and install / reboot
    Go to network folder. Local host still present
    Open Acronis. Make incremental backup named “After AMD drivers”
    Download and install nVidia 499.76 drivers for GTX 3060 Ti / Windows 10
    Click agree and continue / Next
    Close Geforce experience
    Right click on desktop
    Open display settings
    Click center display (2)
    Scroll down
    Click “Make this display my main display”
    Reboot
    Go to network folder. Local host is now missing !!!
    Open control panel
    Double-Click Add & remove programs
    Double-Click nVidia Geforce experience / Uninstall
    Double-Click nVidia Frameview SDK / uninstall
    Double-Click nVidia Physx / uninstall
    Double-Click nVidia audio driver / restart now
    Go to network folder. Local host is still missing
    Open control panel / add & remove programs
    Remove graphics driver / restart now
    Go to network folder. Local host is now present again !!!
    Go to Windows updates
    Click all option updates / driver updates
    Check nVidia display 30.0.14.7212

    Click download and install
    Once installed, reboot
    Go to network folder. Local host is still here !

    So, as far as I can tell the problem is caused by the nVidia 499.76 drivers / installer. It could be present in other versions too, of course. It's possible there is some interaction between these drivers and something else in the software stack in my system. In any case, this is very strange. nVidia shouldn't be messing with any network settings on the machine, so this is definitely a bug.

    The good news is that removing all the nVidia components in Control Panel fixed the problem. Then, installing the driver through Windows updates worked. Of course, all the other nVidia components are still missing, and the graphics driver is backlevel (472.12).

    - - - Updated - - -

    Sadly, the good news was short-lived. Shortly after downloading the nVidia driver from Windows update, Windows decided to install the nVidia control panel. I rebooted. The local host could no longer be found in the network folder at this point.

    I went to Settings / Apps & features, and removed the nVidia control panel, then rebooted again.
    Still no sign of the local machine in the network folder.
    Went to device manager, rolled back the display driver to "Microsoft basic display adapter". Rebooted again. Still no sign of the local machine in the network folder.

    At this point, I don't know what to do to bring it back to life, except restore the whole disk from the backup I had done before I first installed any nVidia driver.

    Surely some nVidia and/or Microsoft engineers ought to look at what's going on here.

    - - - Updated - - -

    I also tried Display Driver Uninstaller on my temporary OS disk. That also didn't bring back the local machine in the network folder, unfortunately.

    I booted my NVMe drive, I tried to uninstall all the nVidia drivers using Control panel at first, and then DDU. But neither resulted in the local machine appearing in the network folder again.

    Finally, I restored the full SATA with Acronis from the backup I did before installing any nVidia stuff. I did have to mess with BCD using EasyBCD in order to be able to boot both the NVMe and SATA drives from the boot menu. Booting came back with the local machine showing up in the network folder.

    I still don't know exactly what the nVidia drivers are messing up as fare as network settings go. That would probably require a registry diff tool. I'm going to try a few older versions of the nVidia drivers to see if it's recent regression. The oldest supported for my 3060Ti GPU is 457.11 . Looks like that won't install on Win10 21H2. The oldest nVidia driver I could install on 21H2 is version 462.65 . I used the studio driver. It also has the problem causing the local machine to disappear from the network folder. Edit : I installed 462.65 again after trying a few other versions, and now my local host is showing in the network folder after the first reboot. On second reboot immediately after that, it's gone again. Sigh. I don't know what these nVidia drivers are doing, but it sure is weird. And they really have no business messing with the network...
    Edit again: at the 3rd, 4th and 5th reboot, machine is visible locally again in the network folder.
    Other systems on the LAN also see it. Really extremely strange.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Samuria said:
    Run this on all pcs does it see everyone and who is master browser NetBScanner - NetBIOS scanner
    this often kicks it into life
    I ran it locally on my Windows machine that can't see itself with the nVidia driver installed. It didn't have any effect, unfortunately.
    Last edited by madbrain; 26 Nov 2021 at 02:21.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 6
    Windows 10 Pro
       #14

    Dear madbrain,

    see my soultion here:

    Win10 computer unable to see Win 7 PC /fileshares on network

    It is crude, but it worked. It does assume that you have fixed IP addresses on your computers in the network.
    Last edited by Netman; 26 Nov 2021 at 03:32. Reason: update
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 37
    Windows 10 x64
    Thread Starter
       #15

    Netman said:
    Dear madbrain,
    see my soultion here:
    Win10 computer unable to see Win 7 PC /fileshares on network

    It is crude, but it worked. It does assume that you have fixed IP addresses on your computers in the network.
    I do have fixed IP addresses, assigned by the router. DNS resolution isn't the problem. Enumeration in the network folder is the issue.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 8,059
    windows 10
       #16

    When you ran the scanner on ALL PC's could it see them all and who is master browser it tells you and it stores who is on the network and windows doesn't search it asks mb
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 37
    Windows 10 x64
    Thread Starter
       #17

    Samuria said:
    When you ran the scanner on ALL PC's could it see them all and who is master browser it tells you and it stores who is on the network and windows doesn't search it asks mb
    I ran the scanner just on the one PC with the problem. The scanner couldn't even find the local machine. The only device it found on my entire subnet was a Brother printer. All the other PCs were powered off, except one which was running Ubuntu at the time.
      My Computer


 

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