svchost error keeps killing internet connection (windows XP problem)

Factual Questions
1

Hi all,

I believe I may have accidentally forced quit an svchost process earlier (I misclicked my intended target in the task manager screen), and I’ve been having this problem ever since.

I’ve been getting this error message: “Generic Host Process for Win32 Services has encountered a problem and needs to close.” When I get this message, my internet connection (ADSL) gets disconnected, and attempts to log on again fail (I have to restart the computer to log back in).

The Error Signature is as follows:
szAppName:
szAppVer: 0.0.0.0
szModName: Unknown
szModVer: 0.0.0.0
offset: 00000000

Also, it says the following files will be included in the report:

svchost.exe.mdmp
appcompat.txt
Does anyone know how I can fix this? I am currently away from home (and will be for a long time) so I unfortunately don’t have access to any of the system CDs that came with the computer. If it helps, I’m running XP Home version 2002 service pack 1,

Any help for my idiocy-induced problem would be much appreciated!

2

Oh, I should mention that I have already tried contacting Microsoft support, but apparently they don’t help customers whose Windows came with the computer (at least not for free). A post on their support forum didn’t yield any responses.

3

One Microsoft Knowledge Base article suggests that this error can be caused by old HP printer or scanner drivers. You might want to try removing or updating the drivers for any devices you’ve recently hooked up.

You could also run sfc /scannow from the command line to check for corrupted system files. This may ask for the Windows CD, though.