Cannot acquire IP address

[Guest]

My wife's laptop running Win XP, after several months of correct operation,
suddenly lost network connection with a "Cannot acquire IP address" error
message. Five other computers on the network (Win XP and Linux) continue to
connect just fine; the router (D-Link 624 via cable modem) reports no
problems.

I manually set the IP address to a static address, and Win XP reports it is
connected (and teh router agrees) - but no web or email transfers occur.

I also replaced the default TCP/IP stack with the IP6 stack, and Win XP
again reports it is connected (and the router agrees) - but no web or email
transfers occur.

I deleted the Winsock and Winsock2 keys in the registry and rebooted; no
change.

Any ideas other than wiping the hard drive and starting over?

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

[James B]

Have you tried any of the Winsock fix tools? I've seen certain adware
removal break winsock. There's several fixes out there, Google away...

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Network-Tweak/WinSockFix.shtml