COM+ corruption

The curse upon me still lingers strong. Last night I shut my laptop monitor lid, thereby entering Stand-by mode, and bathed. Upon exit of bath, i found that it had revived itself with lid closed. Normally, it's supposed to go into Hibernation after an idle period.

Opening it, the screen doesn't reactivate but the disk churns for a long time, enough for me to watch an anime episode, all that while the wireless PCMCIA card blinking its Link light. That usually suggest the card is looking for a wireless network to attach to (under normal activity it just remains on).

After that, it simply remains idle and there's nothing i can do but shut it down dirty. On power up I verify things should be working fine, and proceeded to run NTBackup because it's past Sunday midnight and i have my weekly backup scheduled at the point. It initiates the backup sequence, and drops. Each attempt the same. The event log reviews a chain of errors

Event Type: Information
Event Source: NTBackup
Event Category: None
Event ID: 8018
Date:  31/10/2004
Time:  00:00:55
User:  N/A
Computer: ICELAVA
Description:
Begin Operation

Event Type: Error
Event Source: VSS
Event Category: None
Event ID: 8193
Date:  31/10/2004
Time:  00:00:56
User:  N/A
Computer: ICELAVA
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error calling routine IEventSystem::Query.  hr = 0x80040155.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 57545257 43495452 33373132 00000000
0010: 57545257 43495452 31313132 00000000


Event Type: Error
Event Source: VSS
Event Category: None
Event ID: 5013
Date:  31/10/2004
Time:  00:00:56
User:  N/A
Computer: ICELAVA
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Shadow Copy writer Microsoft Writer (Bootable State) called routine CVssWriterShim::Subscribe which failed with status 0x8000ffff (converted to 0x800423f4).

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 43485357 434e4d4f 32393232 00000000
0010: 57485357 434d4853 30363133 00000000


Event Type: Error
Event Source: VSS
Event Category: None
Event ID: 8193
Date:  31/10/2004
Time:  00:00:56
User:  N/A
Computer: ICELAVA
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error calling routine IMultiInterfaceEventControl::GetSubscriptions.  hr = 0x80040155.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 464c4946 43544c49 00303234 00000000
0010: 464c4946 43544c49 00363933 00000000


Event Type: Error
Event Source: VSS
Event Category: None
Event ID: 12291
Date:  31/10/2004
Time:  00:00:56
User:  N/A
Computer: ICELAVA
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error on creating/using the COM+ Writers publisher interface: IVssWriter::RequestWriterInfo, GatherWriterMetadata [0x8000ffff].

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 43455542 434c4d58 37373533 00000000
0010: 43455542 434c4d58 35373533 00000000


Event Type: Error
Event Source: NTBackup
Event Category: None
Event ID: 8019
Date:  31/10/2004
Time:  00:00:57
User:  N/A
Computer: ICELAVA
Description:
End Operation: Warnings or errors were encountered.
Consult the backup report for more details.

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

Additionally, NTBackup reports its own error code

Backup Status
Operation: Backup
Active backup destination: File
Media name: "icelava_WholeSystem.bkf created 31/10/2004 at 01:14"

Error returned while creating the volume shadow copy:80042301
Aborting Backup.

----------------------
The operation did not successfully complete.
----------------------


I looked up past discussions of this matter and seems others are encountering this out of the blue and never having a definitive solution to fix it properly. Was it NTbackup that launched out of my Stand-by that caused this? I'm not too sure, because i believe it was before midnight when I bathed, and from the timing of the logs i pasted above it already failed on the midnight attempt.

I also suspected it could be Norton Utilities' unerase protection service, which i only recently discovered how to properly enable it by not having my boot.ini startup parameter include the /bootlog or /sos options. But this is not the case, with Unerase out of the way the problem persists.

Past suggestions to alter registry parameters or service settings did not work. I only attempted (after realising ASP.NET was failing(!) due to COM+ as well) the last ditch method offered by MSKB

How to Clean Up a Damaged COM+ Catalog

but that's a Win 2000 article, and Win XP doesn't make COM+ optional. But fiddling with it the Setup routine did attempt to reinstall COM+ but it hit a certain error suggesting the corruption is more than just within the COM+ component:

Sub-component COM+ raised an exception while processing the OC_COMPLETE_INSTALLATION setup message.

d:\nt\com\com1x\src\complussetup\comsetup\ccompluscore.cpp (line 565)
Error code = 0x80040206

An unexpected internal error was detected
The COM+ event classes could not be registered.

