Windows Driver Foundation Service

Since you are not using the Intel Ethernet controller (NIC) you should set this to "Off" in the BIOS (F2 - Setup).  With this enabled and using a separate NIC there is potential for a conflict. 

I don't know if the "WDF" service is a problem or not.  It may not really be an issue and throwing you off and it may be because you have the integrated NIC (Intel) enabled.

Without knowing what the "other problem" is, it may be causing additional problems. 

Fireberd, I turned of the nic in BIOS and checked the wdf service again and still got the error 31, a device attached to this system is not working. I checked all in device mamager, all are working except the following which have no drivers installed or do not need them, direct memory access controller, sm bus controller 24d3, numeric data processor, programmable interrupt controller (all using intel 82801 eb), (I looked at drivers and downloads-dell- and could not find this listed); and the system board, speaker, and timer. These seem not to need a driver? The other problem has been solved in previous post. I could not get into disk management and now I can. The reason that I am not using the original intel ethernet controller is because this was not working. I bought a new ethernet controller from Dell, Realtek, so I could get online. And does this mean that I can now remove the Dell downloads for pro/100 ve network connection from my add/remove programs now? I tried to do this after my reinstall but then the other one would not work either so I reinstalled them (I had them on a flash drive). But, that was before, I turned it off in bios, there is now no pro/100 listed in device manager. There was before but I had it disabled. My computer appears to be working fine at this time. Could it be just a glitch? I have WDF enabled to automatic in services, just still cannot start it. I will look for a reply post on monday as I have to leave for the weekend. Thank you for your assistance so far. Liz.

It sounds like either you've turned off some essential Windows Service and/or the chipset driver is missing or corrupted. The  sm bus controller is part of the chipset driver, and the others are probably also part of the chipset.

Did you reinstall XP, and neglect the chipset driver which should be installed third after installing (1) XP and (2) Desktop System Software?

Download it from the link onto your desktop. Then reboot in Safe Mode and double-click the chipset file to install it. When that's done, shut down normally and reboot normally.

See if that solves your problems.

Ron

ROHE, Hi, when I reinstalled xp pro, I could not do a clean install as I could not boot from a cd so I just inserted my cd while windows was loaded. I did install the dell downloads in order, as printed on the download page help section. As per your reply I downloaded again, saved to desktop, went to safe mode and reloaded, selected yes to all as they were already installed, shut down and restarted. I was still getting an error 31, a device was not functioning. I was also getting an error on bootup 0X7C919AF2, synchost.exe, application error, ok to terminate or cancel to debug. I would always click ok, I surfed the web on this error and tom's hardware said to get rid of this error, disable WDF in services and restart. I did and the error went away. I do not know why. But If I do not need this service I will leave it disabled. That is what I originally wanted to know, was did I need this service if I could not start it. So, at this time I am not receiving the synchost.exe error on start up (which did not start until I changed the NIC to off) and WDF is disabled. As far as I can tell my computer is running fine now. I checked device manager and the previous listed still show no drivers installed, (after reinstalling chipset). Any suggestions? Thanks for all the assistance. Liz.

Rohe, Hi, I meant that I ran my xp pro reinstallation cd that came with pc from dell into my cd rom as a regular cd when requested I checked reinstall. Dell pc restore is not available as I used it in October of 2010 when I lost my os. I believe that I will just leave things as they are for now. If I get any other kind of error I will post back. Thank you for all your assistance. Liz

Not sure what you mean by "so I just inserted my cd while windows was loaded."

Did you run another installation of Windows from the CD, meaning you now have 2 versions of the OS on your hard drive (commonly known as a "parallel installation")? That could cause problems, not to mention all the wasted hard drive space.

Since the problem was solved by turning NIC off in BIOS setup, it sounds like that driver is missing or corrupted.

If things seem to be working ok, you may just want to leave it alone. Otherwise, you may want either to use PC Restore to reset the hard drive exactly the way Dell shipped it (assuming it's still accessable), or reformat the hard drive and start over. Either way, be sure to back up all your files to external media because they'll be lost forever after PC Restore or after a reformat/reinstall.

Ron