DCOM Service causing XP Pro to hang?

Hello everybody,

If anyone out there has experienced the following problem before and would be kind enough to share their experience/possible solutions with me, I would be so grateful. It’s giving me such a headache and I’m now at a bit of a loss…

I recently started having problems with my computer hanging just after the Windows logo splash screen appeared, but I was rather confused as to why this should start when as far as I could remember, I had not changed/installed anything for some time (other than windows updates/ new virus definitions etc). I tried all the suggestions that I could find on the forum, and after being unsuccessful in being able to fix things via the console, I tried the Windows Repair install option from the XP CD. The install part went fine, but once complete, this resulted in the machine entering an endless reboot cycle, regardless of whether I chose Safe Mode, Last Good Setting, Debug or Normal mode etc.

In the end I decided to use a spare hard disk that I had and I made a clean install of Windows XP on there. Everything was fine. I installed SP2, everything fine. Used it for 24 hours, left it off over night and everything was fine the following day too.

However, the moment I installed the Microsoft high priority security updates released within the last month or so, the machine would hang (from a cold start) just after the Windows XP Splash screen appeared. Luckilly I was able to get into windows after about 10 reboots, so I checked the Windows Event Log. In the log I could see a series of DCOM Service errors, matching the number of failed boot attempts I'd made.

Not having anything important on this hard disc, I wiped the drive again, stripped all the cards out of the PC, and installed XP once again. This time I updated the BIOS of my motherboard, and installed all the latest drivers for the motherboard chipset and video card (previous drivers were about 8 or 9 months old), and started again. The end result was the same, with everything being OK up until installing the latest high priority updates from Microsoft Update.

The bottom line of the problem is that for some reason, my machine is fine up until I put the recently released patches on there, even on a clean install of Windows XP and basic hardware config. The failed DCOM service said that the cause of the error was a hardware fault, but does that really mean that the hardware is faulty or could there simply be a compatibility/ communication issue?

The basic config of my PC is an AthlonXP 2600, Leadtek Mobo (nForce2), Geforce TI4600 video card, 512Mb single DIMM, LAN/AUDIO etc is integrated, but the result is the same whether they are enabled/disabled in the BIOS.

Any help would would be greatly appreciated.

Craig.