Hi
I searched a little bit in Microsoft knowledge base about similar error messages and got this page:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/884564
It describes the error “The RPC server is unavailable" error message when you open Disk Management in Windows XP”
Not sure if this describes exactly your problem, but according to the MS doc, this problem occurs because of a mismatch in the computer name and the name that the RPC service expects.
Possibly the computer name has been changed in some way…
I think an 3rd party software (business application???) installed on your notebook requires and uses the RPC server or process and this might cause this error.
If you are not able to use and to boot the old preinstalled system, then a new installation would be recommended… I think this would be the easiest solution since the safe mode does not work too….