Generic Host Process for Win32 Services has encountered...

[RichardL]

I have an X41 with Windows-XP-SP3. I bought it refurbished c. 18 months ago and mostly it is very good. In the last few months this has started happening: (All may run normally for an hour, then) "Generic Host Process for Win32 Services has encountered a problem and needs to close." If I clear the message box (either send report or don't send), things start locking up, anything running might continue for a while, but can't start anything new. Definitely can't switch the on-screen keyboard on or off, or press any of its keys. If I simply push the message box out of the way, everything continues almost normally. If I open or close the on-screen keyboard, the message box jumps back to centre screen.

Report contents mention svchost.mdmp, and appcompat.txt - this has a list of dlls;
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="advapi32.dll"
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="gdi32.dll"
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="kernel32.dll"
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="ntdll.dll"
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="ole32.dll"
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="oleaut32.dll"
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="shell32.dll"
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="user32.dll"
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="wininet.dll"
<MATCHING_FILE NAME="winsock.dll"
There's a whole lot more info about each, including dates, some of which are very recent. So is this something that Microsoft have dropped on me recently?
Any help appreciated.
Richard.

[Harryc]

See if these links help -
http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Fix-Gene ... s-to-close
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=894391#top

[RichardL]

Harryc, thanks for that, I've put in the hubpages fix, and it's looking good. I'll have to use it for a few days to be sure.
Richard.

[RichardL]

Harryc, the fault is still there, possibly less often than before. I looked at the MS fix, it's for SP2, and refuses to install 'you already have newer'.
Richard.

[Harryc]

Test your hardware (including RAM and Hard Drive) and make sure it is good using PC-Doctor. If all is OK reinstall the OS.

[RichardL]

Good advice, I should do all that yes. I don't believe it is hardware fault, the problem is too reliable. Now it is clearly happening each time I start/stop the on-screen keyboard, and after 'sleep'. I'm sure that the fault would go away with reload os, and think it would come back again, when all the windows updates re-install themselves. I regret that re-installing everything is more work than living with the problem. I'm going to try going back to the oldest restore point, regrettably only a month back.

[RichardL]

I decided to "return to factory settings" and the fault has gone. I haven't switched on updates yet.
Thanks for your advice.