Solved i believe my winsock may be corrupt

[vv211]

Thank you in advance for any help, if there's more info you need to know i would be happy to supply it
Some back-story if you're interested is posted below the issue

so here's the problem,

1. After manually removing some entries from my winsock catalog I can't connect to the internet via windows (luckily I have Ubuntu installed alongside windows, and that's how i'm posting this)
2. "netsh winsock reset" and "netsh int ip reset" both return "Initialization Function InitHelperDll in NSHHTTP.DLL failed to start error code 11003" and it doesn't help anything
3. system restore to a point prior to all this (or after for that matter) returns "An unspecified error occurred during system restore 0x80070005" stating that I have antivirus running and i should stop it, but i don't have any antivirus running
4. I NEED HELP

I was thinking maybe i could download a new winsock catalog? not sure if that's how it works

If I absolutely need to, I have an external hard drive I could back up all my data to and just re-install windows, however I would really rather not

a little back story:
My parents installed Covenant Eyes on my laptop, which is a program that monitors all internet traffic on a pc and reports it back to a central server so it can be checked from any other pc after you've logged in. After they installed it, iTunes wouldn't load the store, it was just a blank white screen. I tried using the built-in updater for Covenant Eyes but it told me that I had the most recent version installed, I read on an Apple forum that certain winsock providers (including those from Covenant Eyes) can interfere with iTunes' ability to connect to the store. So i used the program "autoruns" to delete all instances of covenant eyes from the list of winsock providers (dumb idea, i know). That doesn't go over too well: covenant eyes realizes parts of it were removed so it tries to restart my pc after 30 seconds. I got an uninstall code from online and finally am able to stop the covenant eyes process so i can uninstall it and then i reinstall it, talk to a covenant eyes support guy who says i need to install the new version for it to work with itunes (their automatic upgrade feature is currently down i found out). FINALLY, everything is working fine. Then i start uTorrent and it keeps freezing. after reading around on the forums for a while, i learn that if someone unsuccessfully tries to remove covenant eyes, it can mess up uTorrent. Now, the first time i got an uninstall code (which changes every day), my parents gave me all sorts of a hassle about it (it emails all your "accountability partners" when you get an uninstall code), so i didn't want to have to go through that again, cause they would probably think i was just trying to find a way around covenant eyes and be annoying about it.

So I use the revo uninstaller program to delete all instances of covenant eyes files from the computer and registry, and then go into the winsock providers and delete all covenant eyes entries in that, and then reset my netsh winsock catalog with command prompt, figuring i would just do a clean install afterwards and uTorrent would work again. i restart my pc, and i have no internet. my wireless card isn't even recognizing that there's an access point in reach. ok, maybe after i reinstall covenant eyes it will work. nope. and it still tries to auto restart my computer after 30 seconds of the service starting


System Info:
HP Pavilion dv6t-6100 CTO Quad Edition Entertainment Notebook PC
Window 7 Home Premium x64
8GB ddr3 RAM
Intel i7 Quad Core 2630QM 2.0Ghz
750GB Seagate Momentus 7200rpm
ATI Radeon HD 6770M
Intel Wifi Link 1000 bgn

 

[marsmimar]

Hello vv211 and welcome to Seven Forums.

First thing I'd do is run a full malware scan with my antivirus/antispyware of choice. Then I'd follow up with a couple of free on-demand scanners like Malwarebytes, Hitman Pro, Superantispyware, HouseCall, etc.

Sounds like you have more than just a winsock issue if system restore doesn't work and you're getting all those other error codes when trying to reset the winsock protocol. Ordinarily I wouldn't recommend messing around with the registry but it sounds like there may be some deeply embedded remants of Covenant Eyes lurking about. If you are comfortable using regedit you could search for Covenant Eyes and delete all references to it. (You could also try a free utility called CCleaner. Click the Registry tab then scan for and fix issues related to Covenant Eyes. See third screenshot.)

CCleaner - Screenshots

After removing any remnants I'd run a System File Checker scan from an elevated command prompt (option two, this tutorial.) If any problems are found run the scan 3 times rebooting in between each scan.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

If this doesn't fix the issues you could try a Repair Install. Read all the warnings very carefully.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

If you're still having issues you might have no choice but to do a clean install. Please post back if any of the above helps or not.

 

[vv211]

I did a full system scan with Norton Bootable Recovery and that found nothing. A few days ago I had done a full system scan with McAfee and that found nothing. System File Checker returned "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations". I'm about to run CCleaner.

 

[vv211]

ccleaner didnt find anything related to covenant eyes. do i need a physical disk to do the repair install?

