Windows 7 Limited Access Only When Connecting to my Phone

[scoostraw]

Hello,

I connect to the internet by tethering my android phone to my netbook (Toshiba NB505 running Windows 7 Starter). This has worked well for a very long time.

The other day I went to play my morning crossword and received an error stating that xw_control.xml could not be found. I googled and discovered that this file may be flash related. I knew that my flash was downlevel so I downloaded the latest flash.

After that I could no longer connect to my phone. When I open the network and sharing center it is spinning its wheels on "Identifying".

I tried shutting down, did a battery pull on the phone, and did a system restore to a date prior to these events. No help. I also tried to connect to a public wifi network with the same limited access.

I really need some guideance please. Thank you!

 

[Josephur]

Now the important question is how did your DHCP client get set to disabled, it doesn't just happen on its own... I would still run a full scan with your Antivirus and Malwarebytes

 

[scoostraw]

That was going to be my very next question - how in the world would something like that get changed. I am ashamed to admit that my antivirus is not current... How do I run malwarebytes?

 

[Josephur]

It's fairly simple... Download (www.malwarebytes.org), install and do a full scan.

 

[scoostraw]

Malwarebytes found 3 items. I removed them and rebooted.

When in the process of troubleshooting this, I disabled my firewall. I received an error message when I did so, but apparently it did turn it off. Now when I click on "Use recommended settings" I receive "Windows firewall can't change some of your settings. Error code 0x8007042c."

Any ideas on this...??

 

[scoostraw]

Google is my friend. I resolved this. My "base filtering engine" was also disabled. Enabled that and my firewall seems ok now..

 

[scoostraw]

One last thing. Josephur and patcooke - lunch is on me. Name your poison.

Really appreciated the help guys.

 

[Josephur]

You may want to run the Microsoft Fix It tool located here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2530126
Just incase there are other issues with the Firewall that aren't apparent, it may find and resolve them automatically.

And you're welcome

 

[scoostraw]

Thanks. I just ran this. It didn't say it found and/or changed anything, but I rebooted after it finished. I'm guessing that's all there is to it?

 

[Josephur]

Correct, that is all there is to it! Hope your system is running better

 

[scoostraw]

I just discovered that I have no sound. "This computer cannot play audio because the Windows Audio Service is not enabled. Would you like to enable Windows Audio Service?". When I click YES I get "No audio devices are installed."

 

[Josephur]

Did you go to services and set Windows Audio Service to Automatic and start it? Man something did a number on your system...

 

[scoostraw]

Windows Audio was enabled, but Windows Audio Endpoint Builder was not. I enabled that and my sound is back.

Yes I'd really like to know what exactly got into my system...