"Failed to connect to a Window Service" ?

I have googled this error, and I see a ton of hits, but nothing that really looks like anyone has figured it out.

My son has an HP laptop, W7, at college with him. He is 5 hours from me. The laptop is 2 years old, and other than the battery wearing out (he has to keep it plugged in) he's not noticed any problems with it, until the last few days. Every time he turns it on, it takes a long time (5 min or more) to start, and then presents this error. I can't really do much from where I am, but I thought if I posted the question, maybe someone can point him in the right direction?

Possibly relevant, his Norton internet security was not current - I renewed mine with a special deal and got a new key, and didn't even think to give it to him. This was about a month ago. So I'll send him the new key, but I don't know how to get him past this error, or exactly why he is getting it.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

 

Click start, then type in CMD (windows 7). Press enter.

type in:
sc query state= inactive | find /I "SERVICE_NAME" > output.txt
then post that info here.

Note the space after the "=" and the /I is the capital letter I NOT L

This will list all services that are not running.

By, the way, Welcome to MajorGeeks! Hopefully someone will help you with your issue!

 

I'm sorry I'm not the greatest at this, I've typed that in and in several ways to make sure it was right but when i typed that entire line, nothing happened, and when I only type in "sc query state= inactive" there is a list that is too long to scroll to the top. Also I'm doing this in Safe Mode or whatever state my computer is in after it "fails to locate a windows service"

I'm going to try this same thing while not in safe mode though and we'll see if I'm just typing it in wrong or not.

 

Thanks! I see my son has checked in. Would his machine be in safe mode when he gets that error? I thought you had to do F8 to boot in Safe Mode...or does that error automatically place you in that mode?

 

Yeah, safe mode won't work for this. We need to see what services are not running on normal boot. Sorry.