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Windows 7 Event Viewer Error "Failed to connect to the driver: (-2147024894)"
Onthe last few startups of my Windows 7 desktop, the EventViewer has shown the following error and subsequent information logs as the error is corrected by Windows: Record Number: X 95916 Log T...
Hi everyone!
Sorry for the delay here -- I usually hang out on the client builds forum and missed this.
This error is expected and harmless. We are optimistically checking for features currently in development and logging an error when we don't find them enabled. We shouldn't be logging it as an error, however, perhaps as an Informational-level event and I'll make sure we clean this up in a future release.
If you're suspicious that this has been causing instability -- this hasn't really changed since last summer so it's probably not the droids you are looking for (combined with the fact that the error is indicative of things not happening, rather than things happening that are potentially destabilizing).
-Ben
vkapartzianis wrote:That would be my best guess, too. They need this service present in the installation package because they're still developing it, even though it just fails for now. And they'd rather spend more time in the service's development than in removing it from "production" deployments.
... since service DbxSvc seems to be useless, and Dropbox runs perfectly without it, I stopped it and set its state to DISABLED. No Event Viewer errors any more :slight_smile:
Since any update of Dropbox client software will probably re-establish DbxSvc service to be started automatically, here is my solution to put it back to and keep it in disabled state automatically:
Create some folder (e.g. "C:\DbxSvcWatchDog"). Inside this folder create a batch file named "dbxsvcdisable.cmd" with the following contents:
@echo off sc stop DbxSvc sc config DbxSvc start= disabled
Right click file "dbxsvcdisable.cmd" and create a link to it inside the same folder. Rename this link to "dbxsvcdisable" (this is the link's name as shown within Windows Explorer; a "DIR" command at the command prompt will show the link's name to be "dbxsvcdisable.lnk").
Edit the properties of the link, set its execution mode to "minimized" and activate the "run as administrator" feature via the Advanced... button. The last step is important, because you need administrative rights to execute the script (which provokes an UAC message you have to confirm in order to allow execution).
Inside the folder create a second batch file (a watchdog that constitutes a wrapper around the stop script) named "dbxsvcwd.cmd" with the following contents:
@echo off
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
for /f "tokens=3" %%i in ('sc qc DbxSvc ^| find "START_TYPE"') do (
if NOT "%%i"=="4" (
call dbxsvcdisable.lnk
)
)Right click file "dbxsvcwd.cmd" and create a link to it inside the same folder. Rename this link to "dbxsvcwd". Edit the properties of the link and set its execution mode to "minimized". Move this link file to the startup folder for all users (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup).
Now every time Windows starts the wrapper is executed. It checks if the state of service DbxSvc is still set to disabled. If so nothing else happens. Only in the case that the service's state has changed from disabled to some other state (e.g. via an update of the dropbox client software), the stop script is run. You notice this via the UAC window you have to confirm for execution.
It's stupid as problem persists and users need to figure solution themselves, shame on Dropbox.
I will probably use loopback's solution as this **bleep**ty service keeps hanging my PC once a week
I tried Loopback's get around - manually disabling the dbxsvc service works until the next program update as he explained but I tried the batch file approach to avoid having to disable the dbxsvc service again after a program update but, unfortunately, it did not work for me so I had to disable the service again. Perhaps I made an error somewhere along the line so I will have to check back.
Hi,
the "wrapper" script doesn't run permanently but only once after Windows Login (Startup). Hence, if the DB client software is updated, DbxSvc service is started again (start type is set to automatic) and doesn't stop until you at least logoff and logon again (e.g. via Windows (Re-)boot).
Loopback
Hi Loopback,
Thanks for explaining that - I understand now.
Hi all,
Just dropping in here to say thank you for your amazing research and persistence trying to get this issue fixed. I've been experiencing the same problems for a while now, but could never trace it back to Dropbox until today. Unlike a lot of you, my PC just completely freezes and becomes unusable, instead of simply throwing an error in the Event Log.
While this does seem like a pretty critical issue, I'm baffled by the fact that Dropbox apparently don't want to fix this issue, if I understand the previous replies in this thread correctly. I will also email support with my findings, hoping they'll reconsider, but I highly doubt it.
Anywho, thank you all again for the amazing research so far! I'll keep you posted about my correspondence with Dropbox Support.
Same problem for me and when I have seen the number of reads for this thread, I thought that's unbelievable they do not fix it from Dropbox side!
Just an idea, but did somebody check if the missing file(s) (dbx.sys and others?) could be found in a previous Dropbox installation? If so why not extracting them and make them available to download via Dropbox ;-). Users then could manually put them into the folder where Windows checks for them ...
- There's no easy fix, otherwise they would've applied it. They ship three versions of the "missing" dbx.sys ("canary", "dev" and "stable") but they're identical and just fail to load.
In general, it's much safer to just disable the service, and leave the driver failing to load, than trying to make them work, in my opinion. That's what I did now but reading the problem comes back with updates I wanted to get this clarified. So it is also confirmed there is no old version that worked in a previous install?
I found the entry in the event viewer today as I just checked System and not Application events before and when I found this thread then, I couldn't believe the whole Dropbox community may have the issue.
I thought my wife triggers the freezes somehow via the browser as it mostly happened when she used the computer but now I am quite sure that was just my good and her bad luck!
- If the service is not needed at all, can't it just be removed by them via an update, so the problem does not come back with updates again?
To recap:
* The installation package adds an entry for a file system driver (dbx.sys) and a service (DbxSvc.exe).
* There's no dbx.sys installed though. We get three identical files, dbx-canary.sys, dbx-dev.sys and dbx-stable.sys in %SystemRoot%\System32\drivers.
* The file system driver fails to load obviously. The service tries to communicate with the driver and fails, too. Note that the service uses named pipes to communicate with the driver as far as I can tell, that's why we get a misleading ("The system cannot find the file specified") explanation for the error ("Failed to connect to the driver").The service and the driver are probably part of the, in development, "Project Infinite" as Loopback mentioned in an earlier post. The development team is aware of all the problems this causes. They probably believe the problems are benign and won't spend the time required to fix them in any case.
