I accidentally hit the power switch on my surge protector and now I can't connect to the internet -- please help!

[JohnJSal]

I'm kind of freaking out here. I accidentally hit the power switch on my surge protector, which turned off my computer.

I turned the switch back on and turned on the PC, but now it won't connect to the internet. I'm not sure if this is related, but Avast also fails to open and the Avast window says "Sorry, we've crashed," and I can't get it to restart.

Please help me! I don't understand what happened! Why can't I get back on the internet?

I have the T-mobile home internet device (which also turned off with the power), but it has restarted and my other devices can connect to wifi.

My PC is plugged into it with an ethernet cable. I've tried unplugging and replugging it, but that didn't help.

Anyone know what's going on? Is the Avast issue and the internet issue related? Did something get corrupted when the power went off? It's not like that hasn't happened before with power failures because of the weather.

Also, now when my PC starts up, the icon in the system tray for Windows Defender or whatever it was called (hovering over it used to say something like "you have no issues") is no longer there!

I'm just really upset because I don't know what happened or how to fix it. All because my hand just grazed the power switch on the surge protector!

 

[JohnJSal]

Ok, Avast is un-installed, but that didn't fix the issue. I'm still not connecting to the internet or seeing the Windows Defender icon in the system tray. It's telling me I need to turn on a firewall but I don't see where.

Also, trying to go to a website leads me to this screen:



And when I tried to go to my networking settings, it said something about needing permission from my IT department or something like that! I've never seen that before and have no idea what it was. This is my personal PC at home.

I also want to add that when I go to the Windows button, then Settings, then click on the Networking setting option, nothing happens. Nothing opens. A window briefly flashes on the screen then disappears. It's like the networking abilities of my PC have just vanished.

 

[beers]

it said something about needing permission from my IT department

That's just account permissions, that's why you get the UAC prompt all the time like 'this app wants to make changes! yes/no?' so you have to elevate your user account permissions into admin permissions.

I'd check network and sharing center and then 'change adapter settings' from within control panel, you should see your wired adapter there. If you don't, check device manager. Otherwise the NIC might have failed for whatever reason during that event.

 

[JohnJSal]

This is what I see in Network and Sharing Center:



And this in the Device Manager:



I should also mention that in addition to the Windows Defender system tray icon being missing, the Network icon is also missing. It used to be there even when I was offline, but now it's gone completely.

I'm not sure what to do from here.

 

[JohnJSal]

I went to Network and Internet settings and did a "Network reset." After the PC restarted, the Network icon is now in the system tray, but I'm still not connected to the internet.

I tried to update the drivers for the two devices listed in Device Manager (the two ethernet ports), but it says I already have the best drivers.

Windows Defender still seems to be acting weird though (also no icon), and when I try to run troubleshooting it says "Diagnostics Policy Service is not running." I've tried a few things I've seen online to turn that back on, but it doesn't work. I get an error message or it just doesn't do anything. Is this important for connecting to the internet?

When I try to open Windows Defender it keeps telling me I need a new app from the Microsoft Store, like it's not even installed on the system. But I can't go to the store without an internet connection.

 

[JohnJSal]

Ok, I tried a system restore from a few days ago and now my internet is working again! I don't know what it fixed, but it did that much.

However, even though Avast is now restored, it's still not working properly. It won't open, even though the settings show that it's turned on. Clicking the icon to open it does nothing.

Same with Chrome. It won't open when I click on it. Maybe these just need to be reinstalled.

But I'm still having the issue of the missing icon that used to show me if there were issues. Usually it said "no action needed," but it's just gone now.

 

[JohnJSal]

Alright, hopefully my final update: after opening the Windows Security app (which I couldn't do before the restore) and resetting it, Avast is now working properly and Windows Security is back in the system tray!

Chrome still wasn't working, but uninstalling and reinstalling fixed that too!

So as far as I can tell, everything is back to normal (I guess back to the way it was on March 28, the restore point?) and I'll never touch my surge protector again!

 

[johnb35]

It wouldn't surprise me if you still have some windows corruption going on that you just haven't came across yet. I have people telling me all the time that just shutting the pc down with the power button don't do any damage. I had a housecall for a new client(older couple) last month and she told me that she just presses the power button on the case to turn the pc off. I told her to not to and to use the start button and then shut down to safely shut the pc down. Just if you plan on working around the power strip, just shut the pc down first.

 

[JohnJSal]

Yeah, it made me so mad that a simple brush of my hand could do this. All I was doing was making sure a plug was fully inserted.

I'm usually paranoid about leaving my PC on when the weather is storming, for fear of exactly this happening. It never has before though.

I did run some kind of cmd command that scanned and fixed corrupted files, so hopefully that fixed anything wrong -- although I did this before the restore.

The problem before the restore (one of them) was that I couldn't open Windows Security. It just didn't work. But now I can and by resetting it, it seems to have fixed both Avast and Windows Security.

 

[johnb35]

You may want to think about getting rid of Avast and using something else. I've came across a lot of issues with Avast causing weird system problems. Once Avast was uninstalled, problems were fixed. The most recent one was where it was blocking download within the browser.

 

[JohnJSal]

You may want to think about getting rid of Avast and using something else. I've came across a lot of issues with Avast causing weird system problems. Once Avast was uninstalled, problems were fixed. The most recent one was where it was blocking download within the browser.

That's odd. I've never had an issue with it before now, and I feel like this was caused by the power turning off abruptly rather than Avast itself. Do you have any recommendations?

 

[johnb35]

Are you using the free version or paid version? I was using bit defender free there for a while once Avast got too intrusive. I don't even use anything now but windows defender.

 

[JohnJSal]

Are you using the free version or paid version? I was using bit defender free there for a while once Avast got too intrusive. I don't even use anything now but windows defender.

I use the free version. I was wondering if Windows Defender was maybe enough on its own.

 

[beers]

I'm the similar as above, WD with malwarebytes as an occasional on-demand scanner.

Avast went a bit downhill years ago.

 

[JohnJSal]

I also use Malwarebytes as a supplement, but how did Avast get worse? It seems okay to me, aside from this incident, which I don't think was its own fault.

 

[Intel_man]

but how did Avast get worse?

A lot of bloat in the software now.

I'm currently using bitdefender free, it's pretty good so far for me. Windows Defender is sufficient though if you don't want to deal with a 3rd party anti-virus program.

Malwarebytes has always been a good go-to for the occasional scans once in a while for peace of mind as @beers mentioned.

 

[JohnJSal]

Windows Defender is sufficient though if you don't want to deal with a 3rd party anti-virus program.

Huh, I kind of assumed that it being the default Windows option, it wasn't as good!

Maybe I'll give it a try. Less obtrusive is always better!

 

[johnb35]

I believe Avast is just being coded very poorly nowadays. I won't install it on any system now. I would recommend Bitdefender Free for anything else at this point if you really wanted a dedicated virus scanner.