Startup after socket error

[Sam]

I lost network connections on my windows 2000 pro machine, so I rebooted.
When it came back up, I got an error,

"Unable to open Sockets" or something like that.

So I figured my TCP/IP was borked. I removed TCP/IP and rebooted. Now, it
hangs on "logging on to network" and "applying settings" and "windows
starting up" for about 15 minutes a piece. All of these are messages that
come after the GUI is loaded. So they are in little boxes with a blue
background.

It once got to a log in screen, but it wouldn't go past that. Most of the
time it doesn't get that far. What can I do to get Windows to boot?

Thanks,

Sam

 

[Sam]

I have more info. I read further down and found out about uninstalling
hotfix number 835732. I was able to get into safe mode and get that off. I
had just installed Mirc, and when I was uninstalling the hotfix, it said
that Mirc was dependent on it, but would I like to un-install anyway. I
said, yes please.

After getting that hot fix off, I was able to boot, slowly, but at least I'm
on now. When I try to remove Mirc, it gives me a winsock error

11003 Non-recoverable errors: FORMERR, REFUSED, NOTIMP.

It give the same error when I try and run the program. Any help would be
greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Sam