Com + Event System (and SENS)

[Martin009]

For a number of months I have reconciled myself to beleiveing that one of my drivers has been installed incorrectly. I am beginning to wonder if it is my COM + services however.

They are disabled and I cannot start them.
Does anyone know where I can find the information on how to reinstall these correctly? Or restart them without them crashing?

I have Widnows Home Edition.

[confus-ed]

Methinks the bit that made you 'reconciled' may be most helpful with this ;) !

You ought to have two 'com+' type services, 'com+ event system' which needs to be running, & 'com+ system application' which should be able to start & stop but generally isn't running, the thing with services, though, is that they have 'dependencies' (where other stuff has got to be running/'fired' in the right order, for them to work 'right') & it may be some other failure causing this !

Methinks the simplest solution for a novice is a re-install over the top/repair of xp, to see if that can fix it up .. This shows you all the steps (http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxppro/installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm)

[Martin009]

I would rather not try to reinstall. I have tried that once before around a year ago when this first started happening.

Initially , I went through each piece of hardware removing and installing the drivers etc.

On another thread I read that it might be a problem with the onboard grphics that I have (Geforce 4) and DirectX 9. (I have NVIDIA GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU (Microsoft Corporation) [Display adapter]).

Is there any means by which I could trace the dependencies?

[confus-ed]

Blackviper (http://www.blackviper.com/) has information on services & derpendencies & some reg tweaks which might help you, I'm thinking that the default services set for xp home will be worth trying - I'll have to caution you though that 'messing with' your registry like this can have adverse affects etc ..

Are you sure that your machine is all patched up etc, chipset patches & stuff applied ?

Btw are there any related threads or symptoms with this ? I can't think what can have randomly changed services on & off - unless perhaps you've been tweaking ? ..

[Martin009]

Thanks for the link to Blackviper

Re: I'm thinking that the default services set for xp home will be worth trying - I'll have to caution you though that 'messing with' your registry like this can have adverse affects etc ..

Re: Are you sure that your machine is all patched up etc, chipset patches & stuff applied ?
As far as I am aware I have all the latest drivers and patches etc from Windows Update site and MSI etc. I regularly check for updates and visit the various update sites from time to time

Re: randomly changed services on & off - unless perhaps you've been tweaking ?
I did tweak about a year ago when the BSOD first appeared. These tweaks were based on what others had tried and found succesful on this site and other related sites. The random BSOD did disappear but with the side effect that, for example, I cannot copy a CD without a BSOD.

[Martin009]

I've compared the Default Home edition to my own and there is only one difference. The Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) svchost.exe was set to auto and not manual.

Other than that all were the same.

[Martin009]

This is why I was asking about COM+ as being the cause of the problem!

Additional Info:
The following error appears in the application
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error calling routine CoCreateInstance. hr = 0x8007007e.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


Details
Product: Windows Operating System
ID: 8193
Source: VSS
Version: 5.2
Symbolic Name: VSS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED_CALLING_ROUTINE
Message: Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error calling routine %1. hr = %2.

Explanation
This informational event is logged when the system starts in Safe Mode on a computer running Windows XP because COM+ is not enabled in Safe Mode or, occasionally, when antivirus and indexing programs open temporary files used by backup programs during backup.

This message also appears if there is a problem in the COM+ infrastructure, such as when the COM+ services are disabled or not registered correctly, or when a program such as FORMAT, CHKDSK, or Logical Disk Management opens a volume with an exclusive lock and the Volume Shadow Copy service cannot create a shadow copy.


User Action
If a program opened a volume with an exclusive lock, wait until the program finishes running and then try again.

To see whether there is a problem with the COM+ infrastructure, do one or all of the following:

In MMC, in the Services snap-in, verify that the COM+ services are enabled. If they are not, set EventSystem (COM+ Event System) and SENS (System Event Notification) to auto-start instead of to disabled.
Verify that the COM+ infrastructure is registered correctly. For more information about registering the COM+ infrastructure, see article 246499 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.