Reply #5: Here's something to try [View All]

[EvolveOrConvolve]

The RPC service depends on the DCOM service to run correctly. In the Services utility (Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services) find the listing from DCOM. On my machine it's named "DCOM Server Process Launcher", but I use Vista. If you're using XP, yours might be named "DCOM", "Distributed COM", "Distributed Component Object Model" or something else entirely. But, it will have the DCOM acronym or one of its variants in the name somewhere. Right click the DCOM entry and select Properties.

First, check to make sure that DCOM is using the Local System Account to login.
Next, make sure that DCOM is started and has a start-up type set to automatic.
Finally, reboot your computer (just to be safe).

I don't know if this will fix your issue, but it can't hurt to try, since RPC relies explicitly on the DCOM service for its operation.

FWIW, all my options on both the DCOM and RPC services are grayed out, and they weren't at some point in the past. I think one of Microsoft's updates may have disabled the ability to change these services without doing some registry hacks. Do you know if you performed any Windows update since your last successful restore point was saved?