Solutions to "Can't Connect to Internet after Computer Reformatted"

"My laptop, HP Probook 4440s, had spyware and after multiple attempts to remove it through 2 different anti-virus software, I reformatted the hard drive, and reinstalled Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit from the Windows CD.

Now my laptop can't see any available networks regardless of whether I plug in or try wirelessly. I am stuck on the situation of no drivers and no internet. The network and sharing center shows nothing to enable when I go in to the adapter settings. Can you help please?"
                                                         --- Question asked from HP Community

Network is Not Available after Reinstalling Windows

After a Windows system reformat, if you don't have the driver disk came with your computer or you didn't download needed drivers before format, the case is so embarrassing that you have no drivers and no internet access to download the drivers. If you are stuck on that a suck situation, how to get out?

Solutions to No Drivers and No Internet Access after System Format

To get out of "no drivers and no internet access" situation, you have 2 workarounds.
Note: Another internet-available PC is needed to download the drivers or the automatic software in order to solve your problem.

Solution 1. Use Automatic Driver Finder to Download and Install Needed Driver

A quick and easy way is to use an automatic driver finder to find and install network drivers automatically. You may wonder that all driver finder software need internet connection in order to find the proper driver to install. But it is different for DriveTheLife for Network Card, a free tool specially designed to solve various network driver problems, stands out with the outstanding feature of downloading and installing network card driver without internet connection.

Download it from anther computer and transfer it to your computer. After the installation, you would find that the wired and wireless network drivers are installed. The drivers are installed when installing DriveTheLife from the in-built driver pool.

Obviously, after the network drivers are installed, you will have normal internet access. Launch DriveTheLife for Network Card, it will find all needed drivers and install them with one click.  

Solution 2. Download Drivers from Another Computer then Install It Manually

It has never been that easy to download drivers for a specific hardware device. You need to look into the details of the device, search the "specific device name + driver" on google then choose an reliable result to download driver or search it on manufacture's website.

After that, download the driver file and save it on a USB stick or removable media, transfer it to your computer. Then click the .exe file to install.

If nothing unexpected happened and the driver is the correct, your computer internet should be good to go.

How to Prevent "No Drivers and No Internet Access" Situation?

To avoid the "no drivers, no internet" accident happening, you are advised to backup all your drivers before reformatting the system, or keep firmly of the driver disk came with your computer and system.

If you are upgrading your system and no backup drivers, no disks, DriveTheLife for Network Card can help you in all events.

Related post: Top solutions to "Computer Can't Connect to WiFi"

DriveTheLife for Network Card is Released to Help Install Network Drivers Offline

Los Angeles, Calif. May  4th, 2015 — As the world’s leading software provider of Windows drivers download and update utility, Drive The Life Co., Ltd. today releases its new software DriveTheLife for Network Card, a piece of software served as a great and important supplement of DriveTheLife. This new software is mainly focused on helping users to solve network card driver problems especially when there is no network and no drivers.  For example, after a fresh install of Windows and there is no network and no drivers, how can you surf the internet? Yeah, that’s the point where DriveTheLife for Network Card is especially helpful.

DriveTheLife for Network Card helps you to install wired and wireless network adapter drivers in the process of installing itself. That is, when you have network driver problems, just download and install it, after the installation is done, your network card driver is also installed. After that, your network should be good to go without any network driver problems.

Key Features of DriveTheLife for Network Card

• Download and install proper wired and wireless network driver  in the process of itself installation (offline)
• Solve network card driver problems easily and quickly 
• Download, install, update, backup, restore and uninstall all of the available drivers on your desktop or laptop 
• All commonly used network drivers are integrated
• All Windows systems are well compatible: Windows 10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista
• Totally free, safe and clean

Pricing and Availability

DriveTheLife for Network Card version 6.2.3.8 is now available on official site to all users for free.  To free download it, visit: http://www.drivethelife.com

About Drive The Life Co., Ltd.

Drive The Life Co. Ltd. is the leading driver software provider and is dedicated to developing powerful and user-loving software on managing Windows device drivers. Over years of development, Drive The Life Co. Ltd. is now favored by majority of users and becomes quite popular all over the world.

