Rob and John:

It sounds like you may have security data base corruption as documented in
this KB article. This is a farly common problem after an SP2 install and it
looks like the probleem persists with SP3:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/884018/EN-US/
You cannot add a Windows component in Windows XP

You can either:

1. Get the hotfix mentioned in the KB article and install it. Microsoft
usually waives any charges for support calls to get supported hotfixes
listed in Knowledge Base articles. If you go this route, please make SURE
the person you talk to understands you've applied XP-SP3; this hotfix may
have been included. FWIW, the only report I've had back on this hotfix was
that it did NOT fix the problem on an XP-SP2 system

2. Try this procedure using the Esentutl.exe utility mentioned in the KB
article to recover from security database corruption:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/g...name=c00270202
HP and Compaq Notebook PCs: Unable to Install Windows XP Fax Software

I can report that the Esentutl utility has corrected the problem in a number
of cases, HOWEVER, note that Microsoft does NOT recommend that you use the
utility and would prefer you try the hotfix.

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- hhh@kvoa.com
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-Print/Imaging -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC Channel 4
Live at Hot Licks - www.badnewsbluesband.com

"John Miller" <John_L_Miller@no-spam.yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:upo16jFvIHA.5580@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Rob clearly has *exactly* the same problem as I do. I submitted this to
MS
> Tech Support. If I get anything useful, I'll let ya know.
>
> - John
>
>