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

I'm having a problem using pop3 in outlook on an external machine connecting
to Exchange Server using the pop3 service. I has been working fine for a
long time, until a few days ago when outlook started to report an error.

Task'IP ADDRESS' - Receiving' reported error (0x800CCC0F) : 'The connection
to the server was interrupted. If this problem continues, contact your
server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).'

I tried restarting the pop3 service on the exchange server. Then I get a
error.

Could not start the Microsoft Exchange POP3 service on Local Computer.
Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a
timely fashion.

The event log has only one entry. 'Attempting to stop the Microsoft
Exchange POP3 Service (Build 6.5.7638.1)' Thats it, no other message related
to POP3.

When I view the Service in the services console, POP3 says it is restarting
and stays that way. When I reboot the server, the service will show that it
has started but still can't connect using Outlook. If I try and restart the
POP3 service again, I get the same result.

However, if I 'end task' on inetinfo.exe in task manager, the POP3 service
then starts!?!?

Can't keep doing this everytime the server is restarted.

I'm running WIN2003k SBS SP2, Exchange 2003 SP2. The Workstation is on
WinXP SP2, Outllook 2003.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.