Question : Norton Ghost 9 tray icon sometimes throws "Unable to connect to the service" error.

I'm running XP Pro and usually log on the Administrator where I run some utilities and scheduled tasks and monitors. ie. Norton System Doctor. I then login as my user (also admin). It seems that more often than not the Norton Ghost system tray app throws the error "Unable to connect to the service". The ghost console seems to run and function fine whether this error shows or not. If I log off and then back on a couple of times I'll catch it without the error. The Administrator account and my account seem to be independent relative to this. For example I'll get the Administrator logged on without the Ghost error and my account with the error or the other way around. Again, it doesn't seem to make a difference to the Ghost console's function.

I have tried the usual fixes. Both Ghost services are set to Automatic and they are started. .NET is installed.

Answer : Norton Ghost 9 tray icon sometimes throws "Unable to connect to the service" error.

This normally occurs, in my experience, when the network doesn't come up in time - especially when your recovery point in on a NAS drive - or on another computer on the network.
You can add a dependancy in for the Ghost service(s) - so that they wait for Network Connections (Netman) to be up and running:
http://www.petri.co.il/delay_services_in_windows_2000_xp_2003.htm