So even after reinstallation, NTbackup continues to bomb with the usual error messages. Fortunately, ASP.NET seems to work but i haven't done a thorough testing of my code base yet to confirm just how far it is stable.

If anybody has ideas on how to conduct a better reinstallation of COM+ that won't throw that error, maybe i can cure the NTbackup and VSS problem.

mighty thanks.

The close-lid-StandBy-revival poison hit me again. I spent the past several hours running diagnostic checks, reboots to stalled desktops, and another round of full backup of my disks images.

Has anybody ever encountered similar problems with their Standby mode?
http://deluxeforums.hardwarezone.com/showthread.php?t=861187
http://forums.hardwarezone.com/showthread.php?t=861187

This early morning, i dunno why, but i hada fresh new motivation to try to find a solution to repairing my COM+ and VSS problem. Since i have a relatively new installation of Windows XP Pro in my desktop machine, I decided to copy over some "relevant" DLL files that i suspect may be spoilt on my laptop; intention to overwrite them.

But something stood up pretty prominently in past threads on this matter: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3

Looking at my desktop PC, i realised it possessed heck a lot more registry keys and values than my laptop's. So I decided to export the entire COM3 key structure and merge it over.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3]
"CurrentSchemaVersion"=dword:00000053
"RegDBAutoBackUp"=dword:00000001
"Com+Enabled"=dword:00000001
"BuildNumber"=dword:0000113e
"BuildType"="Free"
"MaxLogFiles"=dword:0000000a
"REGDBVersion"=hex:32,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\ATL.Registrar]
@="Registrar Class"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\ATL.Registrar\CLSID]
@="{44EC053A-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\CLSID]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\CLSID\{44EC053A-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}]
@="Registrar Class"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\CLSID\{44EC053A-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}\InprocServer32]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\ATL.DLL"
"ThreadingModel"="Both"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\CLSID\{44EC053A-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}\ProgID]
@="ATL.Registrar"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\CLSID\{6c736d22-0A20-11d3-9667-00105AA316F7}]
@="MSVSA Analyzer Event Class"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\CLSID\{6c736d22-0A20-11d3-9667-00105AA316F7}\InprocServer32]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\\Common7\\Tools\\Analyzer\\VSAEC.DLL"
"ThreadingModel"="Both"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\CLSID\{6c736d22-0A20-11d3-9667-00105AA316F7}\ProgID]
@="MSVSA.AnalyzerEventClass.1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\CLSID\{6c736d22-0A20-11d3-9667-00105AA316F7}\Programmable]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\CLSID\{6c736d22-0A20-11d3-9667-00105AA316F7}\TypeLib]
@="{6c736dA8-0A20-11d3-9667-00105AA316F7}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\CLSID\{6c736d22-0A20-11d3-9667-00105AA316F7}\VersionIndependentProgID]
@="MSVSA.AnalyzerEventClass"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\Interface]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\Interface\{B6EA2051-048A-11D1-82B9-00C04FB9942E}]
@="IAxWinAmbientDispatch"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\Interface\{B6EA2051-048A-11D1-82B9-00C04FB9942E}\ProxyStubClsid]
@="{00020424-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\Interface\{B6EA2051-048A-11D1-82B9-00C04FB9942E}\ProxyStubClsid32]
@="{00020424-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\Interface\{B6EA2051-048A-11D1-82B9-00C04FB9942E}\TypeLib]
@="{44EC0535-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}"
"Version"="1.0"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\MSVSA.AnalyzerEventClass]
@="MSVSA Analyzer Event Class Implementation Class"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\MSVSA.AnalyzerEventClass\CLSID]
@="{6c736d22-0A20-11d3-9667-00105AA316F7}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\MSVSA.AnalyzerEventClass\CurVer]
@="MSVSA.AnalyzerEventClass.1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\MSVSA.AnalyzerEventClass.1]
@="MSVSA Analzyer Event Class Implementation Class"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\MSVSA.AnalyzerEventClass.1\CLSID]
@="{6c736d22-0A20-11d3-9667-00105AA316F7}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{44EC0535-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{44EC0535-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}\1.0]
@="ATL 2.0 Type Library"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{44EC0535-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}\1.0\0]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{44EC0535-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}\1.0\0\win32]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\ATL.DLL"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{44EC0535-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}\1.0\FLAGS]
@="0"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{44EC0535-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}\1.0\HELPDIR]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{6C736DA8-0A20-11D3-9667-00105AA316F7}]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{6C736DA8-0A20-11D3-9667-00105AA316F7}\1.0]
@="Microsoft Visual Studio Analyzer 2002 Event System Type Library"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{6C736DA8-0A20-11D3-9667-00105AA316F7}\1.0\0]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{6C736DA8-0A20-11D3-9667-00105AA316F7}\1.0\0\win32]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\\Common7\\Tools\\Analyzer\\VSAEC.DLL"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{6C736DA8-0A20-11D3-9667-00105AA316F7}\1.0\FLAGS]
@="0"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{6C736DA8-0A20-11D3-9667-00105AA316F7}\1.0\HELPDIR]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\\Common7\\Tools\\Analyzer\\"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\Setup]
"Major Version"=dword:00030000
"Minor Version"=dword:0000113e
"Progman Folder"="Administrative Tools"
"Source Drive Type"="CD-ROM"
"Source Path"="R:\\"
"Install Mode"=dword:00000000
"Install Path"="C:\\WINDOWS\\System32"

