Network stopped working completely, W11 22h2 (original) (raw)

February 12, 2025, 1:00am 1

Hello

I have a strange issue, and I can just wipe the laptop, but I have seen it a few times and wondering if anyone else has encountered something like this. I don’t normally handle the laptops but nobody on the support team was able to figure this out and it piqued my curiosity especially since we have seen a couple cases like this (out of hundreds of laptops, mind you).

Windows’ network stack is completed busted on this user’s laptop. Symptoms:

• ipconfig is blank
• can connect to the wifi or ethernet, but no IP address. properties in the control panel GUI shows ipv6 and ipv4 “not connected”. Wifi shows “no internet, secured”
• bluetooth internet tethering to a phone does work!

Things I have done:

• entire suite of netsh commands ad nauseum
• removed wifi and ethernet adapters, all drivers, deleted completely, and reinstalled
• rolled back windows updates as much as I can
• disabled the hardware at the bios, booted in, rebooted, re-enabled it
• removed lingering registry items regarding these network adapters
• network reset from GUI
• cleared lingering DHCP settings in registry
• disable firewall, defender, etc
• disabled virtualization
• ping results in a general failure
• loopback is pingable
• no 3rd party antivirus installed

One thing i noticed is the adapter both had “network bridge” and “hyper V virtual network” listed in the properties, but they were unchecked.

This is a Lenovo T14 that is at most a couple years old

One insanely puzzling thing I noticed, was when I got the laptop to my house, I loaded it up. We use autopilot, and the previous user’s name was on the login screen. I connected to my wifi (which still showed “no internet” after connecting… BUT I signed in, which I wouldn’t be able to do with no network as I had never used this laptop before at all…). it began the enrollment process, which was SUCCESSFUL up until it rebooted and did the “setting up user account” part. specifically the security settings portion. Now, you would think this is an issue with some Intune policy… but this issue happened to the last user of this laptop well after autopilot enrollment, and we have hundreds of laptops out there with the exact same policy.
It then hangs at the enrollment step mentioned above, and eventually times out and I can it “continue anyways”, to enter a desktop with no networking!

This is blowing my mind. The hardware seems ok as I can get get internet off a bootable OS.

I know the real solution here is to wipe this thing, but I am mildly obsessed with finding out just WTF is happening here.

Any ideas?

PatrickFarrell (PatrickFarrell) February 12, 2025, 1:52am 2

If you go into programs and features, turn windows features on or off

Is Hyper-V selected?

Rod-IT (Rod-IT) February 12, 2025, 9:47am 3

Is this company using 802.1x, check the event log for clues, if they are using certificate based authentication, the cert may have expired, this would explain why tethering works and the others do not.

Also confirm there is no invalid DHCP reservations, and no blocks against this device.

Windows sandbox, WSL and WSA also use Hyper-V, so the Hyper-V role itself may not be enabled, but if any of the mentioned are, you’ll still get parts of the stack.

If you think it’s this, enable the Hyper-V virtual network.

If the NIC supports VLAN tags, ensure it’s either blank or configured according to the VLAN you need.

adrian_ych (adrian_ych) February 12, 2025, 10:10am 4

Looks like some hidden NIC or GHOST NICs (like what is common in VMs) where the NICs is/are hidden due to being overwritten (drivers or OS issue) but the settings like IPs etc are still “active” ?

Recently I have seen or suspected happening on Dell Lappy as Windows update updated the wireless NICs and the Lappy wireless shows a globe instead of satelite with some network & Internet connections in limbo. But the resolution was just to run the Dell command update which installs the Dell drivers and issues goes away.

https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/kbs/details?targetId=kA00e000000Cx2aCAC