DHCP Client/Diagnostics Policy Service not running

[boweasel]

Running 32 bit Vista Home Basic SP1.

This is the fourth forum on which I have posted this problem. For two days I have received ZERO replies. I have heard that this forum is where the smart guys hang out. If there's any smart guys reading this I need your help. Badly.

I cannot get online. When I hover the mouse over the network icon in the notification area, it reads, "Connection status unknown. The dependency service or group failed to start". When I try to diagnose the problem, I can't because the Diagnostics Policy Service is not running. When I try to Start the service, access is denied (Error 5). Same scenario for the service DHCP Client.

Meanwhile, I keep getting warnings that my firewall is not enabled. When I try to enable it, I get a message that the Security Center can't turn it on. Windows Firewall is not listed in services.msc.

I ran a full Malwarebytes scan and it found nothing wrong.

I did a system restore to several days before the problem, but even though the restore completed successfully, it didn't change my (non)results.

The Network and Sharing Center does not display the familiar PC monitor icon with a line to the Network and another line going from the Network to the Internet. Instead it just has the word Unknown with the caption the depencency or groiup failed to start

I am at a loss. How could a PC that was working just fine all of a sudden turn to sh*t?

I have heard that this might be due to a permissions issue, but when I use regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es and right click on Dhcp, select Permissions, I get an error when I try to add anything (either Local Service or Network Service). The msg is
c:\Windows\system32\adsldp.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error. Try installing the program again... yadda yadda yadda.

I have run sfc /scannow as well as chkdsk /f. Scannow reported that it found some problems but was unable to fix all of them. Chkdsk found and corrected about 10 errors, but neither of these programs helped with the issue.

Additionally I have downloaded and installed Process Monitor on the PC, but the amount of information displayed is overwhelming, and I'm not sure what to check. Every time I try to start DHCP I get about 200 lines of info on the screen.

I've thought about trying an in-place upgrade, but the Dell disk I have (it is a Dell desktop) is for Vista Home Premium, not Basic, and I don't know if it'll work, or even if it's a good idea.

When I open a command prompt and run ipconfig /all, I get what is in the attachment. As you can hopefully see DHCP is enabled. So why isn't it running? And why can't I start it? Is there anything else you see on the attachment that looks like it would prevent me from connecting to the internet?

[boweasel]

Two little commands, run as an administrator

net localgroup administrators localservice /add
net localgroup administrators networkservice /add

Took a lot of work, and a lot of searching, a lot of trial and error, but I finally stumbled on these commands. Exactly the kind of help I would have expected from a forum like this. Sigh...

I'd say 'thanks' but my heart wouldn't be in it. Aside from those 2 commands I did learn another invaluable piece of wisdom - avoid this forum if you're genuinely looking for help with a difficult problem.

[harold0317]

Haha, no need to sound so angry, some PC problems are just uncommon and I have ended up having to figure out stuff all by myself =/. But thanks to your help I'm done with a several-hours struggle trying to get my internet back to work, and thanks to those lines I did it! I can't thank you enough lol