Hey Guys I have a computer running windows xp pro sp3 there are several services that are stopped like work station , Network Connections, Windows Management Instrumentation ect when I try to start the service I get the following error "Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion"

I have installed the .net framwork 1.1 service pack 1 which is recommended by microsoft how ever this still has not resolved the issue.
I need to back up vital data off the system and because of various services not running I am unable to access usb, cd drives and the network which makes it hard for backing up data.

Any suggestions on a work around would be welcome.

Try doing an XP Repair:
XP Repair

You will have to download most MS Updates again, but your files will be intact

I am not able to do a repair as the client i am supporting is not at my location.
I need to figure out what is causing the services not to start.

It is possible that your client has mistakenly deleted some critical Windows files. This happens often when the computer user deletes programs and files, trying to gain hard drive space and speed

no she was on vacation and when she came back could not access the network.
thats when i noticed the network connections service was not started then got the error trying to start it. one thing could this happen if disk clean up compressed files? I will check that monday.

If you still need to backup files See How to recover your folders/files when Windows won’t boot

that looked good however the user is not on a tech level to be able to preform those steps just to give a little back ground my user is in CA I am In VA so it is kinda hard to do a lot of things without me being able to remote into the system.
my user is an accountant that does taxes, so there is alot of vital information on this computer.
my user is on a very basic computer user level so I need to find basic step to get atleast the network connections service to start this will allow me to remote into the system.

Can you establish a remote connection to take control of the computer from your location?

the .NETFRAME stuff is not a requirement anyway, however
There are dependencies to be verified as running; eg Net Connections -> depends upon Windows Firewall/ICS running first

Can you report a full list of the services which refuse to start ?

I will try to get a complete list here are the ones i know right off the top of my head

Network Connections
Security Center
Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
Windows Management Instrumentation
Workstation

As soon as I can touch base with the client I will get a complete list but the above services are not running and i get the error trying to start them.

at this time no because the network connectiions service is not running.
without this service you are unable to use network connections

service -> dependency
-----------------------------------------
Network Connections -> ICS
Security Center -> none
Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) -> none
Windows Management Instrumentation
--------------------->Pure Network Platform Srvc[*]
--------------------->Security Service
--------------------->ICS
Workstation
--------------------->Alerter
--------------------->Computer Browser
--------------------->Messenger
--------------------->Net Logon
--------------------->Rpc locator

[*] Only because the 3rd part software is installed

Might this be caused by a virus or other malware attack?

perhaps, but likely a fumbled finger newbe playing with services.msc

if the user was locked out (ie LUA/UAC), then I would suspect

some infection
remote control access breached

Jobeard I think you are right wodnering fingers on the computer by someone who did not know what they were doing.
this was done while the client was on vacation.

If I could just firgure a way to get net connections running then I could log in and find out what was changed.

at this point I was able to run a virus scan with CA anti virus and a malware scan with malware bytes both ran and found no infections.

according to microsoft it is a problem with .net 1.1 sp1 however I was able to get the client to download the sp1 burn it to a cd and install it on the machine after reboot there was no change.

I also suspect that there are other services not running other than what i listed the problem with the ones that i listed is I can not start thier respective dependancies either.

can't run system restore either (no surprise there)

"can't run system restore either (no surprise there)"...

Why can't they run a system restore? Was the system moved to another desk or network node while the client was on vacation?

Infers other software issues. Suggest you plan on a site vist.

btw: restore is located at C:\WINDOWS\system32\Restore\rstrui.exe

system restore will not run because of System Restore Service is not running and can't start

That occurs under Save Mode, but should start normally as there are no dependencies