No internet after failed xp sp2

I've looked and looked and haven't found that anyone else has had this problem! Usually I can. Guess I'm unique this time. I put it here in software because all was well until I started to install sp2 on my xp. It left it unbootable and after jumping thru all kinds of hoops--I should have written down everything I did, but I'm not even sure how I finally got back (was also restoring another system at the same time). Restored it to sp1; tried putting sp2 again, but it said it was unstable and should be removed, so I did, then I put it back and tried it again in spite of the warning, seemed ok except for the internet thing. At this moment it is back to sp1, after several repair installs, with both.

Anyway, this is a AMD 900 Athlon with 512M RAM, Asus A7V board, various hard drives--the one xp is on is 160G, the one I'm booted to now is 13G, win98se. Does it really matter? The point is that while I can dial out and connect, pages do not load, or maybe one or two, then no more, but I can access aol, send email, anything but go on www, or newsgroups.

One weird thing I was seeing was lots of disk thrashing, so I looked and it was taskmgr.exe, so I killed that--THAT is when I can load a page or three before it quits again. What's up with that? Is task manager a necessary component of windows?

Oh, yes, I tried both the ie fix and winsock fix, neither of which made any difference. It's not hardware, as I am online now on the same machine. I have tried to be brief in other forums, only to have suggestions made that I long ago tried, so I hope I've covered all bases this time, and I do hope you guys are "geekier" than those on the tech support guys site, as they have apparently given up after a few suggestions, most of which I'd already done.

Thanks for reading--this is a VERY busy site and I think it would take me weeks to search thru it all! ;-)

 

Try a run>sfc /scannow
Insert the xp disk.

 

So, there IS still a system file checker! Why, oh why did they have to hide it?! I did try to find it before. Well, it did its thing, I guess and did not complain about any needing replacing. Still pretty much the same thing, except now I'm actually connected under the xp--don't know if it will hold long enough to post this, tho.

Well, it didn't--I'm back to 98 to actually post this, tho I wrote most of it early this AM. I was mistaken on what process I killed; it was "taskgmr.exe"! A worm they say is dropped my MYTOB.something-or-other. I followed the directions I found to remove it, and I do have Major Attitude's how-to remove spyware, trojans, and viruses printed out, BUT I cannot follow his directions precisely since I cannot connect to the internet to do any scans, or retreive updates for the programs listed! This would seem to be a logical next step, since the system files seem to be OK.

Should I go ahead with the scans anyway?

I still don't quite understand why spyware would want to keep one OFF the internet. ??? If that's indeed what's happening . . . guess I'm gonna have to wipe the whole thing and start over. I need new equipment anyway.

Thanks.

 

Welcome to MajorGeeks.

Silly question but have you set up Windows SP2 firewall correctly?

Do pages load if you temporarily shut it down?

 

Thank you.

You're right. Hmmmm, I thought sp2's firewall was a default. And, no, while it was still sp2 they did not load when I disabled it. I've also disabled it now that it's back to sp1--with or without it's the same difference . . . <sigh> this is such a silly problem! I've (with lotsa help) restored partition tables instead of formatting and starting all over, and here it looks like that's just what I'm gonna end up doing and this problem should be so much tinier!

 

I hope this does not double post! A cat jumped onto my mouse hand and what I'd written disappeared!

Just wanted to thank Insomniac and Kadavill for trying to help, and I at least learned where system file checker is hiding! Somehow I kinda knew no matter HOW geeky you guys are, I wasn't going to find a fix. <g> Oh, well <sigh>

 

If you have any spyware/virus on the computer when you install sp2 it will not go on correctly. It may be simpler for you to move any data that you need onto another disk.

Then do a clean reinstall of xp after which load sp2.
You can also follow these directions to make a slipstreamed xp sp2 install disk.
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp