Using a DELL Windows Vista Desktop (with dial-up modem) we started getting a really odd behavior out of the blue (supposedly)... For the past few months there have been no issues connecting to the internet (dial-up) but two days ago (coincidentally after a power outage, mind you I am being told this started to occur prior to that) our connection stopped working. Specifically we still dial-in (I hear the modem and all the handshakes all the way to the end) and once it is finished I get "connection failed" - the error code is "Error #6 - Handle is Invalid" (which caught me off guard). I tested the dial-up account from another PC and it works fine (so it is not the username/password or the ISP), there is something up with this VISTA machine (for some odd reason) that it won't complete the Dial-Up connection anymore (nothing new was installed, nothing was added/removed hardware or software), looks like it was turned off (correctly) and back on 24-hours later and bam - doesn't work anymore. I did some research online and found that this can typically be solved by removing any 3rd party software (have none), removing the modem drivers, running a repair tool ("RArepair.exe"), and then re-installing the drivers and software (have none). I found many copies of RArepair.exe for 2K/XP but am unable to track downa a VISTA copy and I hesitate to run the 2K/XP copy blindly (obviously). Other then that the only solution I see is re-install fresh (which would kill me right now)... Any thoughts, suggestions, hints would be much appreciated - sadly the PC itself is 3 hours away (parents place) so unless there is no other way around it a full re-install of VISTA would really suck (would need to make backups and all that)... So if you have ANY ideas .... Thanks,

has anyone figured out what to do about this issue. If I have vista there is no fix but there is a error 6 invalid handle fix for xp that uses the rarepair.exe file. I am wanting to use a wireless internet card on my sony vaio. the card is from a cellphone company and noone seems to have a fix for it. thanks in advance

Did you try runing a system restore to an earlier day?

If it's the error code 6, uninstalling both the modem drivers and the port drivers for the device has worked for me. Hope this helps

did you fix error 6 i have same problem please help if you can

yeah - this worked for me: Goto device manager - then phone and modem options - click on the modem tab at the top- then remove all references to the dial up modem. (if its an usb modem then check the port section as well in device manager) reboot and then re-install the drivers - hopefully this will fix the issue