XP locking up when DCOM times out.

For the last month or so, XP is locking up on me. Well, it's sort of locking up because any application that is running when it occurs continues to run but I can't start anything else and I can't get a response when I click on anything for several minutes before the system fires up again. The system usually pops back up after several minutes but, on some occasions, I have to re-boot. It happens, on average, several times a day.
Event View shows the following error:

"The server {00024500-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} did not register with DCOM within the required timeout."

I searched the registers and found that this apparently has something to do with MS Office Excel, an application that I have but almost never use. I don't understand some of the information I found because it was too complicated for this dummy. All the registers that I found when searching for the numerical character string in the above Event Viewer error message found stuff related to MS Excel. I ran Office Diagnostics last night and it did identify and fix one problem in the last phase of the test (Setup) but that didn't fix the problem.

I'm running XP Home, SP3 (all up-to-date) but I guess it's really XP Pro because it has been updated with MS Office. My gut feeling is that this is not caused by malware, etc., but, of course, there is always that possibility. My AV is Avast!. I also have Spypot S&D (with immunization on), Spyware Blaster, Ad-Aware, Super-Anti-Spyware, and I run Windows Live Online every couple weeks. And to clean things up, I run CCleaner every day. Some of those programs are running in real-time and the others I run about once a week. They always come up clean except for a couple low-threat tracking cookies now and then. I also ran three free online scanners (Trend, Panda, Stinger) two days ago to see if they might find something. Still no luck. I have run Cleanup, Defrag, and ChkDsk with repair options checked. . I did a System Restore to a point before the problem began, also with no luck. I can access Task Manager when the problem is occurring and no unusual CPU usage or anything like that shows up. In fact, it is often running at 98-99% idle while the problem is occurring. I keep junk off my PC and only have necessary services running. Unnecessary stuff is either disabled or set to manual pretty much according to Black Viper recommendations. The only software I added recently was Spyder3Elite (monitor calibration) but I don't think the problem started when I installed that application but I just thought I would mention it anyway.

I searched the Internet extensively before coming here and didn't find anything that I could understand. I posted on a couple other forums but wasn't able to find an answer to this problem. Someone at Annoyances.org suggested that I post the question here.

I would really appreciate any help anyone might offer but I would also appreciate it if any responses are in plain English as much as possible. I am definitely not a PC expert!

Since making my original post, I have run sfc /scannow. It did ask me to insert my OS disk so apparently I was either missing at least one file and/or something was corrupted but, unfortunately, that didn't fix the problem I am having either.

What other errors are listed in your event viewer under the system or application logs?

Can you be more specific about how often the problem occurs? Every half hour, every hour, etc…

What particular applications are you using when it happens, or is it completely random?

Please click start -> run -> type 'msconfig' and press ENTER. When the msconfig window opens, please click the 'services' tab, check "Hide All Microsoft Services", click 'Disable All.' Now, click the 'Startup' tab, click 'disable all' and click OK. Please reboot the computer when prompted. This will usually disable your anti-virus software, as well as other security programs. Please use your computer for a while and see if the problem still occurs. Do not download files from the internet, go to questionable websites, or use peer-to-peer programs because your anti-virus may not be functioning.

Note: If any of your security software attempts to interfere with the above operation please allow the changes.

Once you have determined if your problem is still occuring or not, you can click start -> run -> type 'msconfig' and press ENTER. Under the 'General' tab, you can select "Normal Startup." and click OK. Reboot your computer when prompted and it will be back to normal again.

EDIT: Please do not run any more cleaner type programs until this problem is resolved. Or never again, would be even better.

BTW, Welcome to WhatTheTech.

Thanks appleoddity! I was just getting ready to shut down for the night so I will do what you suggest tomorrow. As for your questions: There really doesn't seem to be any pattern to the problem that I can identify. It just happened 15 minutes ago when I was using Outlook while listening to iTunes. Nothing else was running. I haven't noticed that it happens when any particular applications are running. My wife says it happens to her when she's playing games with nothing else running. I have had some other error messages in Event Viewer occasionally while I have been watching this but there aren't any that I have noticed as repeating like the one listed above. That is the one that always shows up after my system locks up. I had some errors that had something to do with my Lexmark printer but they didn't seem to affect anything and those errors never caused my PC to hang up. The printer still worked fine and those errors don't occur too often. I appreciate your advice about cleaner programs but I have been using CCleaner for years without any problems. I feel that the benefit outweighs the possibility of it causing problems and I like how it cleans stuff up. I have also been using SpyBot, Spyware Blaster, and Ad-Aware for years without any problems. However, Ad-Aware did recently come out with it's new version that I have so I guess that's a potential problem. Anyway, I have been extremely lucky over the years as far as glitches go and I think that is partly due to the fact that I use some of those programs to keep junk off my PC. My old PC runs as fast as it did the day I bought it long ago. In fact, it ran faster than the Vista machine with a quad processor that I bought and returned. Any problems that I have ever had (with one exception) had nothing to do with Spyware, viruses, etc., or any tools that I use to clean stuff up. (The one exception was a virus and it was completely my own fault.) On the other hand, now that I think about it, I did install SuperAntiSpyware recently but I think that was after the problem started happening. In fact, I may have found it while trying to solve the problem but I'm not completely sure about that. That's the only program of that type that I have added in at least a couple years. (I just checked the SuperAntiSpyware logs for every scan that I have run since installing it and the only thing it has found is tracking cookies. I DON'T have it running in real-time.)

Sorry for these dup posts. I have no idea how I did that. I couldn't find a way to delete them. That's the first time I have had this happen in a forum. What an embarrassing way to start in a new forum!

Thats ok.. I put in a request to have the duplicates removed. As far as CCleaner goes, I don't use it, but haven't heard of any serious side effects of it. My point is, if you are using registry cleaners, please stop. I saw so many different programs you are running to protect yourself, that I just automatically assumed there has to be a registry cleaner or two in there you didn't mention. These types of problems are caused by registry cleaners, not fixed by them. Try the msconfig tests tomorrow and let me know how it goes.

OK, I'm running as you suggested now. For some odd reason, the system never shut down even though the "Shutting Down" message was on the screen. I finally just powered it down and I'm running as you suggested now with only essential Windows stuff running and my AV. My AV wasn't disabled - there may be a setting in Avast! that doesn't allow it to be disabled unless I change that setting. Is it OK that I leave it running? I feel better if it is running of course. I really appreciate your help. I have done a lot of searching for a solution to this problem and was just about to give up on it when I found WhattheTech. I just hope I don't need to reinstall XP. I hate even thinking about that. I know how to do it and I have done it but it takes about a week to get things back to normal. What a pain!

Well, that didn't take long! After making my previous post, I stepped away for a minute and when I came back my PC was locked up again. I got the same error message in Event Viewer that I mention in my first post. I'm back on nomal Startup now.