Terminal Services service won't start - can't switch users

[Guest]

I used to be able to switch users, but I no longer can. I discovered that
this is because the Terminal Services service is not running. When I try to
start it, I get the following 3 messages in the system event log:
The Terminal Services service was successfully sent a start control.
The Terminal Services service entered the stopped state.
The Terminal Services service terminated with the following error: One or
more arguments are invalid

Any clue how I can figure out where this argument it doesn’t like is coming
from, or I how can reinstall whatever is messed up without completely
reinstalling windows?
The RPC service (on which Terminal Services depends) is running. The
svchost.exe that normally runs “DCOM Server Process Launcher†and “Terminal
Services†is running (but only with DCOM SPL). I have compared all the DLLs
I know to be involved with those on another system that doesn't have this
problem (just in case one got currupted) and they all match. The registry
values at HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TermService also match the
working system. I have XP SP2 with all updates available from Windows Update.

Thank you for any help you can provide. I am very frustrated.

 

[Guest]

I found the problem. I used the Sysinternals Process Monitor to log all the
events involved in trying to start the Terminal Serivces service, comparing
the value of every registry key read, every DLL loaded, etc. to the ones on
my wife's system, which doesn't have this problem. The 3693rd event (really)
in starting the service was to load mstlsapi.dll. Despite my DLL having the
same version number as the DLL on my wife's computer, they were different. I
copied hers to my system and IT WORKS NOW!

Sorry about bothering everyone. I really did try other things to fix this
for hours before writing the first time.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Nice work, Jeff! Thanks for posting your findings.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]
Windows® Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


I found the problem. I used the Sysinternals Process Monitor to log all the
events involved in trying to start the Terminal Serivces service, comparing
the value of every registry key read, every DLL loaded, etc. to the ones on
my wife's system, which doesn't have this problem. The 3693rd event (really)
in starting the service was to load mstlsapi.dll. Despite my DLL having the
same version number as the DLL on my wife's computer, they were different. I
copied hers to my system and IT WORKS NOW!

Sorry about bothering everyone. I really did try other things to fix this
for hours before writing the first time.