Internet only when in Safe Mode With Networking

Factual Questions
1

My FIL dropped off his computer for me to fix–i.e., my reputation is on the line (nevermind that this reputation is akin to Mickey’s “I killed seven in one day”). I have most of the story of what happened, but can’t vouch for everything (no one ever admits to installing or deleting something). Anyway…

The machine is a Dell Dimension 2400, running Windows XP SP2 home, with onboard Ethernet. A year ago it used to have AOL dialup on it, then they moved. I uninstalled AOL, connected to the Internet from my house (cable modem) with no problem, ran all updates, etc. All was well.

When they moved, they got Comcast broadband, and according to him, it worked fine for about two or three weeks. Then he went on vacation, and upon his return, he had no connection. After giving up on their tech support, he tried getting Verizon dialup (no DSL in his area), but never got it to work. I had him drop it off here.

I can get to the Internet only when I restart in “Safe Mode With Networking,” and can ping any site or my router. But when I start normally, I can’t get out of the machine. I can successfully ping 127.0.0.1 and localhost, but not the router or any Internet address. Running ipconfig shows an IP address, and I can see that same address when logging into the router’s DHCP screen from a different computer. Opening the Network Control Panel shows no problems, and repairing the connection did diddlysquat. I ran msconfig and unchecked everything under startup, and ran clean/fresh versions (downloaded to a USB key from my machine) of AVG and Spybot, but found nothing. I unloaded everything network-related program using control panel, and again, nothing. Lastly, I tried uninstalling the network device from Device Manager, and restarting to let the drivers reload–nadda!

So… so I’m out of ideas. I’d really rather not have to reinstall Windows, given that he has files everywhere and backing up will be problematic. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Rhythm

2

Hard to give very specific advice here, but I guess there is some program running that is blocking the connection for some reason. I can’t think of any other way to explain why it would work in safe mode and not in normal mode.

So, what I would do is start it up in safe mode and write down/screenshot the list of all processes you can see in the task manager (sort by name). Then boot up in normal mode and compare the process lists. Methodically kill processes that didn’t exist in safe mode and whose purpose you cannot figure out (by googling or whatever). Hopefully you’ll manage to find some program that is blocking the connection.

3

Does it by any chance have Norton Internet Security on it?

Sounds like what happened to one of my clients. If it’s on there, remove that POS and install Zone Alarm.

If Norton Internet Security’s subscription expires, it won’t let you access the internet until you pay for it and input the new code for another year.

4

Assuming you have access to another machine download and find and run a program called Symnrt. Its nortons force removal program. I dont even bother going through uninstalls anymore, this is easier. You can download it from symantec directly.

5

It doesn’t have a static IP address by any chance? Did you turn off all firewalls?

6

:eek: That’s crappy!

7

You put the connection in, you put the connection out, you put the …

Ok, thanks for the help. No Symantic products on here that I could find, but after comparing Safe v. normal task managers, I found smc.exe, which a quick Google search led me to Sygate Secure Enterprise. I ended the process and pulled that off the machine, and lo, things worked out!!!

For a while.

After making sure both FF and IE worked, I went to Windows Update, and selected all 43 critical items, and sent them downloading away. Now? Now when I boot the box up, it takes a loooonnnng time, and before all is said and done I get a “Generic Host Process for Win32 Services has enocountrd a problem and needs to close. We are sorry (!) for the inconvenience.” After that the system–the whole system–pretty much locks up. Grrrrrr…

8

If that’s true, I’d say it’s more than crappy, it’s criminal. I have no love for Norton anymore, but I didn’t think they had stooped to producing actual malware.

9

I don’t know what to tell you now … Last Known Good doesn’t work, I presume?

At this point it’s not easy to track down what’s causing the problem. Anything in the Event Viewer?

10

If you can still get in to safe mode you should be able to do a system restore to before the installation of the updates. Then you could install them one by one.

11

I wonder if something has broken the Layered Service Provider.

You could try LSP-Fix - a free program to repair damaged Winsock 2 stacks