Contact Information

Website: http://www.drivethelife.com
Email: olivialewisdtl[at]gmail[dot]com

Press Image

You can download DriveTheLife for Network Card from official site, picture is shown as below:

How to Fix Device Driver Problems with One Click

Sometimes, your computer just can’t work properly and you even don’t know what is wrong with it. In most cases, it is the problem of hardware drivers that makes your computer  not working.  Though Windows 7 and Windows 8 has inbuilt driver support for many hardware devices, there is still a big chance that the inbuilt support can’t troubleshoot the problem. You need a more powerful fix for it. 

Common Fixes for Driver Problems We Have Learnt Before

Since driver problem is a common problem on computers,  we can get various solutions for it by searching on google. The general fixes are listed in the below:

1. Windows Hardware Troubleshooter

The first thing to try is to use the Windows automatic hardware troubleshooter.  Open it as follows:
Start > Enter “fix hardware” in the search box > Choose “Find and fix problems with devices” from the search results.

It should be a Window like in the picture. Then Next,  it will start detecting problems and check for missing and corrupted drivers.

All installed devices will be searched through and if there is something wrong detected with this troubleshooter, it will offer a choice to “Apply this fix” or “Skip this fix”. This is a great fix if it works!　However, if it does not work, read on.

2.  Update Drivers

The method most commonly suggested and used is to update the driver for your hardware that is not working.  There are 3 methods introduced to update your drivers: through Windows Update, Download from manufacture’s website and install it yourself, through free software DriveTheLife.

However, you can also do the driver update by this direct video tutorial of how to update drivers on Windows 8/7/XP/Vista with One Click for Free.

3. Fresh Install of Windows

If the problem is so stubborn that we can’t solve it with the above two methods,  maybe someone would pick the worst but 100% efficient method: do a clean install of Windows system.  That is OK but not suggested here because I just want to introduce you the one-click way. 

What is the One-click Way of Troubleshooting Driver Problems?

You may think that it is impossible to fix driver problems with just one click. But this is true to DriveTheLife, a free and professional driver updater and manager.  Just do as follows and download it to use for proof.  

• Download free DriveTheLife from official website: http://www.drivethelife.com

• Install it just like any other software

• When install is done, launch it. It will start the automatic scanning without any advanced configurations

• If there is something wrong with your hardware device drivers, like driver is missing, corrupted/broken, it will identify the problematic driver(s) and offer an option “Repair”.  Click Repair, all the problematic drivers will be fixed!

No Sound on Windows Computer – Fix Common Audio Problems

What If There is No Sound on Your Windows Computer?

We always suffer from various computer problems, honestly, we can’t void this. I have demonstrated how to fix “computer can’t connect to WiFi”, and today we will learn how to troubleshoot sound problems on Windows PC.

On the whole, sound problems can be caused by sound card issues, outdated/damaged sound driver, sound settings, cables that are broken or not connected properly, etc. This tutorial doesn't cover all fixes but provides you with some common solutions.

Solution 1: Don’t Ignore the Obvious – Check Volume Settings and Cable Connection

If you are using external speakers, make sure they are connected properly and plugged into a working power and turned on. Many computers have more than 3 jacks, microphone jack, line-in jack, line-out jack. Speakers should be plugged into the line-out jack.

If it is not connected properly, there will be a red X on the taskbar icon.

After checking the cable connection, click the sound icon from the taskbar and open the Volume Mixer. Make sure that the Mute is not enabled and adjust the volume to the right position that you need.

Note that if the sound icon is not shown on the taskbar, you can go to sound settings from: Start menu > Control Panel > Sound.

Solution 2: Use Playing Audio Troubleshooter

Microsoft designed the Playing Audio Troubleshooter to help users when having problems on playing audio. It checks for common problems with your volume settings, sound card or driver, and speakers or headphones. Open Playing Audio troubleshooter through the following path: Start > Control Panel > Troubleshooter > Hardware and Sound > Troubleshoot audio playback.

Note that in order to get the most up-to-date troubleshooters from Windows online, you should make sure that the internet connection is fine on your computer. 

Or you can download the audio troubleshooter program to trouble your problems.

Solution 3: Check for Your Sound Card – Update Sound Card Driver If Needed

Sound card or sound processor is a main hardware for computer sound produce. So we need to check whether there is a sound card or sound processor and if it is working properly. Device Manager is a control panel application that allows you to check, set, change hardware devices settings and drivers. So just open Device Manager to check your sound card. 

• Start > Input Device Manager > Press Enter.
• Your sound card or processor should be listed under Sound, Video and Game Controller. Click it to expand this category. 

Note that if you think you have installed a sound card but it is not listed under this category, please check the Other Devices and see if it there. 

