BITS and Updates

My computer (Windows XP Home Edition) wasn't accepting windows updates and I
have had to do them manually for several months. I tried some suggestions
but they did not work. I then stumbled upon a solution:

Go to Control Panel, then Administrative Tools, then Services. Right click
on Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS). Click on "dependencies".
Mine listed "Remote Procedure Call (RPC)." I then went to RPC in the
Services list and started it. I was then able to start the BITS on the
services list. And I was then able to download an update from Windows Update.

This is after getting error messages such as "snap in failed to initialize"
and "windows could not start the BITS" with error code 2147024891.