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unable to contact dhcp server

88K views 42 replies 5 participants last post by  2xg 
#1 ·
I've been chasing this problem on and off for about three months with limited results.
I lost my internet connection, and I get the following message, "unable to contact your DHCP server".
This occurred after a system reboot and I have been unable to get this computer back online since that time.
At the time it went down my security software was reporting a virus that it could not remove, but that had been going on for a week or so and it didn't seem to be causing any system problems.
I later took the computer to a professional who scanned and cleaned it, and replaced the security program with a different one, AVG 9.0.
At the time I lost connection I contacted my DSL provider, after performing some service tests the tech pronounced the problem to be on my end.
At that point I got out my backup computer, which also runs on WinXP SP3 on a somewhat older platform, and it connected with no problem.
I than swapped the hard drives between the two computers. The backup drive, now in the computer which origanily had been giving me trouble, connected without a problem.
It was at this time, I took the infected drive to be scanned.
Since that time I have been following threads on various forums without much luck.
I have only gotten a connection twice. The first time was before I got the router, I was swapping the cable from one computer to the other and I got connection but it only lasted until I did a reboot. I decided
the Bad Boy had hijacked the IP address that had been assigned to the other computer.
Shortly after adding the router I was able to get online again, this time through the router, after reinstalling the Ethernet Adapter I was able to get online for 4 or 5 hours and did several reboots as I was trying to establish home sharing for Itunes and also printer sharing, I was unsuccessful with both, The only significant event on the last reboot was that Windows installed a bunch of updates. That was three weeks ago.
Since than I have had no luck whatsoever. The system can't find the router nor will it connect directly through the modem either.

Some of the things I have tried are as follows:
swapped cables around
bought a new modem
changed to a different NIC
ran netsh int ip reset
ran netsh winsock reset
ran LSPfix
ran winsockxpfix
pinged 127.0.0.1 (results below)
uninstalled and reinstalled Ethernet Services
tried safe start with network services
tried partial clean boot (probably same as above)
checked all settings suggested in the threads
compaired settings and registry keys to working computer
I'm at my wits end on this any help would be appreciated.
system info:
WinXP SP3 Home Edition running on a Pentium D 3.4GHz Duo Core
Modem: Motorola 2210 DSL-wired connection
Router: Linksys befsr41-wired connection
Via Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter
IP service is DHL running on ppoe protocol
Windows IP Configuration
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : VIOLA
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 11:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter #3
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-16-EC-24-2E-6B
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration IP Address. . . : 169.254.104.7
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
C:\Documents and Settings\Default>ipconfig /release
Windows IP Configuration
 
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 11:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 0.0.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
C:\Documents and Settings\Default>ipconfig /renew
Windows IP Configuration
An error occurred while renewing interface Local Area Connection 11 : unable to contact your DHCP se
rver. Request has timed out.
C:\Documents and Settings\Default>
 
C:\Documents and Settings\Default>ping 127.0.0.1
Pinging 127.0.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Ping statistics for 127.0.0.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
C:\Documents and Settings\Default>
WinSock Diagnostic
WinSock status
info
All base service provider entries are present in the Winsock catalog.
info
The Winsock Service provider chains are valid.
info
Provider entry MSAFD Tcpip [TCP/IP] passed the loopback communication test.
info
Provider entry MSAFD Tcpip [UDP/IP] passed the loopback communication test.
info
Provider entry RSVP UDP Service Provider passed the loopback communication test.
info
Provider entry RSVP TCP Service Provider passed the loopback communication test.
info
Connectivity is valid for all Winsock service providers.
Network Adapter Diagnostic
Network location detection
info
Using home Internet connection
Network adapter identification
info
Network connection: Name=Local Area Connection 9, Device=VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter #3,
MediaType=LAN,
SubMediaType=LAN
info
Ethernet connection selected
Network adapter status
info
Network connection status: Connected
HTTP, HTTPS, FTP Diagnostic
HTTP, HTTPS, FTP connectivity
warn
HTTP: Error 12007 connecting to Microsoft Corporation The server name or address could not be resolved
warn
HTTPS: Error 12007 connecting to Microsoft Corporation The server name or address could not be resolved
warn
FTP (Passive): Error 12007 connecting to ftp.microsoft.com: The server name or address could not be resolved
warn
HTTP: Error 12007 connecting to Sign In The server name or address could not be resolved
warn
HTTPS: Error 12007 connecting to www.passport.net: The server name or address could not be resolved
warn
FTP (Active): Error 12007 connecting to ftp.microsoft.com: The server name or address could not be resolved
error
Could not make an HTTP connection.
error
Could not make an HTTPS connection.
error
Could not make an FTP connection.
 
