Cannot start File Replication service

[cbacklund]

I'm having a ton of trouble getting my File Replication Service running. Everytime I try to start it I receive the error:

Could not start the File Replication Service on the local computer.

Error 1053: the service did not respond to the start control request in a timely fashion.

The error is logged in the system event log as:

Event ID 7009 - Service Control Manager: Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for the File Replication Service service to connect.

I have been searching for 2 days trying to fix this and I can't figure it out. All the prerequisite services are running. I've tried chaning the logon account for the service, but that has not helped. I cannot uninstall Active directory, since DCPROMO fails without the NTFRS service running. This is causing a major mess with no replication taking place in our organization. Can I force users to authenticate to a different server? Does anyone know how to fix this? I am running Server 2003 SP1.