Larry, this can be caused by a missing key in the registry:

Nick, a follow up... this can be caused by missing subkey in the registry:

Locate the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\BackupRestore\

Create the following key if it does not exist:
FilesNotToBackup

so you have this path when finished:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l
\BackupRestore\FilesNotToBackup\


Now see if BITS will start.


"Larry Waibel" <lwaibel@no-spam-cox.net> wrote in message
news:VA.000002e8.002936cb@no-spam-cox.net...
> I've been using Microsoft Update (XP Pro, SP2) fine for a long time but
> suddenly it's failing. When I tell it to do the downloads, it just sits for
> a long time and then reports they all failed. The failure code in the
> history is 0x80246008. This leads to some help that says the Background
> Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) is not started. When I use services.msc
> to try to start it, I get "Windows could not start the Backtround
> Intelligent
> Transfer Service on Local Computer. For more information, review the System
> Event Log. If this is a non-Microsoft service, contact the service vendor,
> and refer to service-specific error code -2147024894." When I check the
> System Event log, I find "The server {4991D34B-80A1-4291-83B6-3328366B9097}
> did not register with DCOM within the required timeout." When I go to the
> help for that it just tells me how to determine the vendor and to report the
> problem to them; but this is a Microsoft service <sigh>. I did note that
> BITS is dependent on RPC and that is started. What else can keep BITS from
> being able to start? Thanks!
>
>