On my Dev VM, I’ve been unable to manage SQL Server Express with SQL Server Configuration Manager – I get an error “The Remote Procedure call failed”.

The solution: Updates. I found this article:

SQL Server 2012 Configuration Manager WMI Error – Remote Procedure call failed [0x800706be]

Which mentions about things breaking wile installing Sql Server 2012 – I didn’t install that, but I did install Visual Studio 2012 – which includes Server Server 2012 components.

Install sql server 2008 sp3, and sql server 2008 r2 sp2. Problems solved.