This will be the only post on my blog about Windows Vista; I promise…!

As much as I can’t stand using any Windows machine anymore; sometimes being the only Technical person in an office can mean you need to do some Support work. My colleague had a problem with her computer (Windows Vista, HP Pavilion dv6700) where after a meeting her internet connection dropped out, she had the trusty “blue screen of death” and then was unable to reconnect to the internet when back in the office.

Have you ever tried navigating an Operating System in Japanese when you can’t read Japanese?! It really doesn’t matter how familiar you are with the positioning of the icons and tools in Windows Vista, it’s an absolute nightmare.

I’d tried all the usual things I would normally try, but nothing seemed to work. Checked all the automatic DHCP settings in Windows, tried manually removing and updating the Windows wireless drivers, flashed the BIOS; nothing was working.

Somehow, I stumbled across an error somewhere in the Network Sharing and Internet connections tool, the error had some Japanese and then in English said:

Component GUID:{7071ECA3-663B-4BC1-A1FA-B97F3B917C55}
Component file: [C:\Windows\system32\connect.dll]
Error: (0x8007277B) .

Additional Info:
Failed to detect Internet connectivity

A bit vague, I thought, but that little message at the bottom would later bare fruit as I pumped it into Google and found a solution.

1) Loading Command Prompt from Start, Programs, Accessories in Windows. Right click and then select “Open as Administrator”

2) Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: netsh winsock reset catalog

3) Reset IPv4 TCP/IP stack to installation defaults. netsh int ipv4 reset reset.log

4) Reset IPv6 TCP/IP stack to installation defaults. netsh int ipv6 reset reset.log

5) Reboot

Then all was well and fixed. Phew 🙂