Help and Support Error

[Grand Maester]

I was trying to find my audio driver (I know there are other ways of doing this like going to the device manager, so you don't have to say so), anyway I tried to launch system information and got the following error:

So as it told me, I went into Computer Management and clicked on services, but when I scrolled down to the Hs it wasn't there.

I also tried typing "Help and Support" into the run box but nothing happened.

Any thoughts?

Edited December 2, 2008 by Grand Maester

[gigapixels Veteran]

Thread Moved

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

What operating system? Windows XP Sp1, Sp2, Sp3?

[Farstrider]

If the Help and Support service is missing in the Services.msc listing, this may be due to accidental deletion of a registry key. Download helpsvc.zip file and unzip the contents. Extract helpsvc.reg to the Desktop and double-click to merge the contents to the registry. This restores the Help and Support service entry.

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_...the_windows.htm

try that to reinstall help and support

[ATGC]

nvm.

[Farstrider]

1. Click Start.

2. Click Run.

3. Type in "services.msc"

4. Click Ok.

5. Scroll down the list until you find "Help and Support".

6. Double click on it.

7. Under "Startup type" in the General Tab, click on the drop down menu.

8. Select Automatic.

9. Click Ok.

10. Reboot.

So as it told me, I went into Computer Management and clicked on services, but when I scrolled down to the Hs it wasn't there.

You must have missed this!

[capr]

what kind of installation is this? you can remove it using vlite or nlite so you might have accidentally removed it if this is a costume installation. i personally remove it cause i simply don't need it...

[Grand Maester]

What operating system? Windows XP Sp1, Sp2, Sp3?

XP SP3

[Grand Maester]

what kind of installation is this? you can remove it using vlite or nlite so you might have accidentally removed it if this is a costume installation. i personally remove it cause i simply don't need it...

I'm not sure what you mean by kind of installation.

nvm.

I'm not sure what that means

If the Help and Support service is missing in the Services.msc listing, this may be due to accidental deletion of a registry key. Download helpsvc.zip file and unzip the contents. Extract helpsvc.reg to the Desktop and double-click to merge the contents to the registry. This restores the Help and Support service entry.

Tried that, it added to the registry successfully, but it still doesn't show up.

[Farstrider]

I'm not sure what you mean by kind of installation.

nvm.

I'm not sure what that means

You not that snappy on the uptake I see! It means "never mind"!

Did you try the reg file? OK, I see you did, will see what I can find to help with this!

[Grand Maester]

https://www.neowin.net/forum/style_images/s.../attach_add.png[/img]name='lylesback2' post='590181270' date='Nov 25 2008, 14:42']http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_...the_windows.htm

try that to reinstall help and support

When I do that I get this message:

Problem is I installed SP3 with a patch my disk is SP2.

[Farstrider]

Try this and see what happens, just double click and let it install itself into the reg! Go here and look for: Number: 235. Restore Help and Support Services download and enter it in the registry and see if it works!

[Grand Maester]

Try this and see what happens, just double click and let it install itself into the reg! Go here and look for: Number: 235. Restore Help and Support Services download and enter it in the registry and see if it works!

Nope, when I double click it tries to install into the registry but say not all entries were integrated because some keys were in use. When I went back to try to start the service again, I still got the same error message.

I should also note that I had to render the page using the IE engine (I use Firefox with the IE tab extension), because when I rendered it using Firefox's rendering image I didn't get a download window at all just a screen full of code.

[Grand Maester]

Nope, when I double click it tries to install into the registry but say not all entries were integrated because some keys were in use. When I went back to try to start the service again, I still got the same error message.

I should also note that I had to render the page using the IE engine (I use Firefox with the IE tab extension), because when I rendered it using Firefox's rendering image I didn't get a download window at all just a screen full of code.

I finally found another registry fix that put the service back in the list but when I try to start it I get a new error message:

[LiqHead]

Just set the service to manual.

[Grand Maester]

I just found a fix that got the Help and Support Service running again.

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/helpsvcfix.htm

However, I still can't get System Information to launch, when I click on it nothing happens.

Edited December 2, 2008 by Grand Maester

[Grand Maester]

I tried reinstalling PCHealth again but it seems that it needs files that weren't included prior to service pack 3 (My disk is service pack 2). So I reinstalled service pack 3. Nothing, when I click on Help and Support or System Information nothing happens.

[Grand Maester]

When it was clear that people here couldn't help any further, I did some scouring of back-ally tech sites and after trying a number of supposed fixes came to one that work. I thought I'd include the link in case someone has this problem in the future.

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_h.htm

Scroll down to the bolded heading: "Help and Support"

After going through the command prompt steps that it outlined I managed to rectify the problem (although I'm not sure exactly what I did). Two things to note:

In a couple cases it asked me to enter commands referring to directories which did not exist on my computer so I had to create them. I did this by finding the appropriate parent directory (using window's search tool) and simply creating a new empty folder inside it.

When you do the first change directory (cd) command you need to include not just the name of the windows folder on your computer but the drive path as well (for me it was simply c:\windows), it took me a couple tries to figure out how to enter it correctly because that wasn't completely clear to me from the instructions.

Both Help and Support and System Information are working fine now.

Thanks to those who gave input though, the above fix probably wouldn't have worked if I hadn't been able to get rid of those errors first.