Windows 7 network tray icon showing wrong status
I have 2 seperate Windows 7 computers (one a laptop and one a desktop). That were showing incorrect network status icons.
The laptop had a wireless connection and was able to surf the internet and network with no problems yet it showed the bars with an asterix, which means not connected but it sees wireless networks to connect to.
The desktop had a wired connection that was functioning properly and was able to surf the internet and network yet it showed the wired icon with a red x, which mean no network cable plugged in.
Several Google searches and a few attempts that others had listed later I was still looking at the same wrong icons. I noticed on both machines a network adapter that said “Incoming Connections.” I don’t remember seeing that before and don’t know what it’s there for so I did the natural thing and deleted them. On both machines the network icons were now showing the correct status. I tried to find an explanation as to what that was but only found mention of VPN connections even though neither machine had any VPN connections setup on them. Weird fix to a wierd problem.
I had this problem (system tray network icon showing wrong status: sometimes yellow/orange asterisk, latterly red cross) on my wife’s older HP Pavilion laptop. Many Google searches suggested many possible solutions (some appeared to be multiple-target, “blunderbuss” approaches), but none worked.
I thought: suppose I tell Windows to uninstall the internal wireless adapter, then make Windows re-discover and re-install it? Might that fix the problem?
This worked for me. Steps:
- Start button > Computer > System properties (in the blue bar near the top of the screen) > Device Manager (in the blue area at left of the screen)
- Network adapters: double-click this entry in the list
- Right-click Broadcom (or other internal wireless adapter) > Uninstall … BUT /!\ leave UNCHECKED the box marked “Delete the driver software for this device”
- After uninstalling, the Device Manager list refreshes. In the blue area near the top of the screen, click Actions, then Scan for hardware changes.
- That should reinstall the internal wireless adapter, and the device driver software for it
- The system-tray network icon now shows 4 bars with the yellow/orange asterisk. Click that icon, click the network you want to connect to, leave the “Connect automatically” box CHECKED, and click Connect. You’ll need to provide the Network Security Key.
- The system-tray network icon now shows the correct status. Problem solved!
This happened when i used ”Combofix”, my system tray ”wireless-network” started showing the wrong icon. And also ”two new devices were added to my network list ”Incoming Connections” and Wifi-Mini port i haven’t seen them before which confused me so i deleted the ”Incoming connections” and the problem was solved. This was a glitch and the Wifi-Mini port was required to maintain connection (no idea why).
Thanks for the info Jason.
Amazing!! Thank you so much, PatrickofLondon! :)
Where did you see incoming connections??
To : Patric of london…thank you thank you it worked ..after I spent 3 hours trying everything to fix it…
Did not solve the problerm with me
No changes for me either.
Patrick, your solution DID work for me, and this problem I have been living with for too on is now gone. I would like to add, however, that I had to restart my computer to re-install (I didn’t see the scan part! Oops…). It took a bit to re-install, then it was fixed.
PatrickOfLondon……Thanks dude…..!!!
Thank you, PatrickOfLondon. After trying numerous fixes for about 5 hours, this worked!!!!
I’ll share my experience (windows 7 x64 ultimate):
yesterday I installed BlueSoleil and the wireless icon changed from the white bars to the orange/yellow asterix (while wireless internet was working well)
I’ve googled for the solution for hours. One of them was to stop Virtual WIFI filter driver (device manager->view->show hidden devices->non-plug and play drivers, however that didn’t help. Btw, it was impossible to turn it off right away, I’ve just disabled it or made manual and restarted, so it would stop itself. For me it didn’t change anything, maybe it’ll change for you.
I’ve looked at change adapter settings (in network and sharing center), there were no VPN connections (which have been known as frequent reason to cause this problem). Uninstalling BlueSoleil, reinstalling both LAN and wireless drivers did not help. And my System Restore is switched off. Then I used advice of some guy’s from Vietnam: uninstalled BlueSoleil (after reinstalling it), turned off my wifi device (function Fn+F3 in my laptop’s keyboard) and restarted. Icon further went nuts: it was no longer orange asterix, it became red x on a monitor icon instead. Nothing helped, until I went adapter settings and deleted two wmvare connections (not used) that I had, but never used, had disabled, and they’ve been there long before BlueSoleil and did not cause any problems. That didn’t help so I also went to Device manager -> non-plug and play drivers (full way above) and stopped Vmware bridge protocol. After that the icon became normal for good (bars for wifi, monitor icon for wired, orange asterix for not connected, but networks available). After restarting it remained OK, so I’m not sure whether disabling bridge was really needed, as it is working now.
Still I’d like to reinstall Blue Soleil, however I’m not sure what precautions should I take. Maybe a System Restore point would be a good idea.
Happy Easter.
thank you Patric of london….finally i get solve this problem~
PatrickOfLondon . . . thank very much
Awesome, Sorted, Cheers Paddy
Thank you Guy_IT.
You gave me the idea to uninstall the VPN client which caused the notification tray icon to work properly again.
Was getting the same error as other people.
Notification icon showed the connection as unplugged/disconnected but in reality it had full internet access.
It’s FIXED, Thanks a lot!!! 2 years living with that bug!!!