Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 Cannot Find Any Networks

I am running 32 bit Vista Home Basic SP1.I cannot get online. When I hover the mouse over the network icon in the notification area, it reads, "Connection status unknown. The dependency service or group failed to start". When I try to diagnose the problem, I can't because the Diagnostics Policy Service is not running. When I try to Start the service, access is denied (Error 5). Same scenario for the service DHCP Client. When I click on Start/Connect To - I get the msg Windows Cannot Find Any Networks Meanwhile, I keep getting warnings that my firewall is not enabled. When I try to enable it, I get a message that the Security Center can't turn it on.

Windows Firewall is not listed in services.msc.I ran a full Malwarebytes scan and it found nothing wrong. I did a system restore to several days before the problem, but even though the restore completed successfully, it didn't change my (non)results.The Network and Sharing Center does not display the familiar PC monitor icon with a line to the Network and another line going from the Network to the Internet. Instead it just has the word Unknown with the caption the depencency or groiup failed to start I have heard that this might be due to a permissions issue, but when I use regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServices and right click on Dhcp, select Permissions, I get an error when I try to add anything (either Local Service or Network Service).

The msg is c:Windowssystem32adsldp.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error. Try installing the program again..I have run sfc /scannow as well as chkdsk /f. Scannow reported that it found some problems but was unable to fix all of them. Chkdsk found and corrected about 10 errors, but neither of these programs worked with the issue.Additionally I have downloaded and installed Process Monitor on the PC, but the amount of information displayed is overwhelming, and I'm not sure what to check. Every time I try to start DHCP I get about 200 lines of info on the screen.

When I open a command prompt and run ipconfig /all, I get that DHCP is running, although it is not. I get the bogus ip address of 169.254.... I get a default gateway of zeroes.Is it possible that this behavior could simply be the result of a bad NIC card?Can I possibly run an in-place upgrade from Vista Home Basic to Vista Home Premium? If it's a Dell PC and I have the Dell Premium CD will it ask me for the product key? If so, will the key on the Basic PC work?