Windows 7: Network problem after sleep mode

Yet another glitch for Windows 7. Seems every time the machine tries to come out of sleep mode there is no Network available. And apparently I’m not the only one having this issue. The Internet is riddled with this problem.

I was ready to unleash my venom on Windows 7 for its ridiculous behavior but my buddy Theo talked me down. After giving me a cold towel and a Mountain Dew, I have to agree, I can’t blame Windows 7 for this one, at least not completely. It seems Windows 7 and my RealTek onboard network card aren’t quite getting along or they have quite figured out how to talk to each other correctly. A pretty big blunder since Windows 7 is the predominant OS and RealTek is the predominant onboard network manufacturer. Nothing like a well oiled machine.

But anyway, the fix is simple.

Open Device Manager (Control Panel – Hardware – Device Manager)

Click the Network Adapter, right-click and get Properties

Click the Power Management tab

Uncheck the options for Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power

– All the other items should then grey out.

Update:Yeah too bad this didn’t work for me. When I brought the machine out of sleep mode last night, it still had no network connection. I guess this doesn’t work in all cases. Of course, I decided to be smart and assign a static IP address to that machine. Just caused Windows 7 to lock up on the TCP/IP Properties page. Damn, what a great operating system this is!

Update #2:I ended up fixing this by giving my machine a static IP address. Funny, I thought DNS should serve this function, but I guess when it comes to Windows 7, if you want it done right, or at least without something crashing, you have to do it yourself. At least now I always have an IP address when the computer wakes up.