Wired is Broken
 

So, new problem with my HP Laptop. God I hate these. So, wireless stopped working a while ago, and I haven't gotten a USB wireless thing yet on account of them being too damn expensive. Wireless will work for a little while though if the computer has been off for a while (Sometimes overnight will do it).

Anywaaaays, this afternoon, plugged an ethernet cable in... and it'll connect to the network, but not the internet. Says something about a bad IP configuration or something when I tell Windows to troubleshoot the problem. Tried resetting the router, and that didn't help. There's another computer usually connected to the router via ethernet and it works just fine. Same cable even. Should I cave and send it in the HP where they'll undoubtedly get rid of Windows 7, put Vista on, and then charge me for the hardware fixes they'll do? Or is there some easy fix/fixes that won't hurt my wallet to bad. Also, if I wanted to replace my wireless card is it relatively easy to open up my laptop and switch it out?

Have you tried putting vista or xp back onto the computer to see if that fixes your problems?

I mean, you are using a beat OS.

It also sounds like one of the computers in the network might be set up with a static ip and the other is conflicting. Going into TCP/IP settings on both of their NICs and setting their IP and DNS settings to automatic should solve the problem if that's the case. Another possibility is the router reset itself and is configured like it's new out of the box. In that case they will usually only associate with one computer. The solution to that would be to reinstall the router on one of the PCs using it's CD.

And laptop wireless cards aren't really that difficult to replace. There are plenty of how-to's out there, you just have to be extremely careful. Also, it voids the warranty.

I'd really rather not. I really like Windows 7, and I don't think it's that as these problems just barely started showing up, and the timing has absolutely nothing to do with updates or the like.

@Bob: Is there any reason your suggestion would just start happening out of the blue like that?

EDIT: Was looking for some stuff about my laptop to see if other people had had the same problem and found one site where a bunch of people were pretty much saying my model of HP laptop were pretty much the worst they'd ever had, even worse than other HPs.

Nope. Just throwing it out there. :) I figure it's worth a shot. Plus it only takes a second to check their TCP/IP settings.

I've heard tons of horror stories about HP laptops, yet I've never encountered one and my family owns three of them. They've been the most reliable laptops we've ever owned.

At this point I'm thinking I might as well just save my money and to build a desktop and see if I can unload the piece of crap on somebody else or something.

Also, checked IP settings on my laptop, it's set for automatic. Don't know how to check on a Mac, which is what the other computer is.

Are you able to get the exact error messagey you get? Though I've never used Windows 7 so it may be all changery.

When you click on the apple symbol in the top corner the drop down menu should have something called preferences and then when you click on that it should have a network section. Thats if I remembered correctly

Well, basically I connect the ethernet cable, and it gives me a yellow caution triangle and says I have no internet connection. When I have it troubleshoot it tells me to reset the router, which I have, and when that doesn't work it says: "Local Area Connection" does not have valid IP configuration. That's it, almost word for word.

Can the mac connect to the internet? This could likely be a lack of compatability with your OS- might want to try updating the OS.

Also have you run an IP check? Go to start menu, go to run, type "cmd" then inside "cmd" type ipconfig/all.