Windows 7 Pro box.. With a Realtek RTL8168D/811D network adapter on a Gigabyte x58a-ud3r motherboard.I start my machine, log in (to the server domain) and windows starts. First thing I'm greeted with is "cannot connect to network drives" I watch the network icon and it is thinking then goes to a red X then about 3 minutes later it connects to our local domain just fine. Any ideas?

mcgyvr, Ah this one brings back memories. Every few years this pops up again. There is a really good chance that if you PC starts up with a green light on the back, reporting that the network is connected, but you cannot talk to anything on the network, than the port is not configured correctly for "Spanning-tree portfast". All you should have to do is to talk to your network admins (of which I was one when first seeing this). Here are a couple of articles that may help to guide the way: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/247922 http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps700/products_tech_note09186a00800b1500.shtml Hope this helps. Let us know if you need any further explanation. If you need extra help, you can reach us at: InitialAssist@cbfive.com See my blogs at http://www.cbfive.com/blog - Jared Crandall

Hi, Based on my research, I would like to suggest the following: 1. Update the NIC driver. 2. Boot the computer to clean boot environment and check the issue: How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7 Hope this helps. Thanks. Nicholas Li - MSFT