Automatic Services are Stopping

[Guest]

This problem is starting to plague a few users. It first manifested itself
about 4 months ago on a single client's computer. XP Pro SP2 on an SBS 2000
network (now upgraded to SBS 2003). The client complained about not seeing
the network. Rebooting didn't help. Looking at the services the Computer
Browser Service, DHCP Client and about a dozen other Automatic Services were
stopped. I manually started the services to resolve the problem. A few
months later the problem reappeared and since it has appeared on 4 systems at
this location, and once each at 3 other locations. The problem is also
getting more severe where the services after manually starting will only run
for a few minutes then stop again. I spent the day on the phone with
Microsoft one day with no success in determining the problem or the cause. I
finally reformatted one machine and reinstalling the os. Everything worked
fine for several days and now the problem is reappearing. I would find it
hard to believe that no one else has seen these issues. Please let me know
if anyone has first off and whether or not you have found the problem and the
cure. Regards, Greg

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

This problem is starting to plague a few users. It first manifested
itself about 4 months ago on a single client's computer. XP Pro SP2
on an SBS 2000 network (now upgraded to SBS 2003). The client
complained about not seeing the network. Rebooting didn't help.
Looking at the services the Computer Browser Service, DHCP Client and
about a dozen other Automatic Services were stopped. I manually
started the services to resolve the problem. A few months later the
problem reappeared and since it has appeared on 4 systems at this
location, and once each at 3 other locations. The problem is also
getting more severe where the services after manually starting will
only run for a few minutes then stop again. I spent the day on the
phone with Microsoft one day with no success in determining the
problem or the cause. I finally reformatted one machine and
reinstalling the os. Everything worked fine for several days and now
the problem is reappearing. I would find it hard to believe that no
one else has seen these issues. Please let me know if anyone has
first off and whether or not you have found the problem and the cure.
Regards, Greg

This sounds like a virus or malware issue, honestly. What have you done to
scan for each of those possibilities? Is your network protected from
non-domain computers, and the Internet, by a good router/firewall?

 

[Guest]

Yes we have a Sonicwall Firewall on each of the different networks. The
company that is having the most problem experiences it only in one
department. They have a corporate antivirus product Trend Micro Client
Server Messaging Security and I have run SpyBot, AdAware and Trends
Antispyware. All machines show clean with all products. Today, on another
client (different company) that was showing the same problem Trends
Antispyware unearthed 3 spyware/trojans and cleaned them and the service
stayed running at least while I was still on site. Perhaps the virus/spyware
is finally being discovered with new definitions. Curious to hear from
anyone else out there who has seen similar problems.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

Yes we have a Sonicwall Firewall on each of the different networks.
The company that is having the most problem experiences it only in one
department.

Do they have local admin or power user rights? If so, take 'em away.

They have a corporate antivirus product Trend Micro
Client Server Messaging Security and I have run SpyBot, AdAware and
Trends Antispyware. All machines show clean with all products.

You might try MS Windows Defender beta, too.

Today, on another client (different company) that was showing the
same problem Trends Antispyware unearthed 3 spyware/trojans and
cleaned them and the service stayed running at least while I was
still on site. Perhaps the virus/spyware is finally being discovered
with new definitions. Curious to hear from anyone else out there who
has seen similar problems.

I've seen this before, and it has nearly always been malware. I don't
remember the other reasons, because the problems didn't persist after a
reboot, so I felt free to ignore it.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for responding. Update. The problem seemed to go away with the
Microsoft Updates that were released a couple of weeks ago. However, the
updates would not install on their own, we had to install them manually. (Yes
prior to these updates, the systems were all up to date with the latest
updates).

It's a catch 22 to take away local admin rights since many updates require
them and with the number of clients I have, I prefer to configure them to use
automatic updates. I did remove local admin rights from a couple of the
systems experiencing problems to see if it makes a difference compared to the
systems I left with them on. Will post results if there is a difference. We
also removed their profile from the domain then readded it. That actually
seemed to be the biggest help for one client (4 users affected on 50-user
network) although some clients with the problem are not on a domain. In the
last 2 weeks have only had one client complain of the problem. It was a
single computer on a 2-system workgroup (no domain). Anyway, keeping fingers
crossed since the issues seem to be subsiding for now anyway. Thanks again
for the suggestions.