ICE Bad...

Go to Sysinternals and download Process Monitor. Download it on another PC and put it on thumbdrive.

Start Process Monitor. Setup a filter to include msdtc.exe.

Start msdtc.

The ProcMon window will catch up eventually. Wow that is a lot of activity! Look thru the output for the Access Denied, Permission Denied or other failure indicators. Go ahead. It’s in there somewhere. I’ll wait. Don’t skip right to end and expect it to be in your face. It will likely be closer to the end than the beginning though.

Found it? Good.

In my case it was a registry key,  with I believe a permission denied. Firing up RegEdit, and fixing the permission on that key saved the day. Thankfully this worked after we had tried everything. The machine was only on my bench a week .

Right after that the rest of the pieces fell into my place and it was gone that afternoon. Ended up saving a definite reformat/reinstall which the customer specifically requested we not do in any circumstance.

cssdesk.com – CSS Sandbox.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSDTC
Event Category: (8)
Event ID: 4209
Date: 5/18/2006
Time: 11:09:03 PM
User: N/A
Computer:
Description:
A critical error occurred in an MS DTC component therefore the process is
terminating. The category field identifies the component that encountered
the error. Please contact Microsoft Product Support. Error Specifics:
d:\qxp_slp\com\com1x\dtc\dtc\msdtc\src\cservice.cpp:436, Pid: 3948
No Callstack,
CmdLine: C:\WINDOWS\system32\msdtc.exe

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 46 00 11 80 F..?

You will likely see this next one as well but not necessarily, which is a COM+ error. You need to reinstall COM+.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: COM+
Event Category: (98)
Event ID: 4691
Date: 5/18/2006
Time: 11:07:57 PM
User: N/A
Computer:
Description:
The run-time environment was unable to initialize for transactions required
to support transactional components. Make sure that MS-DTC is running.
(DtcGetTransactionManagerEx(): hr = 0x8004d01b)

You’ll may also get:

• Interface Class Not Registered when viewing service dependencies in the services.msc.
• Errors  in the Event Log pertaining to Volume Shadow Copy.
• A Red Dot under My Computer in Component Services (dcomcnfg.exe).
• Blank screen in Network Connections.
• Windows Firewall control panel gives a message about the network configuration being corrupt when viewing the Advanced tab.
• Various other annoyances and headaches.

You know you’re in some serious trouble. All the error messages are completely vague. Event ID 4209 Reference some source with is useless for us mere mortals. Sure we could dig through the dis-assembly in a debugger, but you better have your cape and superhero mask on for that…

Googling around gives you results for a lot of people with the same problem, and no direct fixes.

DTC Won’t Start…, DTC Won’t Start… and DTC Won’t Start… and Etc.

Suggested fixes in this and prescribed in KB891801 don’t even seem to help. Typically a repair install of windows doesn’t even fix it. The only option seems to be a reformat/reinstall, which is sometimes great, but doesn’t help you the next time you encounter this problem.

The restoring Registry permissions fix above should fix the issue. It didn’t for me in this case. The problem is with the permission of a few keys under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.
Specifically:

• HKCR\CID
• HKCR\SVCID
• HKCR\TypedName (Potentially, check it anyway.)
• HKCR\TypeLib (You’re in there anyway, take a look at it.)
• HKCR\CLSID (If this one is broke you probably can’t even boot into windows…)

These keys need to inherit permissions from their parent. Right Click, Click Permissions, Click Advanced. Check Inherit…, Check Reset the permissions of all child entities. Click Ok, be patient for a few. Do the same for them all if necessary.

You want to make sure Administrator and SYSTEM has Full Control and Read, which is the most important. They should get this back by re-inheriting permissions from their parent (CLASSES_ROOT).

Restart, cross your fingers. You should be able to start MSDTC manually. Check the eventlog. Run dcomcnfg, make sure My Computer under Components Services does not have a red dot.

If those things don’t check out you may have other issues with MSDTC. I’ll show you how to figure them out in part 2.

You may still get an Event ID: 4691 and the others. You need to reinstall COM+. It’s not too hard. Sometimes it won’t reinstall fully on it’s own. You may have to remove COM+ and then do a repair install of Windows XP.

01. Rename %SystemRoot%\System32\Clbcatq.dll to %SystemRoot%\System32\~Clbcatq.dll, making sure that you include the tilde (~).

02. Shutdown and restart your computer.

03. Delete the COM3 sub-key from the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft.

04. Open a CMD.EXE prompt.

05. Type pushd %SystemRoot% and press Enter.

06. Type rd /s /q Registration and press Enter.

07. Type popd and press Enter.

08. Type exit and press Enter.

09. Use Notepad to remove Hide from the COM= line in %SystemRoot%\Inf\Sysoc.inf.

10. For Windows XP:

A. Open a CMD.EXE window
B. Type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each line:
regsvr32 /s ole32.dll
regsvr32 /s oleaut32.dll

11. Start / Settings / Control Panel / Add/Remove Programs / Add/Remove Windows Components*.

12. Press Next and reinstall COM+*.

NOTE: If Windows File Protection blocks any of the above renaming and/or deletions, perform those steps in Safe Mode.

This is originally from the JSI Faq. Which was offline at the time of this posting.

Edit: KB Article.

*If this doesn’t work or gives you an error message, do a repair install of windows.

I’m going to start with some good technical stuff I’ve figured out recently, that I want out there but don’t necessarily want or need credit for.

We’ll see where it goes from there.