Firewall problem

Hey guys. I have a Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop running Vista Home Premium. I recently performed a system restore due to some problems that arose after installing the SP1 update. It's not my laptop so I'm not sure if my current issue was present before the SP1 update, but anyway, here it is. I have the Windows Security Alert icon hilighted red in the task bar, telling me that the firewall is not turned on. When I try to turn it on from there it tells me "Security centre can't turn on windows firewall" and gives me the option to turn it on manually. When I click that, it takes me to the Firewall options window, and says that the firewall service is not running, and that firewall is not using the recommended settings. If I click on update settings nothing happens. I tried manually starting the firewall service through the administrative tools menu, but it gives me "Error 998 Invalid access to memory location". Any ideas? Thanks.

 

Have you tried going to start menu, run, typing in "services.msc" then scrolling down to where it says windows firewall, right clicking it, then going down to properties to see if it is set to automatic under startup type. Also check under the log on tab and look under hardware profie and make sure it is enabled. Also look at the status column, it should say "started" if it is actually running.

If that does not work, try going to microsoft's website, http://support.microsoft.com/, and enter in "Error 998 Invalid access to memory location" and/or "Security centre can't turn on windows firewall" for some self-help. And if that does not work google it.

 

Yeah checked services.msc, I just went through the administrative tools in the control panel to get there. It is enabled, it is set to automatic startup, but it isn't started for some reason. When I try to start it from there is when I get the 'Error 998...' message.

 

Is there any other 3rd party firewall installed? That could get you that message about the Windows Firewall.

 

Windows firewall can conflict with other firewalls thats why hrlow2 asked you is there a third party firewall, so basically if you have another FW running alongside WFW you will have to disable one of them !

The other option is to check for, and correct, corrupt system files, use the System File Checker (SFC). From an elevated command prompt, type into start cmd then right click and select " run as administrator " then type into cmd
sfc /scannow
placing a space betweeen sfc and /

This operation will scan for any/all corrupted system files within your PC

Good Luck Rusty !

 

Alright I've got SFC running right now. In the mean time, how would I be able to identify a second firewall running?

 

Cancel last... Once SFC finished running it told me that there were some files it couldn't fix, however, after a restart I checked Windows Firewall through services.msc and it was started. I turned it on and everything is good now. Thanks for the help guys!

 

Hi there jools1976 what i suggest you do now click on this link http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407 and then follow all the instructions, then post the logs asked for into the malware forum, after you do that please be patient, as the malware fighters do get busy, but will get round to sorting you out, also if there is anything that dosen't work when following the instructions, don't worry just keep going, but make sure you follow the instructions properly i:e read them very carefully, i think if you do this then you can be sure that what it was that caused your problems in the first place won't happen again !

Better to be safe than sorry !

Good Luck Rusty !