How do I resolve error 651 on a new Windows 8 installation?

Anonymous
2012-11-08T04:36:31+00:00

I installed Windows 8 Pro on a Zotac Zbox AD03 3 days ago. The installation went fine and everything, including the network and internet, worked just fine. The network contains 4 Windows 7 machines, a network printer, a Buffalo NAS, a Windows Home Server, a 16 port switch and a Motorola combo cable modem (DOCSIS 3.0) and router. The new computer with Windows 8 could see everything and appeared to function perfectly with normal internet access. After powering it off for the night I restarted it the next morning and found it could only see the Windows Home Server and one of the Windows 7 machines. It reported that it was not attached to a network and when I tried to connect I got error 651. I did a complete new install and it still could only see the Windows Home Server and the same other Windows 7 machine and still get the error 651 message. What could have happened during that power down/restart to cause it to lose network connectivity? How do I fix it?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-06-04T03:35:54+00:00

    Microsoft can add me to the list of unhappy users experiencing an error 651 disaster on a new Windows 8 laptop (Dell XPS L521X).  Fortunately I have a spare laptop I can use to leave this message, but after going through wasted hours doing every item on the checklist provided in this thread to get the new laptop connected wirelessly, I only have a very expensive piece of metal and glass that's attractive to look at but not worth much else.  The suggestions given by Microsoft's rep seem to me nothing more than robotic responses rather than a sincere personal effort to fix things the way they should be.

    So it now comes down to this Catch-22:  How do I download a driver that may repair the problem if I can't connect to the Internet?

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-06-05T23:28:39+00:00

    Hi Mike,

    I also had same issue on my new windows 8 installation. I have followed below blog which helped me to fix issue and able to connect to internet now. Hope this will help you to solve your issue as well.  Good Luck !!!

    http://www.australia-bestmate.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/windows-8-error-651.html

    Cheers

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-06-06T03:30:46+00:00

    I was able to solve my problem more easily than most it appears.  I discovered that my Wi-Fi connection mysteriously reset itself in the "off" position.  I reset it to "on" and rebooted, and, lo and behold, my Internet connection was restored.  Since I never had opened that settings window after completing the initial set-up of my new laptop, I have no idea how the problem arose.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-06-14T11:37:31+00:00

    I spent four hours trying to resolve this problem with windows 8 and a BrightBox router courtesy of EE.

    In the end,for me it was suprisingly easy to solve - in the help pages for the said router it says to have caution about using TKIP encrytion with 802.11(N) and when I changed to WPA2 and AES encryption then entered all the passwords afresh everything started to work both on windows 8 machines and on those running Windows XP.Hope this is of some use and of course some people may have to change a card or dongle to be able to use (N) if you see what I mean.

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  5. Anonymous
    2013-07-12T20:47:55+00:00

    I have two computers bought at the same time, one a Sony Ultra Book and the other A Sony Duo and both running Windows 8. I have the error 651 on the Duo but not on the Ultra Book. So the error is not solely to do with Windows 8. It has some other relevant factor. I am running Norton 360 on both and have updates set to automatic on both computers. So that is not the problem.

    I used to close down both computers in sleep mode but changed to a full close down.

    I do have a problem with the Ultra Book in that the touch screen does not work most of the time but apart from that everything else is fine. I have a Windows 8 mobile phone and have not had any problems with it.

    Microsoft needs to make Windows 8 more stable for computers

    .

    Robin Graham

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