Help and Support not functioning XP Pro SP2

[Ralph_B]

I've read many many posts in a number of different forums regarding the subject of Windows Help and Support not functioning and yet haven't yet managed to resolve my problem.

I'm not sure exactly how long the problem has been exsiting on my system but certainly wasn't recent, I've learned to live with it however I would like to resolve if possible.

Help and Support Services is set to automatic but when I try and start manually I get error message- "1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion"

path to executable is as follows:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs (I also tried without the extension -k netsvcs)

Any thoughts would be appreciated please ?
Thanx and Regards
Ralph

[Thermopylae_480]

Have you tried a format and clean install?

[Urlyin]

type at start| run sfc /scannow then enter .... this will check windows files. If that doesn't help then do a in place install of Xp by inserting the XP cd while in windows and install, select upgrade. It may also be profile specific, which you can try to log in as a different user, test to see if the help files work, let me know and i'll tell how to delete the profile and copy your files before deleting .. create a new one by logging back in .. you may also want to do a chkdks ...

[Ralph_B]

thanks for the suggestion Thermopylae 480 - I'll assume it was tongue in cheek.....I certainly don't intend such a drastic measure just to fix a minor (but irrating) issue.
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thanks for your suggestions Urlyin, appreciated.
I've already tried the "sfc /scannow" but get incorrect cd message, I guess because I created a customised (drivers/sp2) slipstream install cd and installed from that - I've tried various workarounds without success.
It isn't user specific, it's a system problem.
I haven't run chkdks because I don't believe the problem to be related hardware failure, if it was I believe I would have encountered more (and various) system problems.


Kind Rgds
R_B