I can get on to the internet with Firefox but not IE11.

I ran through your routine and rebooted.

I did upgrade from Win 8 to 8.1.

I was able today to get the In-Place Upgrade to run and accept the key, but I finally got the error 0x101-0x20017 We couldn't install Windows 8.1, so reset to how it was.

I still can't join the Win 7 Homegroup - it's not seen from 8.1. I have run the troubleshooter on both machines. If I create a Homegroup on the 8.1 machine and remove the one on Win 7, I can't see the 8.1 version either.

I am unable to get on to the internet or join a Homegroup on my laptop. I have tried an In-Place Upgrade but as soon as I entered the Product Key, it tells me it's incorrect. I have checked with your support people who confirm it's valid and rechecked what I entered but still no luck. I have also ran dism.exe and sfc.exe with all the correct parameters but it's not fixed the problem. What should I try next?

Hi Sluice,

"I am unable to get on to the internet or join a Homegroup on my laptop"

The main issue is that the machine can not be connectted to the Internet and you want to do a in-place upgrade repair installation ,right ?

If that is the issue ,we can try the follow step before we performed a in-place upgrade repair.
1.Reinstall the the Network adapter from the device manager.
2.Run the built-in troubleshoot tool .
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Troubleshooting\Network and Internet\Internet Connections ,Network Adapter,HomeGroup .
3.Run the following command line to reset the Tcp/IP stack.
ipconfig /flushdns (Clear the dns cache)
nbtstat -RR (release and refesh NetBIOS names)
netsh int ip reset (reset ip settings)
netsh winsock reset (Reset Winsock Catalog)
Reboot

As for In-Place Upgrade issue ,is the windows 8.1 machine upgarded from the Windows 8 edition ?
We can refer to the following link to check the product key of the present installation .
How To Find Out Your Windows 8 Product Key
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/20346.how-to-find-out-your-windows-8-product-key.aspx

Best regards

Hi sluice,

"I can get on to the internet with Firefox but not IE11."

Please reset the Internet Explorer to have a check .(Tools\Internet Options \Advanced \Reset)

"I still can't join the Win 7 Homegroup "

Please make sure the "Network discovery"option has been checked .
Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings
Please ensure the two machine is in the same LAN. We can run "ipconfig /all" to check the IP address.
Try to ping both with the IP address and the computer name from the two machines .
If there is any antivirus software installed ,please turn them off temporarily to have a check .

I think doing a in-place upgrade is not a good choice to resolve the issue .

As for the error messages ,please check the following link :

Windows 8.1 update fail, error 8x80070002 - 0x20009/0x20017, need help!
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-windows_install/windows-81-update-fail-error-8x80070002/810de299-8305-4a98-87bd-7d7f22bb9a27

Best regards

Yolanda, thanks for the advice which I followed. Unfortunately, it still hasn't connected. I suspect it may be a firewall issue, but I haven't had time to investigate it. I will start again tomorrow.

I can create a Homegroup on both laptop (Win 8.1) and the desktop (Win 7). The Win 8.1 laptop detects the Win 7 homegroup and allows me to enter the password, but then after a short while reports that it can no longer detect the Homegroup. I can see both machines on the network and access files on the other.

On the laptop, if I run the network diagnostics, it reports that I have to synchronize my computer clock with local standard time. It has done this several times. I therefore suspect the motherboard battery has failed. Would that be a reasonable guess and explanation?

I have just tested the system board in UEFI and it has passed.

• Edited by sluice 13 hours 5 minutes ago

I can create a Homegroup on both laptop (Win 8.1) and the desktop (Win 7). The Win 8.1 laptop detects the Win 7 homegroup and allows me to enter the password, but then after a short while reports that it can no longer detect the Homegroup. I can see both machines on the network and access files on the other.

On the laptop, if I run the network diagnostics, it reports that I have to synchronize my computer clock with local standard time. It has done this several times. I therefore suspect the motherboard battery has failed. Would that be a reasonable guess and explanation?

I have just tested the system board in UEFI and it has passed.

• Edited by sluice Friday, April 03, 2015 6:14 PM

I can create a Homegroup on both laptop (Win 8.1) and the desktop (Win 7). The Win 8.1 laptop detects the Win 7 homegroup and allows me to enter the password, but then after a short while reports that it can no longer detect the Homegroup. I can see both machines on the network and access files on the other.

On the laptop, if I run the network diagnostics, it reports that I have to synchronize my computer clock with local standard time. It has done this several times. I therefore suspect the motherboard battery has failed. Would that be a reasonable guess and explanation?

I have just tested the system board in UEFI and it has passed.

• Edited by sluice Friday, April 03, 2015 6:14 PM

I can create a Homegroup on both laptop (Win 8.1) and the desktop (Win 7). The Win 8.1 laptop detects the Win 7 homegroup and allows me to enter the password, but then after a short while reports that it can no longer detect the Homegroup. I can see both machines on the network and access files on the other.