 
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#32 ·
Well I just tried to send a post but it seems to have gone into the wind.

Ever since I did the XP repair install that computer has getting slower and slower, every time I reboot it gets worse.
I have been on it since the last post trying to run an app and it was doing nothing. The app tab in task manager showed everything running but the preformance tab showed a flatline. The processes tab showed only one app had any activity, that was alg.exe. A web search showes this app is involved in networking if it is infected it may be the cause of my problems. It looks as if I am going to have to run a scan on on this box.

Much tnanks for all the help.
 
#33 ·
knrobe you took the pc to a professional and had a virus removed.
you couldn't get a dhcp ip so you did a repair install.
you haven't had internet so I don't see how you could be infected.
your other machine checks clean right?

Reason I wanted you to do the static entries is now everything is pointing to nic failure. If you had gotten internet with a static then it would not be hardware failure.

But now from what you describe its sounding like hardware failure of some sort.

Of course if it was me I would use a slipstreamed to sp3 xp cd and do a complete wipe the drive and reinstall xp from scratch. If the problems continue it would have to be hardware.
 
#34 ·
Things seem to be going from bad to worse, as I said after the reinstall getting slower and less stable, and it clearly got worse on every reboot. Before that it was running great. Now I can't even get it to boot in safe mode.
At one point it hung on a blue screen with the message; Registry cannot load SystemRoot\System32\cinfig\default Or it's log or alternate.
I don't know going on, but it looks like the guards have left and the inmates are running the asylum.
On the up side, after the drive was cleaned I ran a complete copy to another drive. That is the copy we have been working on, I think it is time to wipe it and start over.

Again thanks for your help and patience.
am going to shut down for the day.
Ken
 
#36 ·
Also maked me wonder how "gone" that virus was. Virus's aren't about distrupting you anymore. Its all about hacker tools and stealing information. Perhaps there were residual remnants left by the virus causing these issues.

Wipe drive/Clean install is the way to go if this is the case.
 
#38 ·
Ken, when you boot to your XP cd and get to where Windows asks if you want to install on the existing partition, delete the partition. In the next step you'll create a new partition in the unallocated space on the drive. If you still have a problem, download and burn Killdisc to clean off the drive and start over. I guarantee you'll get this sorted out.
 
#39 ·
That's the procidure I used, and everything went OK untill the disk formating completed, that's when I got the screen "unable to format drive" I was going to try using the Mfg's utility to format the disk, But now I can't get back onto the computer at all. You'r killdisk idea may be the hot ticket, I'll explore that whenI get back on the project tomarrow.
Thanks
Ken
 
#41 ·
:4-clap: Glad you got it up and running! I thought we'd be on page 3 by now :laugh:. IMO, I'd be leaning towards something virus related as the cause, but that's just a guess. Make sure you uninstall Java through Control Panel and download the latest version, then add some good anti-virus software.
 
#42 · (Edited)
For what it's worth, I had the exact same problem, which started once I did a clean install of Windows 7 Home Premium on a hard drive that previously ran XP (with no problems, network or otherwise). I tried most of the same fixes suggested on this thread, to no avail - even re-installing the OS didn't work. Then I re-installed the OS on a new hard drive and poof, the problem vanished. I can only surmise that there was something on the old hard drive that Windows 7 didn't like.
 
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