Vista - Error 5: Access is denied (when starting services)

Recently, I started have trouble with my Internet-related system services. I'm able to connect to the Internet fine, but my Internet connection icon in the system tray has a big red X. When I hover over the icon, I see the following notice:

"Connection status: unknown

The dependency service or group failed to start."

When I go into Services, I see that a bunch of the Internet-related services have not been started, even though some of them are set to Automatic. For instance, the DHCP Client service is not running, but it is set to Automatic. The same holds true for the Diagnostic Policy Service listed below the DHCP Client service. If I try to start either of these service, I receive the following notice:

"Windows could not start the DHCP Client (or DPS) service on Local Computer.

Error 5: Access is denied."

My user account has administrative rights. I've search around the Internet for a resolution to this issue. A lot of people seem to have encountered this situation, but I haven't found anyone who has been able to resolve the problem. Hopefully, someone in this forum can help.

Thanks!

Hi there it sounds as though you may have something nasty lurking from within and you may need to run some malware programs and anti spyware, but first of all if you go to the site that i have shown here Black Viper's Web Site it shows you a full list of all services that you have rtunning in what ever OS you have, it lists from default right through to the tweaked versions, it also tells you how to stop and restart your services if your having problems, so give it a go failing that pop back to the forums and see if there's any other solutions to help you. But i would also like to point out that if BV's site does help after doing everything and resetting your services i would still run some malware and anti spyware programs aswell to see if your infected in any way. Good Luck mblack

Thanks for your help mblack.

I ran some of my anti-spyware programs a few days ago and found one critter that didn't look too good. Some kind of bot, which was successfully removed. I haven't had spyware lodge itself in my computer for years, so it kind of surprised me. Perhaps this caused the problem.

I tried the default Vista SP2 services registry patch on Black Viper's site to no avail. I didn't see any information on how restart services when having problems similar to mine, but there is a lot of information on the site and I could have very well missed this. I posted the same question in BV's forum. Hopefully, someone there will be able to point me in the right direction.

do u have administrative rights on your computer, are u able to turn of UAC?

Yes, I have administrative rights and am able to turn off UAC. I also tried starting the services when UAC was turned off, but no luck.

Try restoring default permission.

Keep us informed

Used the Microsoft FixIt to restore permissions and restarted my computer. Still no go.

Try this link

Your problem addressed there..

For some reason, the link brings me back to this thread.

The link now leads me to a download page for HijackThis. I'm wondering if you are recommending I run this program on my computer or if my issue is addressed somewhere in the comments.