Vista problems

[pcostanza]

This is not at all related to GBPVR but recently, for reasons unknown to me, I'm not able to start file sharing in Vista and even noticed that I can't change my workgroup or my computer name. When trying to allow file sharing, I get a 'RPC Server is Unavailable' message. Days of googling and forum searching has yielded nothing. I am pretty much locked down so I'm doubtful it's a virus or malware but these days, do you really know?
I'm not able to do anything to the RPC service as it's greyed out completely.
If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears.

[stustunz]

can you log off and log back in as admin

[pcostanza]

can you log off and log back in as admin

Yes, I've enabled admin and nothing is different. Actually, my 'regular' log in has full admin priviledges. I've run 3 virus scans and 2 spyware scans and so far, so good. There's very little info on this as far as I can see.

[Lindsay]

Looking at the processes that need RPC, your machine must be severely hobbled! "DCOM Server Process Launcher" is a dependency of RPC. Mine is set to automatic and is running. Is yours?

[pcostanza]

Looking at the processes that need RPC, your machine must be severely hobbled! "DCOM Server Process Launcher" is a dependency of RPC. Mine is set to automatic and is running. Is yours?

I'll have to take a look at it when I get home but other than seeing other systems on the network, I've got no problems. Funny thing is, when I boot to my XP (on a different drive entirely) I also can't see others on the network. I'm not sure if anything is related but would find that very hard to believe.
I downloaded a trial of Network Magic to see what it could do. It told me to enable File Sharing (duh, that's how I noticed I had a problem) and to check the lansmanserver service which I hadn't found yet.
It's looking like I'll probably try to go back a few days via restore. If that fails, I'll use my month old image and after that, it's a fresh start.

[whurlston]

There are so many things that can cause that error.

Here's one you can check:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939882/en-us

Or if you have dual nics (intel)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302323/en-us

[whurlston]

Also try disabling any firewalls.

[Torque]

Sounds like when I forget to turn on my Vista machine at work for 45 days using the SELECT licensing system... for some reason the machine can't contact the KMS server so the POS goes into reduced functionality mode locking down most of the network capabilities because it thinks it isn't Genuine. I'm sooo glad I went back to XP x64, Vista is junk.

[pcostanza]

There are so many things that can cause that error.

Here's one you can check:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939882/en-us

Or if you have dual nics (intel)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302323/en-us

Thanks, I'll look into it but if I do get it resolved, I'd love to know what caused it because if it's something I did, I don't want to do it again.

Also try disabling any firewalls.

Did that right away. Even in Safe networking mode I had no luck. I can ping other computers by IP and name which means part of it works.

Sounds like when I forget to turn on my Vista machine at work for 45 days using the SELECT licensing system... for some reason the machine can't contact the KMS server so the POS goes into reduced functionality mode locking down most of the network capabilities because it thinks it isn't Genuine. I'm sooo glad I went back to XP x64, Vista is junk.

I know my problem isn't anything due to licensing or the updates I've been manually downloading wouldn't install. It's the real deal version. But I sometimes wonder since it is the version MS gave me for beta testing. :p