Symptoms

When you try to start the Security Center service in Windows XP, one of the following error messages may appear, and the service does not start:

Could not start the Security Center service on Local Computer.
Error 123: The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

Could not start the Security Center service on Local Computer.
Error 2: The system cannot find the file specified.

Could not start Security Center on Local Computer
Error 3: The system cannot find the specified path

Could not start the Security Center service on Local Computer.
Error 1083: The executable program that this service is configured to run in does not implement the service.

Cause

This happens if the binary path name for the service is incorrect.

Resolution

To resolve the problem, download wscsvcfix.zip from the following link, and save the file to Desktop. Unzip the file and double-click to run it. Click the Inspect and Fix button once. Restart Windows for the changes to take effect. Note that this utility requires administrator credentials to run correctly.

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/wscsvcfix.htm