Vista-internet problems (among others)

Dell XPS M1330 laptop running Vista Home Premium. Here's some background: this dude installed McAfee and then noticed that the PC had slowed down a bit but wasn't too worried about. A while after that, he installed Windows Updates 'cuz his computer "expert" neighbor said it would help speed up the PC. I have nothing against installing updates as long as the installs are performed properly. Whilst updating, the laptop popped up a message about the battery being low and needing to be charged/plugged in, so the dude just held in the power button until the PC shut off (the computer "expert" neighbor said this would be OK and that the updates would pick up where they left off). Bad idea. The PC will no longer connect to the internet, does not even recognize wireless or wired networks, IPCONFIG results in a list of 18 tunneled adapters all with Media Disconnected status, /release and /renew error out, the event log service is set to start automatically but when I try to check it I get "Event log service is unavailable" and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Since Vista doesn't have a repair install option from the CD/DVD like XP does, I'm a bit lost here..... help??? :cry
Thanks!

[dlb]

(Oh yeah- I have already uninstalled McAfee and the PC is running a bit faster but that's it... removing it made no difference... oh, and there's no restore points :banghead I think the "PC expert" neighbor told the dude to turn it off 'cuz "it takes up space and slows down the PC and viruses hide in there")

 

Try this

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233/en-us

and this

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928152

Note my connection is working well today.