Media center breaking LAN?

[sublimejhn]

Ok, this does not make any sense to me and I have tried everything I can think of to resolve this, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what is going on. I have been running my HTPC in it's current state for probably a couple years now with no issues. I have been getting low on drive space, so today I swapped one of the media drives (not the boot drive) for a larger one. Since that time media center no longer works with my HD Homerun Prime.

I have 2 hauppauge HVR-1800s in the computer, which still work but are not generally used as my primary tuners. Most of the time I am using my HD Homerun Prime with cablecard, which of course requires network access. Well as soon as I attempt to use media center, my LAN access drops and I not only can't access the internet, but I can't watch any television with the HD Homerun tuners. A reset of the adapter or computer resolves the issue, and any attempt to use media center again brings it right back.

This ONLY occurs in media center. If I try to access the tuners with the HD Homerun software they work fine and it does not drop the connection. I am very close to breaking down and doing a complete windows reinstall, but I have so much set up on this computer exactly how I want it, it will be a complete nightmare and I would like to avoid it if possible. I do not see how a simple hard drive swap could cause this, or what the issue could be. I have tried various methods to reset media center, but they have not solved the issue at all. Hopefully someone here can save me from a reinstall!!

[leroys1000]

Have you tried setting static IP addresses on your devices in case there is a DHCP conflict on the network.
Sounds like you prime may be trying to pull the same IP address as a another device.

[sublimejhn]

Have you tried setting static IP addresses on your devices in case there is a DHCP conflict on the network.
Sounds like you prime may be trying to pull the same IP address as a another device.

I have static IPs set with all devices, but just to be sure I have reset my router and same issue. Any other ideas?

[rhidir]

Probably does not apply to your issue but I had a similar issue when I changed out my cable modem.
Network would drop if I tried to connect to WAN.
Turned out to be a need to set the static subnet IP's to their MAC address in the router (Address Reservation).

Very strange to have network issues on secondary HD change are you sure the physical network connections did not change when you changed out the hard drive.

Check to make sure the network is Private/Home or you will not be able to connect to the HD prime inside WMC. (network discovery disabled on public/work)
HD Homerun software does not use network discovery to connect so it might work.

Good luck I hope you find and fix the issue.

[sublimejhn]

Just to follow up I gave up and reinstalled windows. I still cannot wrap my head around how this was possible, so it was just easier to reinstall and save myself the headache. One of the strangest computer issues I've ever encountered, and all from a hard drive change on a storage drive. Never would have seen that coming, but at least all is well now