Symantec Management Platform (Notification Server)

We are getting the error "A process serving application pool 'Classic .NET AppPool' suffered a fatal communication error with the Windows Process Activation Service.

This error keeps showing up in our IIS warnings.  At the same time we cannot access the console either locally or remotely without being prompted for credentials.  Any ideas?

Is this a new or an old install?  Any changes to the server's software?  Any credential or permission changes that you're aware of?  Anything valuable from the Windows event logs?  From the Altiris logs?

This is a new install but it was running fine for over a week and then all of a sudden we could no longer get into the console.  It would prompt us for a username and password but wouldn't accept anything we typed in.  There have been NO changes to anything that I am aware of.  Whenever we get one of these we also get an Application Error in the Event Viewer.  That reads:

Faulting application name: w3wp.exe, version: 7.5.7600.16385, time stamp: 0x4a5bd0eb

Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 6.1.7600.16850, time stamp: 0x4e211da1

Exception code: 0xe053534f

Fault offset: 0x000000000000a88d

Faulting process id: 0x%9

Faulting application start time: 0x%10

Faulting application path: %11

Faulting module path: %12

Report Id: %13