I've encountered the following problem: I cannot lease an IP Adress from any DHCP server. Tried with multiple network adapters and multiple DHCP servers - all of which haven't worked. I don't know what might have caused this problem to arise - I use an USB modem for connecting to the internet at home, and it's of a type that does the DHCPing itself. But when I try to connect to a router or in one attempt even through a USB ethernet adapter / ADSL modem combo (in effect a USB modem), it fails to lease an IP adress. Windows displays that nice "acquiring network address" (or whatever it's called in the English version of XP, I use Dutch) message. Ipconfig shows, as expected, that no IP had been assigned. The strange thing: It has worked before on this Windows installation, so it's not at all hardware-related. But after some weeks, it didn't work all of a sudden. I'm about to get a new ADSL connection - one which I'll connect to through a router - back home, and I already know I won't be able to connect. I must've messed something up - does anybody have a clue what that could be? BTW: It's got nothing to do with the network connection. The lights on both the adapter and router(s) show perfect 100mbps working connection. It hangs at DHCP leasing, so it's very, very probably that the Windows DHCP client is fried. Thanks in advance, even just for reading my story ^-^. NEW INFO: The DHCP Client Service is broken. It says the service is stopped, and upon trying to start it, gives an error message (translated!): Error 1068; Dependent service cannot be started... At least I got something now *twinkle in eyes*. I'm thinking of re-unpacking svchost.exe from the SP2 CAB or something. We'll see, perhaps microsoft.com has something to say about this problem.

The error should tell you which dependency it is. Also, pull up the DHCP Client Properties, and there's a Dependencies tab. Look what your dependencies are for it. I've seen sometimes uninstalling Norton Antivirus doesn't remove the entry listing it as a dependency for DHCP, and therefore the system refuses to start DHCP because it thinks it needs Norton. "President Bush is doing everything he can to lower gas prices, including...making the oil companies so rich that maybe they'll get sick of money."

*checks* The error message didn't tell me what service caused the error. Checked the System Logs, and they tell me "The DHCP-Client Service couldn't be started because it's dependent of the NetBios over Tcpip-service, which can't be started due to the following error: Can't start the service because it is disabled of because it doesn't have any enabled devices connected to it." *checks that service* *doesn't see that service in the list* *does see a service called "TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper"* This last service can't be started either - exact same error. So my NetBios over TCP/IP is broken. I know you're not *supposed* to see that service - this laptop functions fine without it... I'm now going to deinstall and reinstall XPSP2 - that should replace and/or restore most core system files. If it doesn't work - I Be Bahk.

Well, it didn't work (I mean reinstalling SP2). It's starting to seem as if a completely new install of windows XP is the only solution... Please help *desperate* :P

Your stuff is JACKED. I would rebuild your entire TCP/IP stack first. http://www.petri.co.il/reinstall_tcp_ip_on_windows_xp.htm

I had this same problem and just fixed it. It was the old version of Norton wasn't totally removed and the DHCP Client refused to start without the Norton service. It's not hard to repair but a pain to figure out: -Run 'regedit' and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Dhcp -Edit the entry 'DependOnService' -Remove the line that contains 'SYMTDI' or whatever. It will likely be the last one. -Reboot This is on a Windows XP SP2 machine. Hope this helps!

Nope, this didn't solve my problem - Norton removed itself perfectly, apparently. As said, the error says it's the "NetBIOS over Tcpip" service that can't start. In the registry, I checked and saw that the "NetBT" service is dependent of the "TcpIp" service, which on its turn is dependent of "Ipsec", which has no dependencies as it's not a service but a driver, apparently. Can anybody tell me where the IPSEC drive is located? I could expand it fresh from the Windows XP CD, that might do me good.