On the laptop, if I run the network diagnostics, it reports that I have to synchronize my computer clock with local standard time. It has done this several times. I therefore suspect the motherboard battery has failed. Would that be a reasonable guess and explanation?

I have just tested the system board in UEFI and it has passed.

• Edited by sluice Friday, April 03, 2015 6:14 PM

Hi sluice,

Can we surfer the Internet now ?

"The Win 8.1 laptop detects the Win 7 homegroup and allows me to enter the password, but then after a short while reports that it can no longer detect the Homegroup"
Do you mean it connect well for a while and then no longer detected ?Have you got any error messages ?Can we ping each other ?Have you tried to set a home group from the Windows 8.1 machine and connect to it from a Windows 7 machine ?

Please run the following command to disable the autodisconnect feature to have a check:
"net config server /autodisconnect:-1"

"it reports that I have to synchronize my computer clock with local standard time."
Have you checked the time between the two machines ?Are they the same with each other ?
We can manually set the time to sync with the Internet to have a check.

"I therefore suspect the motherboard battery has failed"

Have you tried to update the motherboard driver from the manufacturer website ?

Please check the Event Viewer for any error messages related to this issue to troubleshoot this issue .

Event Viewer \Windows Logs \Application ,System

Best regards

Win 8.1 recognizes the existence of a Homegroup on the Win 7 machine and allows me to enter the password. It then starts the recognition process but stops with an error saying it can't see the Homegroup any more.

I have run the command "net config server /autodisconnect:-1" successfully, but it changed nothing as far as connecting to the Homegroup is concerned.

Both machines run their time from the same time pool and are both showing the same time. I have checked the UEFI time setting and it is correct.

I have the latest network drivers for my machine and have updated the UEFI for my machine and rebooted.

Homegroup troubleshooting detected no problems. There are a number of errors in Administrative Events with logs failing to start:

Session "Pku2uLog" failed to start with the following error: 0xC0000035

Session "NegoLog" failed to start with the following error: 0xC0000035

Session "IDListenLog" failed to start with the following error: 0xC0000035

Session "P2PLog" failed to start with the following error: 0xC0000035

Session "HomeGroupLog" failed to start with the following error: 0xC0000035

Have you attempted to scan the core system files for corruption or issues?

Use DISM to look for issues with DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth.

Brandon
Windows Outreach Team- IT Pro
Windows for IT Pros on TechNet

Yes. You'll notice in my initial posting that I did ll that first.

Hi sluice ,

I apologize for missing pointing out the most useful  event viewer path .Please check the following logs for useful information :
Event Viewer\Applications and Services Logs\Microsoft\Windows \HomeGroup Control Panel, HomeGroup Provider Service,HomeGroup-ListenerService

Can we surfer the Internet from the Windows 8.1 machine now ?

"I can create a Homegroup on both laptop (Win 8.1) and the desktop (Win 7). The Win 8.1 laptop detects the Win 7 homegroup and allows me to enter the password, but then after a short while reports that it can no longer detect the Homegroup."
Can we connect to the Windows 8.1 Homegroup from the Windows 7 machine ?Have you tried to turn off the windows firewall to have a check ?

For the error: 0xC0000035,we can try to rename this file: %windir%\panther\setup.etl to setup.old and reboot to have a check.
Here is a link for reference of this method(Pay attention to RichardVet`s suggestion):
Session "Circular Kernel Context Logger" failed to start with the following error: 0xC0000035
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/2eab69ac-7537-40c4-916e-6f6d41c05d4b/session-circular-kernel-context-logger-failed-to-start-with-the-following-error-0xc0000035?forum=w7itprogeneral

I hope the method posted before can help us to fix the log error and then it may offer us some useful information to troubleshoot this issue .

Best regards

Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-HomeGroup Control Panel/Operational
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-HomeGroup-ControlPanel
Date:          10/04/2015 17:21:47
Event ID:      5005
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      
User:          SIMONS_LAPTOP\Simon
Computer:      Simons_laptop
Description:
PopulateSharedFolderList failed. Details: The operation completed successfully.

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-HomeGroup-ControlPanel" Guid="{134EA407-755D-4A93-B8A6-F290CD155023}" />
    <EventID>5005</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2015-04-10T16:21:47.496254500Z" />
    <EventRecordID>875</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="2400" ThreadID="8524" />
    <Channel>Microsoft-Windows-HomeGroup Control Panel/Operational</Channel>
    <Computer>Simons_laptop</Computer>
    <Security UserID="S-1-5-21-1891449560-2322972988-2233995877-1002" />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name="Error">The operation completed successfully.
</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-HomeGroup Control Panel/Operational
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-HomeGroup-ControlPanel
Date:          10/04/2015 17:21:47
Event ID:      5002
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      
User:          SIMONS_LAPTOP\Simon
Computer:      Simons_laptop
Description:
Page initialisation failed. Details: HomeGroup Page: Catastrophic failure

