eclipse problems during start up

When I try to start eclipse I get a little window saying
problems during startup.Check the ".log" file in the ".metadata" directory of your workspace.

The above mentioned .log file has in it:
!SESSION ----------------------------------------------------------------------
!ENTRY org.eclipse.core.launcher 4 0 Apr 29, 2004 18:41:16.564
!MESSAGE Exception launching the Eclipse Platform:
!STACK
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Unable to acquire application service
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:84)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:279)
at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:742)
at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.main(Main.java:581)

I have tried deleting ".lock" file , but that didnt help !!
Iam running eclipse on Win XP Professional.
Any idea why this is happening .
Thanks in Advance.

OK, this is probably the most useless advice ever, but when that happened to me this morning, I tried a few more times and it now seems to work fine.
Umm...if anyone has a more logical explanation, I'd also be keen to hear it.
Cheers,

--Tim

Tim
I have tried restarting (many times)though , that didnt help..
It is so strange ,I havent made any changes to the environment and all of a sudden I see this problem..

That's also what happened to me - though after it crashed. I guess it just happened in a "nicer" way for me than you.
If you haven't already, maybe you could try moving all the Eclipse config files and your projects so that Eclipse can't find them - hopefully it'll start afresh and you can re-add them. I have no idea if that would do any good though...it's just my next logical step in random problem diagnosis. Would be a bit of a pain though.
Cheers,
--Tim

I have deleted the following files from .config folder
.bundledata
.instsall-log
.registry
.state
last.config.stamp
platform.cfg.log
registry
and deleted the .lock file from workspace\.metadata folder and restarted eclipse .
All my settings are intact and it works fine now.I dont know what caused the problem though.

Try deleting the text file with no name..within the .metadata folder inside your workspace.

Sometimes it works, when not i tried deleting the above mentioned files in .config folder, it worked for me.Hope it vil be helpful to someone.

regards

Raj