Thanks for the feedback...
Just some more info: KDE never really told me the file was missing. It was only when I did "ls -la" in the user's home directory that I noticed the file was missing. There's a link to the DCOPserver_myhostname_:0 file (which I forgot to mention is normally hidden) that flashes red - indicating that the link's target is missing. Again, KDE seems to start up fine.