Generic Host Process error at startup

By order of a 2nd level technician from *sigh* AOL, I was told to delete the following registry keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinSock2

I was then told to reinstall them by some method I do not remember.

This was in response to a problem I had with the connection speed I was receiving, but that isn't the issue at hand. Now, at every startup of the computer, I receive an error with "Generic Host Process for Win32 Services ", It says the "szAppName : svchost.exe ".

Aside from being really annoying, I find that I have to reinstall the sound drivers for my soundcard at every startup, because any effort made to play a sound in a program fails with an error telling me that no sound device could be found.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

 

Generic Host Process for Win32 Services error.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=894391&SD=tech

Sound problem; onboard, PCI or external sound setup?

 

I have an onboard soundcard. I'll give this hotfix a try, will find out tomorrow if it's fixed the problem.

 

AjsNightmare--Whiskeyman's suggestion will hopefully fix the problem.
If not try
1) System Restore to a date before you followed the AOL advice.
If that does not help,
2) Start|Run|type sfc /scannow|OK. Have your WinXP CD ready since you may be asked to insert it into the CD-ROM drive.
In the future before making any changes to the Registry, click Registry|File|Export and make a backup of the keys you are changing. That way you can restore the situation if you do not like the results. Also make careful notes what the instructions were "to reinstall them by some method I do not remember ".
Concerning connection speed, what is your connection to the internet (dialup, cable, etc.)? What problem were you trying to solve?
If cable or DSL, look here
http://www.dslreports.com/tweaks
http://www.dslreports.com/stest

 

Well the hotfix doesn't seem to have helped, I'll try doing a system restore tomorrow, aswell as the scan if that doesn't sort things.

As for our connection speed, the problem occured after we cancelled and reconnected the service on the same day, obviously they had put us back at half the speed we were on. I tried explaining this to the techies, but they wouldn't have any of it unless I tried "clear internet cache" route. They have now realised that the problem is theirs and are going to put us back to the speed we pay for.

I should indeed take better care to backup registry entries in future.

 

Everything is working ok now, thanks alot for the help.

 

AjsNightmare--Pleased to hear the good news.
Any idea which of the suggestions was the fix? Or perhaps a reboot or something the ISP did?

 

I believe it was the hotfix, I noticed on the page that it said it would take 2 reboots for the hotfix to work, I assumed this had been done but apparently it had been done only once.

I guess only time will tell if this hotfix has done the job properly.