HELP! WMI invalid namespace / cimv2 / KB281888

[Guest]

I have a serious problem with the way WMI is not working properly on my
new XP Pro machine:

(1) attempting to display a service's dependencies via the service's
Properties -> Dependencies tab results in the error message :-
"WMI: Invalid namespace
The 'root\cimv2' namespace is not defined in the WMI repository"
....and of course no dependencies are displayed...

(2) attempting to run a simple VBS script with a line such as:
Set wbemServices = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer)
results in:
Error: 0x8004100E
Code: 8004100E
Source: (null)

The only thing I can find in the knowledge base related to this problem is
KB 281888 which simply says that the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WBEM\Scripting
value for Default Namespace should be set to 'root\cimv2'
which is exactly what it is set to in my registry (see below)... so what is the
real underlying problem?

PLEASE can anyone help!

--
Rob
Ipswich
U.K.

P.S. ... registry key export follows:
Key Name: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WBEM\Scripting
Class Name: <NO CLASS>
Last Write Time: 6/11/2004 - 10:47 PM
Value 0
Name: Default Namespace
Type: REG_SZ
Data: root\cimv2

Value 1
Name: Default Impersonation Level
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x3