This solution works perfectly.
I have been searching the Newsgroups for days, as well as having contacted
Microsoft, with the same problem after SP2.
My HELP search is functioning again.

Thanks

GE

"John" wrote:

I agree that the favourites are going to be erased, but it also resets the
user configuration. Some of the symptoms being described suggest that the
user settings may have encountered an error reaching the KB server at some
stage. I have had the same problem. If you like, just delete the XML file; a
new version is created, and the problem with connecting to the KB search
should be sorted.



"jmike" wrote in message
...
John,

OK, what does that do, exactly? It creates new versions of these files,
but
I end up with the same results. Does this clear something? If so, what
does
it clear? Also, one should probably not clear the favorites.stream file,
if
it exists, unless you want to clear you favorites in HCS. Thanks for the
post.



"John" wrote:

You should also try the following:

1. Set your folder view to show hidden files and folders.
2. Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\[your profile]\Local
Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\HelpCtr
and delete both the files in this folder.
3. Open Help and Support and try again.


"jmike" wrote in message
...
FYI. Anyone having this problem should try uninstalling their download
manager tto see if it cures the problem. It has worked for several of
us,
so
it may work for you. The brand of download manager does not seem to
matter.
See az's explanation in the post under this topic. Of course, it is
always
possible that other factors are at work here and this may not be a 100%
fix
for everyone, but give it a try. For me, anyway, it all started with
SP2,
which is a large and complex update. The number of posts on this this
site
is
staggering, but it only caused thie one issue with my system. Good
luck!

"jmike" wrote:

My Help and Support Center suddenly stopped receiving responses from
Microsoft Knowledge Base. It lists "0 results" for knowledge base
while
the
other searches continue to respond as before. I have checked the
search
option settings and they are unchanged and I do have a connection to
the
internet.

Has anyone else experienced this and, if so, what is the fix?

This problem coincided with the upgrade to XP SP2 , but it has
happened
to
me once before. I was only able to fix the problem with a reinstall of
Windows (this problem was not the reason for the reinstall). I have
been
unable to find any info on this problem in the knowledge base or
elsewhere.