Windows 7 Event Viewer Error "Failed to connect to the driver: (-2147024894)"

[MeATDolphin]

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?

[vkapartzianis]

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.

[MeATDolphin]

• 13223 views of this thread
• More and more users reporting "Me too!"
• External threads like these:
• https://www.tenforums.com/performance-maintenance/70442-dbxsvc-error-event-viewer.html
• https://community.spiceworks.com/windows_event/show/23846-dbxsvc-320
• http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread.php/178422-Event-Viewer-ID-320
• http://www.freefixer.com/library/file/DbxSvc.exe-242995/

Reports about computers that freeze and need to be restarted and it does not look benign to Dropbox? That's not serious, that's a shame!

[MeATDolphin]

Maybe this helps if we all vote for it? https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox/Fix-Dropbox-drivers-that-freeze-user-PCs/idi-p/203317

[Kester]

I've just received the following via email from Dropbox Customer Support:

Thank you for contacting Dropbox Support!

I have reviewed the error message with our team and would like to provide further information to help. The error message that you received regarding the failed connection to the drivers is related to your device's ability to read the software driver installed for Dropbox to operate. The information provided on our forums are predominately answered by our internal team directly to our users which appears as a "Dropboxer Reply" or users in the community that are "super users" and have a extensive knowledge of our product.

I hope this answers your question! If I can assist you with something else, please let me know!

The underlining has been added by me - clearly, all along, the problems was the fault of my device and yes, it was also the fault of the devices belonging to all you other users who have also reported the problem.  Why cannot Dropbox be honest?   

[MeATDolphin]

So they tell us our devices (computers) are not capable to run their drivers but don't explain why that shall be the case?!? Maybe they are right but then they need to give us clear information about the prerequisites to run these drivers. Could be something like e.g. Intel but not AMD processors being supported but how shall we know if they don't tell us?

[orion44]

The don't tell us because their development team is off-shore and not accessible to the application support team. So in other words, they don't know themselves. I admire your persistence in this matter, however I gave up weeks ago myself. Google Drive is working very well for my needs.

[bn · Accepted solution]

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

[MeATDolphin]

Let's see if the freeze is gone now after I have deactivated the agent and if so, it is not that harmless because I have not done any other setup change. Doubt and see 😉

[mat-glock]

Installed in Nov... started the computer shutdowns.. uninstalled, no more shutdowns.  

I have office with 5 TB of space for less than $100 and get 5 installs of microsoft office with it... 

My entire experience with DB was really disappointing, having picked up the service for cheap in Nov... I was really happy.

Maybe loginmein will buy them and restore confidence in the company again.  Not sure how DB makes it with support like this.