• If there is a yellow triangle on the device, there might be a problem. Then right click to view Properties. Check the General tab to read the problem on the Device status box. If there is a problem, you might need to install a new driver or purchase a new sound card. 

Click here to learn how to update Windows drivers.

Solution 4: Do a System Restore or a Clean Reinstall of Windows

If things didn't get worse, we don't need to kill all other settings and data to do a system restore (Start >Input System Restore > Press Enter)or clean reinstall. 

Tip: To keep drivers up to date and fix driver problems, DriveTheLife is the best free choice. Download it now on your computer as the must-have program. 

3 Safe Ways to Uninstall/Remove Windows Drivers

When Need to Uninstall Drivers Completely?

• You have weird computer issues that seem related with device drivers
• You just upgraded your device and need to install new driver for it
• Whenever you plug a new device like a pen drive, a USB device, etc. to your system, it will install needed drivers for the device and every time you boot up Windows, drivers will be loaded. So if the device is used only once or twice and you will never use it again, the drivers are so space-consuming and will slow down your startup speed.

How to Uninstall/Remove Device Drivers Completely?

Installing drivers can be done with ease and we know the codes in the driver program acts like a middleman between the hardware devices and operating system. Just like any other software programs, driver program is deeply integrated into OS after installed to ensure perfect and seamless functionality.

Well, it is not a hard task to uninstall driver package from your computer. 3 approaches are demonstrated in the below. They are easy and free.

Approach 1: Using Free Driver Manager and Updater Software DriveTheLife

DriveTheLife, a professional and totally free Windows program designed to update and manage drivers for all Windows users. It allows you to download, install, update, backup, restore and uninstall drivers just with a few clicks. To uninstall drivers, follow the steps below:

1. Download, install and launch DriveTheLife. Official free download location:  www.drivethelife.com
2. Go to Manage Board from the left pane
3. Click Uninstall, then all the drivers that are available to be uninstalled will be displayed in the list

4. Choose the one you need to uninstall and press Uninstall Button. Just one click, you can remove the drivers and its package completely.

Approach 2: Remove Drivers using Device Manager

Device manager is a Control Panel application that lets you manage and update your devices, along with the drivers. It allows you to change settings for the hardware, view properties, identify drivers for each device, install/uninstall/disable/enable/roll back drivers. Let’s start the steps to uninstall drivers:

1. Start > Input Device Manager > Press Enter.
2. Find and click the category of device which you need to uninstall the driver, for instance, the graphics card would be listed under Display Adapters).
3. Right click the problematic device > Uninstall.

4. On the Confirm Device Removal dialog box, click OK.

Approach 3: Uninstall Drivers using the System Uninstaller Program

You can uninstall the drivers from the Uninstaller Program just like any other program.
1. Start > Input Uninstall Program > Press Enter.
2. In the uninstallation window, find the driver you want to uninstall and start the uninstallation process.

After the driver is uninstalled, if you need a new driver for this device, use DriveTheLife to scan your computer which will find the proper drivers and perform the installation with one click.

Top Solutions to “Computer Can’t Connect to WiFi” Issue

Symptom:

I have a Lenovo Ideapad with Windows 8. I connected to the WiFi and it worked fine last night, but now it says it can't connect and the other people with me can connect. I have the password correct so I can't figure out what's wrong. I tried rebooting it. It didn't work.

Laptop or desktop can't connect to WiFi problem exists here and there. Fixes are different for different users. Below I will list what I know that help to fix WiFi connection problem. Please add your fix if it is not in the list. Thanks.

I have Windows 7 in my hand, so the demonstrations are based on Windows 7.

Fix 1: Disable Wireless Adapter and Enable It Again

• Click Start menu.

• Open Control Panel.

• Find Network and Sharing Center.

• Click Change Adapter Settings from the left bar.

• Locate your wireless adapter and right click on it.

• Choose Disable.

• Then click Enable.

Disable Wireless Network Adapter

Fix 2: Renew Your IP Address

Renewing IP address will prevent IP conflicts when your computer and another on the network have the same IP address.

• Open Windows command prompt: Start > Input cmd to search program.
• Release IP address: ipconfig/release > Enter.
• Renew IP address: ipconfig/renew >Enter.
• Exit the command prompt box.

Fix 3: Restart Your Computer and Wireless Router

Fix 4: Update Wireless Card Driver

You have 3 ways to update wireless driver. Smart driver updater Driver Talent is recommended because of its easy steps and quick speed.

