This computer had lots of strange problems (including no internet connection)…

• When starting XP, a window would popup, saying: “windows cannot find ‘ (null)’ make sure you typed the name correctly and then try again”
• ipconfig returns: “an internal error occurred: the request is not supported. Please contact Microsoft product support service for further help”
• I notice the ICS service is stopped… I try to manually start it, and I it doesn’t start… the event log shows: “error 2001: the specified driver is invalid”.
• The event viewer sometimes (maybe every few days) shows a disk error… device harddisk0 has a bad block.

A careful disk check shows no real bad blocks, so it could be a red herring.

I try to fix the networking with the usual:

• netsh int ip reset reset.log
• netsh winsock reset catalog

After some research, I take a look at c:windowssystem32driverstcpip.sys … and I see its missing!

The solution ends up being quite simple:

sfc /scannow

(followed by a whole swag of windows updates).

A few weeks later, I’m told that there are still a few problems with the PC (the USB printer won’t work)… I fix it by putting it on another PC, and setting up network printing.

A week later, I’m told the PC will not recognise USB thumbdrives anymore…

Its probably a windows registry problem, and I can only see one solution: A clean install of windows XP 🙁