Connection status unknown the dependency service or group failed to start

Hi fellow computer junkies. I can see a multitude of difficulties have been overcome by your group effort. I hope you've got another fix up your sleeves.

My laptop is 3 years old.
HP COMPAQ C700 Notebook PC
Vista Home Premium purchased with
Intel Pentium Dual CPU T2370 @1.73Ghz
2.00 GB RAM
32 bit OS
My internet connection is normally T-Mobile USB Internet card.
Also connect WiFi with built in card.

Local Disk C NTFS 221 GB Free 79.8 GB
Presario_RP Disk D 11.5 GB Free 2.03 GB
Pc tools spyware doctor w/Antivirus
Malwarebytes

The first indication of a problem began with announcement that new hardware had been found. Knowing that I had installed nothing, I blocked the new hardware attempt to connect.

Next day 4/11/11 I found I could not reach the internet using T-mobile. Among other things Windows Defender and Firewall were not operating. I got a message "Failed to connect to a windows service. Windows could not connect to System Event Notification Service.This problem prevents limited users from logon on to the system. As an administrator user, you can review the system Event Log for details about why the service didn't respond." Of course upon investigating I found I could not open Event Notification log. Normally at a time like this I would reach for System Restore. But, I was informed no restore points were available.With help from Brother-in-law Larry and using desktop with the T-mobile connection I was able to get online to find the fix to the problem. I started in Safe Mode, Clicked start. search cmd, right click, ran as administrator, typed "netsh winsock reset" enter and restarted. Also ran sfc /scannow. That got rid of that problem. Was then able to see Event Notification log. But now new error "Connection status unknown The dependency group failed to start". I right clicked on that message, got option to Diagnose and Repair. Got message Network Diagnostics cannot run because Diagnostics Policy service is not running. Clicked to open Service Control Manager. SCM is in Management Console. This opened Local Services which shows 4 full pages of application, descriptions , status, startup type and log on as. I found Diagnostic Policy Service Properties, set to startup automatic but service status is stopped. I clicked start, result was Error 5: Access is denied. Many other items are in same state. When start attempted on some other applications Error 5 was received also. Some applications gave Error 1068 "The dependency service or group failed to start.

I don't know if this is important but, After being allowed to view Event Notification Log I looked at Security log which had 3/3/10 as earliest date, that was 3 days ago. Today the earliest date is 3/19/10. I noticed several entries throughout from oldest to newest dates, the entries were "Special Logon" with Special Privileges assigned to new logon. On the oldest one 3/3/10 it seemed to be given privileges which included among others I can't remember, assign Primary token privilege, Security Privilege, Audit Privilege, take ownership privilege, TCB privilege, load driver privilege, backup privilege, restore privilege, debug privilege, system environment privilege, and Impersonate Privilege.

That's it for now, 'bout all I know. Send help please.

Bill Ellison 48