[kevpk]

i wonder if you can help a complete novice with a problem i have. until yesterday my laptop which has vista home edition running, worked just fine. i started it up earlier today and i was met by various error messages. the main message was "the service cannot accept control messages at this time" i got this when trying to update my anti virus ( Norton ). i also got it when trying to open up ccleaner and some other windows programmes. some programmes , like "convertx dvd "worked OK , itried to do system restore but got the same message. i started up in safe mode and managed to do system restore, taking my laptop settings back a week. i restarted in normal mode only to be met by more errors " host process for windows services stopped working and was closed " " application layer gateway service stopped working and was closed ", and also the " service cannot accept control messages at this time " i still cant access the programmes i mentioned , i even tried the repair your computer option on my laptop, and the last known good configuration option ,no change. so I'm stuck. anyone any ideas? is it a virus? or is there a solution you can help me with. sorry its a bit long winded, but that's what has happened.

[kevpk]

has anybody any ideas how to solve this. would a complete reset work? if i do it what will i lose? programmes I've loaded? emails? sorry but I'm very new to PCs so any help would be very much appreciate, thanx