services mysteriously turned off, can not start

[Guest]

My System Restore Service, Windows Firewall Service, Performance Logs and
Alerts Service, and a few other were turned off, and will not turn on. When I
try to start them, I get an error:

"xx service on Local Computer started then stopped. Some services stop
automatically if they have no work to do, for example, the Performance Logs
and Alerts Service."

Any idea what this means, or what I have to do to restart these services? I
have no System Restore or firewall because of it, and those are kind of
important to me. Thank you.

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Malware can certainly do what you described so I would start be trying to
make sure your computer is as free from malware as possible though
unfortunately even when removed often the damage they have done is left
behind. A repair installation very likely could solve your problem if you
have operating install media.

Steve

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm --- XP repair
install

 

[Guest]

Yeah I was either going to do that, or go for the full reinstall. I have my
boot hd as a seperate hd so I wouldn't lose anything important. I have to go
to work so I will do the repair when I get home, and I appreciate the help. I
will let you know what happens later on.

 

[Guest]

Okay, so I followed the instructions on the page thoroughly, and did a repair
install. It fixed the services problem, but now my IE and Outlook Express
will not work, and when I go to "Add/Remove Programs," there is no list, it
just brings up a blank screen. It doesn't even say "wait until the list is
populated."

I had SP2 on a separate disc (my xp pro is oem) but I am unable to install
it. It gets so far and then hangs. I really do not want to have to do a fresh
install, but at this point I am at a loss. Since IE doesn't work, I can't go
to windows update to get any updates either. Any ideas? I was hoping if I got
SP2 installed it would fix some of these things, but I'm lost with it.

 

[Steven L Umbach]

While repair installs often work I have seen in cases where I have tried it
myself that there were still issues after it and have seen the same thing
with SP2 installs. At this point I think your best bet would be a clean
install to a formatted system drive but be sure to backup any important
files and configuration. That usually means you at least backup at least
your My Documents, internet favorites, and any email files if you use
Outlook Express/Outlook that are in your user profile folder. I always
suggest that users backup their entire user profile under documents and
settings/username [be sure to tell Explorer to show hidden files and system
files] to external media before a clean install and you may need to logon as
an administrator that is not the source user for the profile copy after a
reboot. Any programs like Quickbooks have their own built in file backup
that should also be used to backup files. If you have used EFS in XP Pro to
encrypt files be sure to decrypt them before a clean install.

I wish I had better news but sometimes a clean install is the only way to
fix problems. Of course when done doing one be sure to go to the internet to
download needed Windows Updates after installing your Service Pack 2 and
install and update antivirus/spyware software before you do any internet
browsing, email activity, or restoring your backup files and applications.

If you don't have any current antivirus or spyware software, for free I like
AVG and the free version of Spyware Doctor from http://pack.google.com .

Steve