Solved Shared drive problem - error x80004005

I have 5 (3 desktops + 2 laptops) Win11 25H2 64Bit machines running Home or Pro, with latest updates.
All are in same workgroup, and some have the network set as Private while others have it set as Public.
2 desktops are wired to the router and 1 is on wifi. The laptops use wifi.

The problem machine is a Win11 Home laptop with a Private network setup.

The drive is connected to an ASUS router via USB3 and being shared via Samba (not v1).
A) The working machines can access the shared drive via Windows Explorer and selecting Network (for machines with file sharing ON).
B) The working machines can also access the drive via \\routername, \\shareddrivename or \\<IP address> regardless if file sharing on the desktop/laptop is ON or OFF.

For the "ALL NETWORKS" setting section, 128Bit encryption is ON and Password Protection is ON.

On the 4 working machines, when connecting to the drive a window pops up asking for a userid/password.

The problem machine can't see the drive in Windows Explorer and gets a x80004005 error when trying to access the drive by using methods listed in (B) so it never gets the userid/passwd popup.

I tried a variety of settings on the "problem" laptop but even when seemingly identical to any of the other machines it still can't "see" the drive.

The 4 working machines use Microsoft Defender while the problem machine has Norton as the firewall/AV. But even after disabling Norton the machine can not see the shared drive.

What do I need to do so that all 5 machines can see the shared drive ?

Unfortunately that is one of the most generic and useless errors you can get.
I'd start with the usual commands to check for OS corruption

Thanks for helping out.
I ran the sfc and chkdsk and no issues found...but now the machine can see the shared drive in the Windows Explorer but it gets "a x80070035 The network path was not found" error. Using \\router, \\shreddrive or \\<IP address> still gets the 0x80004005 error.

Hard to believe that we can have AI on machines but still get problems with basic functions like file sharing and a useless error messages to diagnose the root cause.

Try to disable SMB signing on a machine that is not working. From an administrative PowerShell session:


If that brings no joy, run through @Try3's network checklist thingy.

pseymour said:

@Try3's network checklist thingy

Click to expand...

A consolidated network setup checklist for Windows 10 and 11 - my post #4 - TenForums


Denis

Isn't that the link I posted?

pseymour said:

Try to disable SMB signing on a machine that is not working. From an administrative PowerShell session:

Powershell:

Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableSecuritySignature $false -RequireSecuritySignature $false
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableSecuritySignature $false -RequireSecuritySignature $false

If that brings no joy, run through @Try3's network checklist thingy.

Sharing folder isn't working - Windows 10 Help Forums

Desktop PC - Windows 10 Pro Laptop - Windows 10 Pro The problem is I am trying to share a folder on the Laptop with the Desktop PC. I have set up the Advanced Sharing (Everyone - Full Access) of the folder. In Network And Sharing Center, both the PC and t

www.tenforums.com

Click to expand...

The Powershell commands solved the problem. THANK YOU!
Not sure how the average person is supposed to figure stuff like this out.