XP SP2, no access to Help and Support Support Centre, etc

[Bert]

Hi all

My sincere apologies that this post is so long.

The problem is that I cannot access Windows XP SP2 Help and Support Centre.
I do not use the Help and Support Centre very often and it may be 2 months
or more since I last accessed it. Yesterday was the first time I have used
it and the problem may have been present before SP2 was installed on August
13. With three exceptions, that being Mailwasher 4.1.9, Norton System Works
2004 and Ad-Aware SE 1.05 no error messages are seen when their Help feature
is requested. All that happens (apart from the above) is that an hour glass
momentarily appears with no help appearing.



In order to rectify the problem I have tried:

1.. Running sfc /scannow from Start Run OK reveals that no corrupted files
arere found.
2.. Using Start Run helpctr -regserver OK no error messages reported.
3.. Using Start Run services.msc reports that Help and Support service is
set to automatic and is started.
4.. C:\windows\inf\pchealth.inf, then right click, and choose install. I
used XP SP2 files to carry out a fresh install - no change.
5.. I logged on from safe mode - no change to accessing Help and Support.
6.. I logged on as a different user with administrative privileges - no
change.
7.. I tried Start Run msinfo32 OK. System information does not appear.
Nor will it appear from the Start menu. Just a momentarily appearing hour
glass.
8.. When I use the Help command from either Internet Explorer or Windows
Explorer there is no access. to the Help function
9.. I have done an extensive searches of the Microsoft Knowledge Base and
Google to no effect.
10.. Norton Anti-Virus 2004, Ad-Aware SE 1.05 and Spybot Search and
Destroy 1.3 all give clean scans. So does an online scan at Symantec's
Security Centre.
11.. When run chkntfs C: and chkdsk /r report no file problems .
It is probably unrelated but System Restore reports that it cannot make any
changes during a restore. In other words there may be a corrupted restore
point making all of them useless. Please address any replies to the news
group. My email address is false. Bert Smith

[Bert]

Hi all

I found the solution after 2 days of hard work.
One of the files required for help CHM files to run was not registered.
Don't know why. A freeware program available from http://helpware.net/
located the file and registered it. The program is MJ's Help Diagnostics.
Hooray! Please address any replies to the news group. My email address is
false. Bert
"Bert" > wrote in message
...
> Hi all
>
> My sincere apologies that this post is so long.
>
> The problem is that I cannot access Windows XP SP2 Help and Support
> Centre. I do not use the Help and Support Centre very often and it may be
> 2 months or more since I last accessed it. Yesterday was the first time I
> have used it and the problem may have been present before SP2 was
> installed on August 13. With three exceptions, that being Mailwasher
> 4.1.9, Norton System Works 2004 and Ad-Aware SE 1.05 no error messages are
> seen when their Help feature is requested. All that happens (apart from
> the above) is that an hour glass momentarily appears with no help
> appearing.
>
>
>
> In order to rectify the problem I have tried:
>
> 1.. Running sfc /scannow from Start Run OK reveals that no corrupted
> files arere found.
> 2.. Using Start Run helpctr -regserver OK no error messages reported.
> 3.. Using Start Run services.msc reports that Help and Support service is
> set to automatic and is started.
> 4.. C:\windows\inf\pchealth.inf, then right click, and choose install. I
> used XP SP2 files to carry out a fresh install - no change.
> 5.. I logged on from safe mode - no change to accessing Help and Support.
> 6.. I logged on as a different user with administrative privileges - no
> change.
> 7.. I tried Start Run msinfo32 OK. System information does not appear.
> Nor will it appear from the Start menu. Just a momentarily appearing hour
> glass.
> 8.. When I use the Help command from either Internet Explorer or Windows
> Explorer there is no access. to the Help function
> 9.. I have done an extensive searches of the Microsoft Knowledge Base and
> Google to no effect.
> 10.. Norton Anti-Virus 2004, Ad-Aware SE 1.05 and Spybot Search and
> Destroy 1.3 all give clean scans. So does an online scan at Symantec's
> Security Centre.
> 11.. When run chkntfs C: and chkdsk /r report no file problems .
> It is probably unrelated but System Restore reports that it cannot make
> any changes during a restore. In other words there may be a corrupted
> restore point making all of them useless. Please address any replies to
> the news group. My email address is false. Bert Smith
>
>