Connecting to wireless router on windows vista?

My girlfriend is having issues connecting to her router. Not a linksys router. I unplugged both the router and the modem, rebooted computer, not detecting ANYTHING. She's using a dell inspiron, and does not have a wi-fi switch or on on the computer itself. In command prompt, all ipconfig and netsh commands do not work. System restore did not work. When Vista diagnosis the problem, it says Windows Wireless Service is not running, gives me the option to start it, but after selecting it, it says it could not start windows wireless service. When going into msconfig, under services, I can't pinpoint the exact service to start, but when trying to start ANY service, it says access denied. She's the system administrator.... any ideas?