Windows XP failing to acquire network address whether wired or wireless

Question

Hi guys,
I initially asked this question elsewhere because it was happening in OSX as well, though now that the OSX side of things has been fixed it is purely a Windows XP problem, and is a different problem to the one in Mac OSX.
The problem seems simple enough, in that Windows XP just refuses to acquire a network address when connecting to the internet whether wired or wirelessly. I spent the best part of 7 hours on this on Monday, and after trawling through countless web pages I seemed to establish that there was an error with the AFD Driver (which, as I understand, is one of three required for the DHCP Client service to run). I was on the verge of probably doing something monumentally stupid and trying to repair/replace that driver when in a moment of genius (which should have arrived significantly sooner in the day) I asked my fiancee when the last time was that she could remember the internet working properly. She said it was the day before just after she agreed to install SP3, but the installation failed. So I used System Restore and rolled the system back to before that point, et voila. Everything was fine.
Not appreciating the path taken to fix her iMac, my fiancee then tried to install SP3 again and the same problem reoccurred. Another System Restore fixed it. The problem now is that on startup Windows XP seems to revert back to the same state, and will refuse to acquire an IP address. A System Restore back to the same time will fix it. However, whilst this takes little longer than an actual startup, I was wondering whether or not anybody had any bright ideas for a permanent fix to this problem.
All ideas, solutions and pearls of wisdom welcomes with open arms.

Answer 1

Crazy Jamie wrote:
Hi guys,
I initially asked this question elsewhere because it was happening in OSX as well, though now that the OSX side of things has been fixed it is purely a Windows XP problem, and is a different problem to the one in Mac OSX.
The problem seems simple enough, in that Windows XP just refuses to acquire a network address when connecting to the internet whether wired or wirelessly. I spent the best part of 7 hours on this on Monday, and after trawling through countless web pages I seemed to establish that there was an error with the AFD Driver (which, as I understand, is one of three required for the DHCP Client service to run). I was on the verge of probably doing something monumentally stupid and trying to repair/replace that driver when in a moment of genius (which should have arrived significantly sooner in the day) I asked my fiancee when the last time was that she could remember the internet working properly. She said it was the day before just after she agreed to install SP3, but the installation failed. So I used System Restore and rolled the system back to before that point, et voila. Everything was fine.
Not appreciating the path taken to fix her iMac, my fiancee then tried to install SP3 again and the same problem reoccurred. Another System Restore fixed it. The problem now is that on startup Windows XP seems to revert back to the same state, and will refuse to acquire an IP address. A System Restore back to the same time will fix it. However, whilst this takes little longer than an actual startup, I was wondering whether or not anybody had any bright ideas for a permanent fix to this problem.
All ideas, solutions and pearls of wisdom welcomes with open arms.
Try using a system that is able to connect to the internet in Windows. Then go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=2FCDE6CE-B5FB-4488-8 C50-FE22559D164E and then download SP3 to the hard drive of that system. Then using the CD/DVD burning of your choice that you have for Windows burn the disc image file to CD/DVD and then insert it to the system that has the issue and upgrade it to SP3 that way.
I used to use Windows update to get service pack, but one time it did not download and install correctly on an HP system. Since then I have went to Microsoft and downloaded the Service Pack and when it said that it installed successfully I deleted the file I downloaded. I never had issues when I get them and install them that way. The only Service Pack I had issues with was Service Pack 1 for Windows 7. I downloaded it from Microsoft to the hard drive and after it said it was installed successfully I deleted the file. I used it for a while then I shut the system completely down. Then when I booted into Windows I went to put in my password and nothing happened. I tried moving the mouse nothing happened. Then I did a hard reset, booted into Mac OS X, used Boot Cap Assistant, removed the partition, downgraded to Windows XP 32-bit and now miss all the features that come with 64-bit Operating Systems. I am now able to use 2.5GB of RAM out of the 8GB that is in my system. I thought with Windows 32-bit that 4GB what the most that could be used.