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-HomeGroup-ControlPanel" Guid="{134EA407-755D-4A93-B8A6-F290CD155023}" />
    <EventID>5002</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2015-04-10T16:21:47.186715500Z" />
    <EventRecordID>874</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="2400" ThreadID="8524" />
    <Channel>Microsoft-Windows-HomeGroup Control Panel/Operational</Channel>
    <Computer>Simons_laptop</Computer>
    <Security UserID="S-1-5-21-1891449560-2322972988-2233995877-1002" />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name="Error">HomeGroup</Data>
    <Data Name="Message">Catastrophic failure
</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

Thees are the only 2 errors recorded several times. The are no messages in either the Listener or Provider Service logs.

I can access the internet now.

I have tried turning the firewalls on both machines off and checking again. I can't see a Homegroup on the Win 8.1 machine at all from Win 7. The other way around I have already described to you.

Setup.etl doesn't exist anywhere in the %windir% folder tree.

I haven't seen the circular logs problem for 3 weeks now, so guess that's fixed.

Hi sluice,

Please check the network type both of the machines from the network and share center.They should be configured as "Home network".
Please also run "services.msc" to check "Peer Networking Grouping "and "HomeGroup Provider " services and ensure they are are running.
Here is a link for reference:
Why can't I create a homegroup?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Why-cant-I-create-a-homegroup

I noticed you have run the homegroup troubleshoot tool .Have you tried to run it again ?After all ,we can surfer the internet now and this tool may work this time.

If the issue persists, please run "ipconfig" and attach the IP information here .I still suspect they are not configured in the same Lan.

Best regards

The 8.1 machine is configured as Private network.

The 7 machine is configured as Home network.

Both services are running on both machines.

Neither machine's HomeGroup Troubleshooter could identify the problem.

The 7 machine doesn't detect a new HomeGroup on the 8.1 machine.

The 8.1 machine doesn't detect a new HomeGroup on the 7 machine.

IPconfig on 8.1 machine:

C:\Windows\system32>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration

Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 13:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

Wireless LAN adapter WiFi:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : default

   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::f18a:704e:c5b2:dc26%16

   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.25

   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

Ipconfig on 7 machine:

C:\Windows\SysWOW64>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : default

   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::98ec:bf83:e076:511c%10

   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.84

   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

Tunnel adapter isatap.home:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 11:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

Hi sluice,

According to the IP information ,they are in the same LAN .

"The 7 machine doesn't detect a new HomeGroup on the 8.1 machine.The 8.1 machine doesn't detect a new HomeGroup on the 7 machine."
Have you checked whether the "Turn on network discovery "option has been enabled ?
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings
There are several prerequiments we should check .Here is a link for reference(Pay attention to the warning part )
How to Join a Homegroup in Windows 8 and 8.1
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15831-homegroup-join-windows-8-a.html

If there is another machine ,we can test with the third machine to verify whether this issue is caused by the Windows 8.1 machine or the Windows 7 machine .

NOTE: This response contains a reference to a third party World Wide Web site. Microsoft is providing this information as a convenience to you. Microsoft does not control these sites and has not tested any software or information found on these sites.

Best regards

I have checked all the services on both machines and they are running. Likewise network settings are correct on both. I don't have a third machine to check. I have tried again to create and join a homegroup on both machines without success.

Hi sluice,

What happened when you input the homegroup password?Have you got any error code or error messages?
What is recorded in the Event Viewer this time(both of the two machines)?
Event Viewer \Windows Logs \Application ,System
Event Viewer\Applications and Services Logs\Microsoft\Windows \HomeGroup Control Panel, HomeGroup Provider Service,HomeGroup-ListenerService

"The are no messages in either the Listener or Provider Service logs."
According to the log before,there is possibility that there is a third party service conflict here.
We can try clean boot from the Windows 8.1 machine to have a check.
Run "msconfig","Services",check "Hide all Microsoft services",then choose"Disable all".
"Startup","System Configuration","Open Task Manager","Startup",Disable all the opeions.Restart the machine and create the homegroup ,join again.
Here is a link for reference:
How to perform a clean boot in Windows
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135?wa=wsignin1.0

If we want to share something in LAN,we can try the shared folder features as a work around.
Share files and folders over the network(It is also applied to Windows7 and Windows 8.1)
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-hk/windows-vista/share-files-and-folders-over-the-network-from-windows-vista-inside-out
If the issue persists,I am afraid we may consider to refresh the Windows 8.1 machine to reinstall Windows and it will keep the personal files and settings.
How to refresh, reset, or restore your PC
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-HK/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc

Best regards

I have shared the necessary folders and can copy across what I need. Homegroup still doesn't work, so I'll wait for Win 10 and update then. In the meantime, I'll mark your last reply as the answer.