After much research found the following KB and Hotfix for the 6398, 6482 and 7076 errors that had become the proverbial thorn in my side with my SharePoint server:
However, while installing the Hotfix, I received the following error message "Error 1324. The folder 'Program Files' contains an invalid character"
So I found this KB:
Error message when you try to install a security update for the .NET Framework 2.0 on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition: "Error 1324. The folder 'Program Files' contains an invalid character"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923101
The workaround allowed me to install the hotfix and now everything seems peachy! /sarcasm
