Services not starting after installing service pack on Windows 2003 server

  • Article

      1) Disable all third party services and startup items using msconfig.exe.

2) Restart the machine.

3) Open services console (Start à run à services.msc)

4) Check the status of The Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service (rpcss.exe).

5) If RPC service is running in Network Service account then change the login account LocalSystem

6) Following are the two ways to change the login account:

a. Go to properties of the RPC service and click on Logon.

Select Local System account.

b. Open registry editor(Start à run à regedit)

Go to registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RpcSs

Value name: ObjectName

Type: REG_SZ

Value data: NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService

Change value of “Value data” to LocalSystem

c. Reboot the machine.

7) If all the services started after changing the account then issue could be due to Impersonation rights .

8) Open dsa .msc and give account permission impersonation policies under

Computer Configuration- LocalPolicy- Security for the following accounts

-Administrators

-IIS-WPG

-Network service

-Local Service

9) Change the logon account of RPC service

Open registry editor(Start à run à regedit)

Go to registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RpcSs

Value name: ObjectName

Type: REG_SZ

Value data: LocalSystem

Change value of “Value data” to NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService

Reboot the machine.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Thats Correct Prakash.. if we change the service account to local system it will reduce the security. This steps is suggested only to check if service is running fine with local system account. If yes then we need to check impersonation right policy and change the service account back to network service. If service doesnt start with local system account then issue is due other reasons like registry key corruption etc.

  • Anonymous
    July 16, 2008
    This article saved me a restore (or worse a reinstall) of a SBS 2003 after a service pack applied, but on reboot all major services would not start.

  • Anonymous
    July 27, 2008
    Why wouldn't Microsoft issue a bulletin or something about this issue? I have two separate customers that this happened to - one lost their data due to reinstall - then today, the second one had the issue and after using the fix in this article, all was well. Microsoft?

  • Anonymous
    December 23, 2008
    Step #6 fixed up my system Thank you very, very much!

  • Anonymous
    April 22, 2009
    Changing RPC's log in account to "Local System" is a valid step but keeping it that way will weaken customer's network and is considered a Security Breach. "Local System" account is more powerful and has more priviledges are compared to "network service" account. This issue will considered to be resolved only if RPC service starts fine when running under "Network Service" account.

  • Anonymous
    July 26, 2009
    Thank You!  This helped me tremendously!  Step #6 did the trick

  • Anonymous
    August 17, 2009
    Thank you so much, this works fine for my system

  • Anonymous
    August 17, 2009
    i had the same issue in my system. Now it is resolved based on this solution. Thanks to pawansharma.

  • Anonymous
    April 02, 2010
    This was Fantastic.  It also saved us from a reload.  Unfortunately, in applying STIGs, the text does not show the pitfalls of hardening too tightly even though the hardening is recommended.  We are grateful. Stephen.