Sorry to hear this De. Are you sure the network card in the laptop simply did not have it's driver munged? Consequently it would not function or detect an internett connection, ISP addy, tcpip or anything ese.
DID you try to do a system restore on the laptop to an earlier date?
That might work also.... Sounds like a software glitch to me. How old is the laptop?
Just a few random thoughts. Did you try doing an IPCONFIG release and then an IPCONFIG renew?