[chuck5]

im at my brother's house, and since he puts no effort into safeguarding his 2 computers (1 laptop, 1 desktop), its expected that i go and do all his updating/fixing/whatever. somewhere in the course of trying to get the wireless internet working (it was working on and off), the laptop decided it didnt want to go on the internet at all. not even thru the LAN port. its sitting here, 2 inches away from the wireless router, plugged into the router, and both the ethernet and wireless connections just sit there, continuously "Acquiring network address"....and it never gets it. the desktop however, is connected to the same router, and it works flawlessly. ive tried all combinations of wires, even tried connecting the laptop straight into the cable modem, still the same thing. Repair doesnt do anything, just gives an error. the ISP does not require any logging in or anything, just plug into the modem and go. i tried resetting the router and cable modem, same problem. i checked the laptop's network adaptor drivers, no exclaimations.....i just finished an AVG full scan with updated defs, no viruses left. i cant do a spyware doctor full scan cause i dont have internet to update the definitions..did a full adaware scan yesterday, removed everything it caught.

is there anything im missing here??? any advice would be nice. thanks in advance.

specs:

Laptop (with broken internet): Compaq Presario 2500
WinXP Home SP2
celeron 2.6ghz
192mb ram

Desktop (with working internet): custom built machine
Win2000Pro SP4
P4 2.6ghz
512mb ram

 

[Old Rich]

Some of the cleaning may have taken out the Internet connection settings . . try running the winsock fix tool . . http://www.snapfiles.com/get/winsockxpfix.html

 

[chuck5]

thanks simpswr. i tried the winsockfix, rebooted and it was the same as always so i guess thats a no go...

i should probably add that at 1 point in the cleaning up, after uninstalling an outdated version of Norton Antivirus, after rebooting, the machine wouldnt boot into non-safe mode. after awhile i selected the option that goes along the lines of "Use last working configuration" that appears the time after windows fails to start, along with Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, etc. im not sure if that started the problem because i wasnt connected to the net through ethernet before then, and the wireless was sketchy before and after that event.....

any other ideas people??

 

[Billy the Adult]

Have you tried using system restore to a date before this started?

 

[Mott The hoople]

try disableing your ethernet if you are trying to hook up wireless, or vice versa.

 

[TerryNet]

I would guess a 3rd party firewall that needs to be uninstalled or configured to allow access, or else the system is pretty much a basket case from the malware. A Repair Install of Windows might help. Before that, try uninstalling and reinstalling the ethernet and wireless adapters.

 

[chuck5]

thanks for all the replies! i did what Billy suggested, a system restore. i didnt wanna resort to that, cause it meant having to reinstall the anti spyware and anti virus software and recleaning the machine, cause some viruses and spyware were saved in the restore point of course, but it got the job done.

thanks again guys