I hate to say it, but try the Redmond approach (We nuke
all hangnails because we don't know why it broke, either)-
if you reinstall Windows, pick install the first time,
then repair the existing install at the second decision
point, it cures a lot of evils (of course, then you have
to reapply SP3 unless you have slipped it into the install
CD) - of course, it also resets most of the screwed up (in
my non-humble opinion) defaults (stupid "special"
directory names that require tweakUI-ing, followed by
registry editing, followed by Norton Windoctor, etc)but
(despite being overkill preceded by non-diagnosis) it does
solve many problems - if the svchost.exe file left behind
doesn't get overwritten this way, I'd be surprised (have
you tried just booting with a DOS 7.x diskette and
replacing the file with the older version, of course not
so simple if you bought into NTFS...don't forget to also
replace the version in winnt\system32\dllcache\ if the
file is there, or you'll be wasting your time)
I haven't had (too many) problems I attribute to SP 4 but
that may be due to ignorance on my part - last time I
reinstalled this way to fix a STOP 0x50 that kept the
LUGUI (lame unfinished graphic user irritant) from loading
even in safe mode, cause I knew darn well that the RAM
sticks didn't both crap out, the suggested by MS cause of
same, it even resolved my interminable can't close open
registry keys therefore take my sweet time shutting down
problem (I had previously installed the user hive profile
clean and wax or whatever patch, without any noticeable
improvement; strangely, it seemed to actually work after
the reinstall and re-SP4 patch...
