BleepingComputer.com: Window Xp Security Center Is Unavailable

I have a Dell Vostro 1700, Win Xp SP2.
When I go to Control Panel- Security Center, it says Security Center is unavailable and that I need to start the service. So I read some instructions and was able to start the service by going thru Run: services.msc and change the setting to Automatic (from Disable) . That turns the Security Center on, but everytime I restart the computer, the problem reappears, i.e. the same message "Security Center is unavailable...".
I was wondering if there's any thing else I could do. Thank you for any advice.

P.S. I have Norton Antivirus and Spyware Doctor installed in my computer. And I just cleaned up a viral infection (I think/hope).

Hello rphken,

You need to find the security centre service and change some of the properties. Double click on the entry and click the Log On tab make sure it is set to local system account and allow service to interact with desktop

Select the recovery tab and and set the three boxes to restart the service. Next click the dependencies tab and make sure all the dependencies are enabled.

Thanks Alan.
I tried your instruction (completely step by step), but after I restarted my computer, security center is unavailable again. (I actually did it twice, to make sure I didn't forget anything).
When I went back to the Services, the updates that I did were still in effect: Log On tab was set to local system and allow service to interact with desktop, the recovery tab three boxes were set to Restart the Service. However, SC was Disable.
What do you think I should do next?
Thanks.

And by the way, on the Dependencies Tab, it has the following:

+Remote Procedure call (RPC)
+Window Management Instrumentation

Is that what it's supposed to be? And how do I know the dependencies are enabled?

That's strange, the dependencies displayed should also be started in the services menu. This could either be a registry problem or a system fault.

Do you have spybot installed on the system? can be found at http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html if you run this tool it will scan for malware and also enable security centre by fixing the registry key.

If you go back to services.msc open the security centre tab and select the log on tab. Are there any hardware profiles listed in the box?

Yes. Under Log On Tab, it has Profile 1 in the box. And under the word Service, it says Enable.
Thank you.

Security centre should be running correctly.
Have you performed a scan with spybot?

Yes, I downloaded Spybot Search and Destroy from the link you gave, and scanned the system. It dectected and fixed 12 items. So after the scan, I restarted the system to test it. And again, Security Center is unavailable.

That is strange, it is all set up correctly. What service pack are you using?

Also you could try using the System File Checker. Start run sfc /scannow that should repair damaged system files that could be causing the problem.

It was the weidest thing or it was just a coincidence. But I uninstalled Norton Antivirus and the problem was solved. Thanks very much for all your help.

Thats great news, thanks for letting us know.

Just out of curiosity, what are you using to replace Norton?