[john davies]

Hi,
I'm running XP Pro, and the help & support function and the troubleshooters have stopped working. I have no idea why or when this began to happen. I have tried to restore back to at least 4 different points but i can't get them back. Does anyone know why this would happen, what could have caused it and if possible how to get them working again. Thank you in advance.

 

[Zvalkor]

Try this.

Start/Control Panel/Administration Tools.
Select "Services". Look for "help and support". If this service is not started, Right click "Help and Support". Click 'Start'. Also double click "help and support" and ensure the startup type is "automatic".

 

[john davies]

Thanks Zvalkor. I tried what you said but with no luck. The service is set to auto. & it is running but it does'nt work. If I have task manager open when I click on help & support I can see it try to run but it just fails .Have you got anymore ideas?

 

[x5dr]

I have seen a fix for this and will try and find it...don't reformat yet!

 

[x5dr]

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/fix_windows_xp_help.htm

let us know if it worked.

 

[john davies]

Thanks a lot guys for trying to help. Imagine my horror when the first message I got following a reformat was you saying you've found a fix. I nearly broke my foot kicking myself.
Here's what I did.
I repaired the help & support problem by doing a repair with my os disk. But this screwed up system restore and also I could'nt set up an internet connection.
System restore said : Remoteassistancesystemrestore cannot find file in Winsta.Dll(or something like that I can't remember the exact wording).
When trying to set up my internet connection from my isp disk it said "internet setup file is corrupt".
Has anyone got any ideas as to how these problems were caused and is it possible to sort them out.
I could'nt do anything with it so I reinstalled my os. Which seems to be fine so far.

 

[x5dr]

wild guess...you use a registry cleaner????? or SPYBOT?

Actually...that happened to me.

Registry cleaners are great when they work but they eventually will get you when you aren't paying attention. They delete the restore points and then you are looking at a reformat.

 

[john davies]

You guessed it. I think it was Easycleaner. I won't be using that again. I also used spybot but didn't think that could cause such problems. Do you know of any better programs that won't cause problems? Also I have adaware, is that safe to use? Thanks again for your help.

 

[x5dr]

all registry cleaners can do that...they just don't do it everytime you run them and we tend to do a SELECT ALL because it worked before. With Spybot, just delete the top ones in red...don't touch the MS files.

 

[flynike]

Hey, x5dr. I had the same problem (yep, registry cleaner), and I tried your fix, and it worked! Thanks a LOT.

flynike

 

[x5dr]

glad it helped...seems to work for those that have tried it.