And volia! I can start up the COM+ Application service! Able to browse the COM+ Applications node in Component Services mmc, and can run Windows Backup once again (but too bad I use Acronis True Image now).

However Backup still reports a minor problem although it is able to backup without premature termination.

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    VSS
Event Category:    None
Event ID:    12292
Date:        22/12/2004
Time:        07:23:07
User:        N/A
Computer:    ICELAVA
Description:
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error creating the Shadow Copy Provider COM class with CLSID {65ee1dba-8ff4-4a58-ac1c-3470ee2f376a} [0x80040154].

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 43 4f 52 53 4f 46 54 43   CORSOFTC
0008: 37 30 00 00 00 00 00 00   70......
0010: 43 4f 52 53 4f 46 54 43   CORSOFTC
0018: 36 30 00 00 00 00 00 00   60......

Now that's not a CLSID GUID found in my original merge, so i checked around and found another discussion not exactly pertaining to VSS backup, and tried to merge another set of details

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\CLSID\{65EE1DBA-8FF4-4a58-AC1C-3470EE2F376A}]
@="VSSoftwareProvider Class"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\CLSID\{65EE1DBA-8FF4-4a58-AC1C-3470EE2F376A}\InprocServer32]
@="SWPRV.DLL"
"ThreadingModel"="Both"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\CLSID\{65EE1DBA-8FF4-4a58-AC1C-3470EE2F376A}\ProgID]
@="VSSW.VSSoftwareProvider.1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\CLSID\{65EE1DBA-8FF4-4a58-AC1C-3470EE2F376A}\TypeLib]
@="{93BB06B6-B6DA-43c8-BC9B-E32DB49AA6F7}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\CLSID\{65EE1DBA-8FF4-4a58-AC1C-3470EE2F376A}\VersionIndependentProgID]
@="VSSW.VSSoftwareProvider"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{93BB06B6-B6DA-43C8-BC9B-E32DB49AA6F7}]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{93BB06B6-B6DA-43C8-BC9B-E32DB49AA6F7}\1.0]
@="Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0 Type Library"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{93BB06B6-B6DA-43C8-BC9B-E32DB49AA6F7}\1.0\0]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{93BB06B6-B6DA-43C8-BC9B-E32DB49AA6F7}\1.0\0\win32]
@="SWPRV.DLL"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{93BB06B6-B6DA-43C8-BC9B-E32DB49AA6F7}\1.0\FLAGS]
@="0"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\TypeLib\{93BB06B6-B6DA-43C8-BC9B-E32DB49AA6F7}\1.0\HELPDIR]
@="C:\\minint\\System32\\"


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\VSSW.VSSoftwareProvider]
@="VSSoftwareProvider Class"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\VSSW.VSSoftwareProvider\CLSID]
@="{65EE1DBA-8FF4-4a58-AC1C-3470EE2F376A}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\VSSW.VSSoftwareProvider\CurVer]
@="VSSW.VSSoftwareProvider.1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\VSSW.VSSoftwareProvider.1]
@="VSSoftwareProvider Class"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\COM3\SelfReg\VSSW.VSSoftwareProvider.1\CLSID]
@="{65EE1DBA-8FF4-4a58-AC1C-3470EE2F376A}"

But unfortunately VSS still fails with the same error. Well, it certainly is one big step ahead to my corrupted state.