Workstation service will not load at system boot

The computer turns on and hangs at workstation. Explorer will not load the desktop until this service loads. I can get workstation to load by closing Explorer via the task manager but if I reload explorer and try to restart the workstation service it won't load.

I get error 1053 which is the generic 'cannot load service" message. I've done a disk check, uninstalled/reinstalled network drivers, and the workstation service loads just fine in safe mode.


Any idea how to fix this?


It's a problem because the system doesn't boot properly. I can get everything I need out of it by force quiting explorer and then opening it again at boot. But i'd rather not have to do that forever.


The system is XP SP2.


Is this fixable or is it time to reinstall windows?

Not yet

Go to start, programs, startup and see what is there? If the problem is not there go to start, run, MSCONFIG and just disable it from there.

I don't want to disable it. I want to start it. It won't start. There seems to be some kind of conflict between the explorer executable and the workstation service. It's impairing boot. If I disable the workstation service then there are network services I won't be able to use.