In order to have a clean reinstall of the wireless adapter driver, you need to remove/uninstall the original wireless driver. Launch Driver Talent and go to Uninstall section. After this, scan your hardware drivers with Driver Talent. It will detect the missing wireless adapter driver and install it with one click.

Fix 5: Clear Computer Glitches and Change a Wireless Network Card

Due to overheating or old age, computer's network adapter might suffer a sudden failure which results to the network connection interruption. Viruses and worms also may disable or block a computer's network interfaces from functioning properly.

So if there is no way after you contact your internet service provider, try to replace the old wireless network card.

Fix 6: Reset the Winsock Catalog

If you can't connect to the internet and got the message "Limited Connectivity" and "IP4V - No internet access" IPV6 - No internet access", maybe you need to reset the winsock catalog. Do as follows:

1. Run cmd as administrator

• Start >Search cmd >Right Click "Run as administrator" (Ctrl +Shift + Enter)

or

• Start > All Programs >Accessories > Command Prompt >Run as administrator 

Note that if the User Account Control dialog box appears, click "Yes" to allow the change.

2. Input netsh winsock reset, press enter, you will get this dialog box （shown in the below）

3. Restart your computer.

WiFi not working after Windows 10 update? Read this article to get problems resolved.  Top 2 ways to fix no WiFi available on Windows 10 update.

Click for more about can't connect to WiFi on Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP

Last updated on 13th May, 2015

10 Methods to Fix Display (NVIDIA) Driver Stopped Responding and Has Recovered Problem

Just as the title implies, this article mainly focus on solving the problem of “Display driver keeps crashing and recovering”. It is obvious that this issue has been a plague for a long time especially on Windows XP, 7 and 8.  How about finding a 100% working method? That is impossible since I noticed that different people solved the problem with different methods. Below I will list the methods I know from others and my own experience.

Method 1. The Most Basic Principle of “Make sure your computer is not overheating”

If so, cool it with a cooler when working.

Method 2. Make Sure Your PC is Not Overclocking

Lower the operating frequency from your graphics card Control Panel. If you are using NVIDIA, right click on your desktop and find the NVIDIA Control Panel, set the operating frequency to a lower level

Method 3. Update Your GPU Driver

Sometimes updating drivers solved the problem easily and quickly. What you need to do is to get your GPU model and update the driver the latest one or suitable one. However, if you don't want to do so much search and download, you can use free driver update and managing software like DriveTheLife which will scan your drivers and alert you with all the drivers in question and repair them in demand.

Update Drivers with DriveTheLife

Method 4. Change the Registry Key to Expand TDR Time

• Go to registry editor (start > run > regedit)
• Navigate yourself to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlGraphicsDrivers (make sure Graphics Drivers is highlighted)
• Right click > New > Dword (32-bit) value > Name it: TdrDelay > double click it > Set it to A (hexadecimal) or 10 (decimal).  If you are using 64bit system, just choose the Dword (64-bit) value

Method 5. Change Power Settings

Control Panel >Power Options >Choose when to turn off the display (on the left of power options window) >Change advanced power settings >PCI EXPRESS: If it is on Maximum power saving, then set it to OFF

Method 6. Change Settings from NVIDIA Control Panel (If you are using NVIDIA graphics card)

• Nvidia Control Panel -> 3D Settings -> Set PhysX configuration -> Select a Physx processor -> choose your graphics card instead of leaving it on auto-select.
• NVIDIA Control Panel, using "Prefer max performance" instead of "Adaptive".

Method 7: Run the Hardware and Devices Toubleshooter

Control panel >Troubleshooting >View all (on the left pane of the screen) > Hardware and Devices >Next >Follow the on-screen instructions.

Method 8: Restart the Computer in Clean Boot Mode 

Check Microsoft Support page for details on how to restart your Windows XP/Vista/8/8/1 in clean boot mode. Note that after troubleshooting, see the section "Reset the computer to start as usual” to return your computer to a Normal startup mode.

Method 9. Remove All Old Drivers and Install the Latest Ones

This will help to prevent software/hardware/process conflicts. How to remove/uninstall drivers on your computer? It is easy with the free driver manage software I mentioned in the above DriveTheLife. Free download it now just for a try! 

Method 10: Replace Your Old Video Card 

After trying a lot of methods and no vain, it is possibly the problem of your old video card. It’s time to buy a new video card.

Read this related article for more additional tips.