 

[marsmimar]

Yes, you'll need an install disk to run a repair install. If install media didn't come with your machine from the manufacturer, you can download a legitimate copy of Windows 7 from Digital River (an official Microsoft distribution partner.) It will be an .iso file that you can save on your desktop and then burn it to a DVD. You'll most likely have to reactive using the Product Key on your computer. It's a large download (about 2.5GB) so it will take a while.

Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life

 

[vv211]

Some more info, dunno if it'll help anything but hey, maybe it will.

When I start my computer in normal mode, it takes about 5 min to boot, it will show the welcome screen after i type my password for a minute or two and then the screen will be black for a minute or two before loading my desktop and the task bar. When i do get it started up, a notification bubble pops up that says "Windows could not connect to the System Event Notification Service. This problem prevents standard users from logging on to the system. As an administrative user, you can review the system event log for details about why the service didn't respond." Of course, when i try to do that, it says that the system event viewer or whatever isn't running.

Why i use the troubleshooting option on my connection icon on the taskbar, it detects, but doesn't fix, the following: Windows wireless service is not running on this computer
When i try and start the Wireless PAN DHCP Server service manually i get the error code 1067

In the services window, i see:
DHCP Client startING (note: network storage interface service is started, which dhcp client depends on)
System Notification Service startING (note: COM+ event system is started, which system notification service depends on)
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper startING

i attached a screen capture of my running winsock providers. maybe i'm missing one or something

 

[marsmimar]

Do you actually use Bonjour? Reason I ask is I had a winsock problem in Nov 2010.

http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/124380-resetting-winsock-protocol.html#post1072382

One of the suggestions (post # 8) was that a service such as Bonjour was trying to connect to the internet and caused a time out. Just in case Bonjour or some other service is interfering you might consider troubleshooting with a Clean Boot (aka clean startup.)

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html

 

[vv211]

clean startup didn't help. i'm either gonna have to do a repair install or a clean install of windows i think

 

[vv211]

I purchased Windows 7 Home Premium with my laptop, and got a Windows 7 Professional ISO from a friend. Will I be able to use that with the Windows 7 Home Premium key that I got, or will I need to download the Windows 7 Home Premium ISO?

 

[marsmimar]

I purchased Windows 7 Home Premium with my laptop, and got a Windows 7 Professional ISO from a friend. Will I be able to use that with the Windows 7 Home Premium key that I got, or will I need to download the Windows 7 Home Premium ISO?

The product key is attached to a specific version of Windows 7. In your case that would be Home Premium. If reactivation is necessary the Home Premium key wouldn't work with Windows 7 Professional. Download the Home Premium ISO from Digital River. Make sure you select the correct bit-ness (x86 or x64).

 

[vv211]

Turns out i didn't even need an ISO there was a system image i guess on the recovery partition. I did a minimized image recovery through HP Recovery Manager. So Windows was re-loaded and i'm no longer having the issue, however i never did get to the root of my problem which i was really hoping to do. i don't really like leaving things like this unsolved.

 

[marsmimar]

Glad to hear things are working again.

But yet another unsolved computer mystery.

 

[vv211]

would you lock this thread please? I don't think it's quite appropriate to mark it as solved.

 

[vv211]

It's been a long time coming, but I think I've figured this out:
The entries in winsock are labeled like so:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\services\WinSock2\Parameters\Protocol_Catalog9\Catalog_Entries\000000000008]

When Covenant Eyes was installed, it added its winsock values to the beginning of all the entries, offsetting the number at the end of the name of the original keys by 10. Of course, when I manually removed Covenant Eyes, those numbers weren't restored to their original values, and I believe that's what was causing all of the issues.

In my most recent experiment with Covenant Eyes, I made backups of every file and registry key I was deleting. I then installed windows 7 x64 onto a virtual machine, and made a backup of the virtual machine's vanilla winsock registry keys. I transferred the backup to my host machine, and used that to restore my host machine's winsock catalog.

I compared the winsock with the CE entries simply removed to the vanilla winsock, and the only difference between the two was the offset by 10.

I've attached exports of the two winsocks for whoever may be interested

 

[johnhmiller]

Thank You!!!

Thank You! Thank You so much! I had just the same problem and truth to tell I got really desperate! I was about to reinstall my Windows but I was lucky to come across this thread! I simply replaced all those corrupted winlsock registry entries with the ones from my other PC and it worked! I You're the man! Your vivid curiosity and wit helped me so much! Thanks again!

 

[lokkust]

Adware Cleaner and ccleaner both worked for me it will fix your internet. I don't know how or why

 

[Havner]

Thank you for your registry analysis. I'm another one you helped with this particular problem