Win XP failing to do routine System Restore

[Why Syzygy]

XP OS has not been making the routine system restore backups. I had disabled one of the RPC (Remote Procedure Recall) (I think); but have now set it to Automatic. Still no automatic restore points.

I'll be spending some time digging for an answer. But, maybe someone here can save me the hassle and already knows why this is happening? The settings do show it enabled, with plenty of storage space.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

1. Unfortunately, I've run into this issue many times before

It could be a lot of things.

First, check in your Services list (Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services), and make sure that the "Remote Procedure Call (RPC)" service is set to Automatic, and that it is started. If it's not, start it and set it to automatically start on boot up. Right click the item and select Start, then after it starts, right click it again and select Properties->General tab->Startup Type = "Automatic".

If the RPC service won't start or appears not to be running correctly, check its login account. Right click and select Properties and go to the Login tab. The login account should be something like "Network Service" or "NT AUTHORITY\Network Service" - this allows the service to login to the OS securely to perform its work.

Next, click the Dependencies tab (in the RPC service Properties dialog) and check to make sure that all of the services in the first list (it will be labeled something like "This service depends on the following components") are started.

One more place to look is in the event log (Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Event Viewer) and look for errors thrown by either the System Restore application or the RPC Service (or one of its dependencies). If one of those is throwing errors, you can at least use that error information to Google your problem.

Hope this helps!

[Why Syzygy]

2. Helps a lot!

Thanks. I'll let you know. I had a feeling it is related to the RPC. It seems that I may have disabled it before I found another way to kock out the Google updater. I had "started" it, but haven't looked at all the settings you mention.

[Why Syzygy]

3. I'm having this issue again.

RPC is Started and Automatic. The last time it did an automatic restore point was October 28, 2009.
The next day, Revo made one before I uninstalled ClamWin. The day after I installed a game and there are restore points for each game module. Nothing after that except a manual I made yesterday.

Looking at RPC, none of the options to Start/Stop/Pause/Resume are available; all grayed out.

RPC has no Dependencies.

I don't see any error messages being thrown. Would they be under:
Application
Security
System
Internet Explorer

I've looked through all of them.

Scary.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

5. Here's something to try

The RPC service depends on the DCOM service to run correctly. In the Services utility (Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services) find the listing from DCOM. On my machine it's named "DCOM Server Process Launcher", but I use Vista. If you're using XP, yours might be named "DCOM", "Distributed COM", "Distributed Component Object Model" or something else entirely. But, it will have the DCOM acronym or one of its variants in the name somewhere. Right click the DCOM entry and select Properties.

First, check to make sure that DCOM is using the Local System Account to login.
Next, make sure that DCOM is started and has a start-up type set to automatic.
Finally, reboot your computer (just to be safe).

I don't know if this will fix your issue, but it can't hurt to try, since RPC relies explicitly on the DCOM service for its operation.

FWIW, all my options on both the DCOM and RPC services are grayed out, and they weren't at some point in the past. I think one of Microsoft's updates may have disabled the ability to change these services without doing some registry hacks. Do you know if you performed any Windows update since your last successful restore point was saved?

[Why Syzygy]

9. Hey.

No, I had not done any updates since the last auto restore. I probably had since the time I fixed it before, though. If yours is grayed out too, that is some comfort.

I ran One Care and it fixed 5 registry entries. One of the list items was "System Restore". I'm not sure if that was a note it would make one, or a notice it was going to fix.

I also installed MSE and installed updates. I'll just have to give it 24 hours and see. I'm going to do a couple of registry hacks later to uninstall ctfmon (!) and one to clean out my past notification icons. :D

Thanks for helping out.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

10. If all else fails

You can go back to one of your restore points (if you can) and see if that fixes your issue.

[Why Syzygy]

11. It's too late for that.

I installed Morrowind/Bloodmoon/Tribunal/Construction Set/2 Mods since the last auto restore point.
I'll just have to restore manually until I find a fix. I'm having faith that One Care fixed it.
:crossesfingers:

[DainBramaged]

4. One tool to fix it in about 30 seconds......

http://wiki.lunarsoft.net/wiki/Dial-a-fix#Mirrors.2Fdownload_locations.2C_and_articles

[Why Syzygy]

6. Are you suggesting I reinstall IE?

Or? What?

[DainBramaged]

7. NO that is one of the functions this tool will perform, that is a screenshot

if you notice it also has "reinstall system restore" this is an excellent tool for fixing XP problems. Please don't misunderstand.

[Why Syzygy]

8. Okay.

Thanks! I'll keep it in mind.

[Duer 157099]

12. My go-to site for anything related to services

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

You probably already know about it, but it's a great resource.

[Why Syzygy]

13. No, I didn't.

Thanks! Bookmarked.