Tightening Service Account Rights / Startup Service Account Greyed Out

From: ESPNSTI (ESPNSTISPAM_at_Hotmail.Com)
Date: 02/17/05 

Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 00:44:48 -0600

Hello,

I'm trying to reduce the rights of a SQL Server 2000 SP3a (Personal Edition,
with security update) running on Windows 2000 Pro SP4:

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 - 8.00.818 (Intel X86)
 May 31 2003 16:08:15
 Copyright (c) 1988-2003 Microsoft Corporation
 Personal Edition on Windows NT 5.0 (Build 2195: Service Pack 4)

I first tried to change the "Startup Service Account" in Enterpise Manager
(Server Properties->Security->Startup Service Account), but that always
appears to be greyed out.
My server registration is logging in with windows authentication and I'm
logged in as the local administrator (the computer is not on a domain).
I've also checked that I have rights to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlset\Services\MSSQLServer (which was
suggested as being the problem by someone).

Since I was unable to change it through Enterprise Manager (the recommended
way), I followed the instructions of MSKB Q283811 (
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q283811 ).
Now when I attempt to start SQL Server with an account set up according to
Q283811, I get the following errors:

"Event Type: Information
Event Source: Application Popup
Event Category: None
Event ID: 26
Date: 02/17/2005
Time: 00:19:34
User: N/A
Computer: ****
Description:
Application popup: sqlservr.exe - Application Error : The application failed
to initialize properly (0xc0000022). Click on OK to terminate the
application."

"Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7009
Date: 02/17/2005
Time: 00:19:38
User: N/A
Computer: ****
Description:
Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for the MSSQLSERVER service to
connect."

"Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7000
Date: 02/17/2005
Time: 00:19:38
User: N/A
Computer: ****
Description:
The MSSQLSERVER service failed to start due to the following error:
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely
fashion."

Any ideas?