Need help! DHCP Client Service will not start automatically

[whatisG]

Please someone help. I have 2 WinXP machines. Both were recently infected with a virus. Since the virus removal both machines boot up fine with no problems. However the DHCP client service will not start automatically on both machines even though they are both set to start automatically in services. All dependencies are starting. I've tried the winsock repair via dos command, application and registry and each time I restart the computers, the DHCP client still does not start automatically. I have to start it manually after the restart and it works fine after that. I have to fix these machines for clients and can't expect them to start this service each time they restart their computer. I really need help fixing this. Someone please help! Thanks in advance!

 

[LookinAround]

Assuming the machines are malware free now, you're probably best to try a repair install (after you first create a backup image clone of the drive)

 

[whatisG]

Thanks for the reply. I've gotten that suggestion a couple times and was hoping to avoid a repair or reinstall as I'm limited on time to get these machines back to the clients. They may be what I'll end up having to do after all. Hopefully someone will know a magic trick I can try before I have to! Thanks!

 

[LookinAround]

In the long run, the repair might still turn out to be quicker (and simpler) then trying to keep tweaking things one by one to try and figure out what's broken... Plus i don't thin the repair operation itself takes alot of time. The imaging might take awhile but is just calendar time vs. your work time (i.e. kick it off and let it run overnight)

Note: Repair installs will also reset all XP options back to default so you might need to set some things back afterward (e.g. turn file sharing back on, etc)

G'luck!

 

[whatisG]

That makes sense. Good advice! I'll roll with it and see how it goes. Thanks a bunch!

 

[whatisG]

The problem turned out to be a corrupted afd.sys file. Replace the afd.sys file and then run the tcp/ip and winsock fix. Restart the computer and that should do it! Thanks!

 

[Callumj6]

If you haven't done that, you could give TDSSKiller a try. It helped me with a similar problem

support.kaspersky.com/downloads/utils/tdsskiller.zip

 

[LookinAround]

The problem turned out to be a corrupted afd.sys file. Replace the afd.sys file and then run the tcp/ip and winsock fix. Restart the computer and that should do it! Thanks!

Good job! :grinthumb Thanks for the update...

How did you happen to catch it? just curious....