Dear Computer Lady,
As always, thank you for your very helpful newsletters!
My question concerns my internet connection.
Occasionally my computer (Windows 7) will not connect to the internet on start up. I’ll see the yellow triangle in the Network box on my task bar, click on troubleshoot problems and get the following message:
Local Area Connection doesn’t have a valid IP configuration, reset the LAC Adapter and click OK.
Most of the time, this will fix the connection but sometimes I will have to reboot my computer multiple times for it to connect. My husband’s computer (Window 7) always connects.
Is there something I can change to alleviate this problem?
Thank you, Vicki
Dear Vicki,
As I read your description, a couple of things come to mind.
First, when starting up your computer, it is perfectly normal for the yellow triangle to appear briefly, and if you wait until it has finished starting up, the connection process will be completed and the triangle will disappear.
Second, in most cases, your IP address comes from your router, so I wonder if your router is having some problems, or it could be an older router that is having difficulty working with your computer. The fact that your husband’s computer never has this problem would suggest that it is not the router, but doesn’t rule it out.
Without actually being there to work on your network, I can’t give you any more specific answers. You will find that if you search your error message, you will find lots of people with the same problem, but it seems to be a rather generic error message so there is not one solution that works for everyone.
I hope this helps with your problem.
Elizabeth
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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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