Background: RPC is a critical system process that many other services depend
on. I won't get into what it does specifically...
Info: Because most of Windows requires (or at least wants very badly) to use
this service, if it's not running, Windows tries to restart it. If that
fails, Windows shuts down to prevent any further ('cascading') errors from
this one failure.
Tip: When you get that message, you can type "shutdown /a" in the Start >
Run... box to "abort the system shutdown".
Info: This type of error is almost always caused by a virus that targets
this service. Specifically, the (in)famous Blaster worm that affected
millions of XP users.
There is a fix from Microsoft to protect you from this. However, you would
also now need to scan for virus(es) that are still on your sytem, even if you
have received this critical update.
Reminder: Please keep your computer up to date. This is important to proect
your system, your data, your security, and everyone else online. Please
practice safe computing -- use protection.
Here's more troubleshooting steps that can guide you through getting the
update you need, and scanning for viruses. This is an HP site, but applies
in this situation, and is a very good walkthrough of what needs to be done.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&docname=c00035757