In article , JNC says...

Just an update and conclusion for you (I hate stories without
endings)!

On my 2nd visit I first thing I tried was a release all - yup, it hung
the computer.

Hmmm. I've only experienced that hanging the process; the computer was still
responsive, and I could kill the hung process from the task manager. Oh,
well.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, this is what I did.

I removed the network card from the computer. Restarted the PC and
shutdown again. Reinserted the card and updated drivers. Did a
release_all, restarted the PC once again and hey presto!

Hmmm. Maybe the next time you run into this you should try just removing the
adapter 'virtually'. I think you can tell Windows to remove a device from
Device Manager, and it will then unload the drivers. The next time you
reboot, it will do the same thing; locate the drives for the "newly
discovered hardware". Worst case, you have to open the case anyway.

The rest is history - it all worked.

I tend to remember these little incidents for the future - a bit like
the university of life!

Thanks for the help, I might post here again.

Any time. At the least, if I can't actually offer a solution, I do get
people to thinking along different lines. And not just I; these are just
groups of users; peers, if you will, sharing ideas and experiences. No MSFT
paid staff hangs out here as a part of the job (though I am sure they do
hang out here "off the clock").

--
Norman
~Win dain a lotica, En vai tu ri, Si lo ta
~Fin dein a loluca, En dragu a sei lain
~Vi fa-ru les shutai am, En riga-lint