RPC Service Problem

[Guest]

While troubleshooting an issue, I very stupidly changed the RPC service Logon
Account from the default account to 'Local System Account'.

Since then, I've been getting various DCOM, COM+, etc, errors in my event
log, and some programs are bombing out trying to run.

Does anybody know a way I can get the RPC service back to the way it was? I
don't remember the account it uses by default, and I wouldn't know the
password for it if I did (though I do faintly recall a program that can give
you this info).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Thomas Foster

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Change the account to NT Authority\NetworkService and set the password to
blank. It is managed by the operating system. --- Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;812519

4. To specify the user account that the service can use to log on,
click the Log On tab, and then do one of the following: . To specify that
the service uses the Local System account, click Local System account.
. To specify that the service uses the Local Service account,
click This account, and then type NT AUTHORITY\LocalService.
. To specify that the service uses the Network Service account,
click This account, and then type NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService.
. To specify another account, click This account, click Browse,
and then specify a user account in the Select User dialog box. When you are
finished, click OK.

5. Type the password for the user account in the Password and Confirm
password boxes, and then click OK. If you select the Local Service account
or Network Service account, the password must be blank.

 

[Guest]

That's good to know! But since the RPC service is vital to the OS, it won't
let me stop it or change it (how I was able to do so before is beyond me).
How can I stop the service so I can change the login information? If I stop
the RPC service, I can't even get the MMC console for services to come up.

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Try booting into Safe Mode. RPC is stopped in Safe Mode and services.msc
should work. It always does for me. --- Steve

 

[Guest]

I tried it, and RPC is still locked in Safe Mode. Can't start/stop it. What
about editing the registry key and changing the login service there, would
that do it, or possibly make it worse?

 

[Steven L Umbach]

You could try that. I have never done it myself. You might test that on a
non critical service like alerter first to see what happens by changing to
logon as some other account, then change the registry for it back to what it
should be and try to restart the service to see if it starts. What I would
try first is to do a system restore if you have a restore point from a date
before this all happened. I have no idea if it will fix your RPC service
problem but that would be easy enough to try. Another thing to check is to
use msconfig to make sure you are not in selective startup mode with RPC
disabled and to try secedit as described in the link below to reset
permissions on services in case you somehow do not have proper permissions
to the service. Add /areas services to the end of the command to just reset
service permissions. If problems continue you may want to run it as is to
reset all your security settings. Double check that you are logged on as a
local administrator. If all that fails I would consider an upgrade/repair
installation on the operating system which will require the install cdrom
and product key and for you to install your service pack first and then
critical security updates when done. --- Steve


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;313222 --secedit to
restore default security settings

 

[Jason Saltsman]

Hi Thomas, I am dealing with a similar situation. Have you found a way
to change teh log on account?

Jason Saltsman