We have a small home network with 4 pc's (all Windows machines) on the network. One of the machines is an "All in One" machine. For some reason that I don't understand, it suddenly could not access any other computers on the network. I finally realized that it was showing up as a "Media Device" rather than a computer on the network.
After making some changes to the setting of this pc, it is now showing up as both a computer and a Media Device. I'm afraid I still don't understand what a "Media Device" is, or why it is showing up as a Media Device, or if that has anything to do with the current problem at hand. This pc is a Win 8.1 machine, 64 bit.
That machine can now see my Win 7 computer on the network, but it doesn't seem to be able to access files that are shared on the network. When I try to access shared files on this Win 7 machine, from the Win 8.1 machine, the green line across the top (sorry, I don't know what that green line is called) moves SLOWLY, and then ultimately says, "Windows cannot access (name of the computer). Check the spelling of the name, otherwise there might be a problem with your network. Click diagnose." When I click Diagnose, it tells me that "Troubleshooting cannot identify the problem."
Coming from the other direction, on my Win7 laptop, I can access the Win 8.1 machine and its shared files quite rapidly.
The Win8.1 machine is a FAST machine, while the Win7 laptop is about 2 years older and slower, although not a bad laptop.
I also have another Win8.1 that is reasonably old (maybe 3 years) but quite beefy and rammed up. I can access its shared files with no problem with this Win7 machine, but the other Win8.1 machine (AIO) has the same problem with the other Win8.1 machine as it does my Win7 laptop.
Any thoughts as to what I can do to correct this problem? This 8.1 AIO used to be able to easily access both machines. I have NO idea what was changed (nothing that I know of) except the usual Microsoft updates that get shoved down at Windows users, but all machines have been updated to the current MS updates.
At this point, I'm completely baffled and not sure what to look at. Thank you for ANY help you can give me.
Brenda
After making some changes to the setting of this pc, it is now showing up as both a computer and a Media Device. I'm afraid I still don't understand what a "Media Device" is, or why it is showing up as a Media Device, or if that has anything to do with the current problem at hand. This pc is a Win 8.1 machine, 64 bit.
That machine can now see my Win 7 computer on the network, but it doesn't seem to be able to access files that are shared on the network. When I try to access shared files on this Win 7 machine, from the Win 8.1 machine, the green line across the top (sorry, I don't know what that green line is called) moves SLOWLY, and then ultimately says, "Windows cannot access (name of the computer). Check the spelling of the name, otherwise there might be a problem with your network. Click diagnose." When I click Diagnose, it tells me that "Troubleshooting cannot identify the problem."
Coming from the other direction, on my Win7 laptop, I can access the Win 8.1 machine and its shared files quite rapidly.
The Win8.1 machine is a FAST machine, while the Win7 laptop is about 2 years older and slower, although not a bad laptop.
I also have another Win8.1 that is reasonably old (maybe 3 years) but quite beefy and rammed up. I can access its shared files with no problem with this Win7 machine, but the other Win8.1 machine (AIO) has the same problem with the other Win8.1 machine as it does my Win7 laptop.
Any thoughts as to what I can do to correct this problem? This 8.1 AIO used to be able to easily access both machines. I have NO idea what was changed (nothing that I know of) except the usual Microsoft updates that get shoved down at Windows users, but all machines have been updated to the current MS updates.
At this point, I'm completely baffled and not sure what to look at. Thank you for ANY help you can give me.
Brenda
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Win8.1