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

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

Kester
Collaborator | Level 8
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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 Type: Application
Event Type: Error
Source: DbxSvc
Category: 3
Event ID: 320

Failed to connect to the driver: (-2147024894) The system cannot find the file specified.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record Number: 95931
Log Type: Application
Event Type: Information
Source: ESENT
Category: 3
Event ID: 300

Windows (2500) Windows: The database engine is initiating recovery steps.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record Number: 95932
Log Type: Application
Event Type: Information
Source: ESENT
Category: 3
Event ID: 301

Windows (2500) Windows: The database engine has begun replaying logfile C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\MSS.log.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record Number: 95933
Log Type: Application
Event Type: Information
Source: ESENT
Category: 3
Event ID: 302

Windows (2500) Windows: The database engine has successfully completed recovery steps.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record Number: i 95915
Log Type: Application
Event Type: Information
Source: DbxSvc
Category: 2
Event ID: 258

Pipe server thread started.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It seems as if the Dropbox service may be trying to start too soon as, after the initial error, Windows seems to be able to correct the problem and everything works correctly.  This is a very recent happening and I cannot relate the change to any system changes.  Is there anything I can do to stop the error - if I didn't regularly check the Event Viewer I would be none the wiser so perhaps I'm being too sensitive.

 

Thanks.

254 Replies 254

Kester
Collaborator | Level 8
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Hi,

I receive email notifications when a new post is added to this thread so I was surprised to receive the following today (Monday 14 August 2017) which does not appear to have been added to this thread so I have included it in italics below :

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all,
 
First: Many apologies for the delay in jumping in here, I wanted to make sure I had a concrete update for you all.
 
So, for context: What is Dbxsvc? :
 
I've added a section to the help center article: https://help.dropbox.com/desktop-web/smart-sync (I say section, it's more of a note at the bottom under the driver FAQ).
 
The file dbxsvc.exe is a file that we use to install the Smart Sync driver. Should you not be a business user, or not have Smart Sync, then this file will never start operating. It is, however, created at install for all users so if you are not a Smart Sync this file will still appear there.
 
I see we have a number of pretty interesting, creative suggestions on how to disable, coupled with queries if it's safe to disable it. I'm of course not going to endorse a process that disables part of our software, should a feature or functionality cause user pain then we would want to know. Fixability and timeframes can vary depending on the in-depth technical nature of the problem.
Should you decide to disable it with one of the solutions here, it will prevent the smart sync feature from working in some cases. We need the service to update the driver, as well as to establish new driver<->client connections. This is the services current functionality. Additional functionality could be added over time. My main concern around anyone disabling it is that in the future you may need this process, Smart Sync won't work correctly, you can reach out to support but this custom change you've made will be hard for us to diagnose as the root cause of whatever issue you experience.
 
 
Why is it failing to connect / what's going wrong?:
 
It should be failing to connect. This is by design, the actual issue you’re facing is due to the frequency we're writing to the logs. To address any concerns around error with the application, these errors are in no way indicative of a software issue and do not point to any issues with backing up you data. Because it fails to connect, Windows treats this as a trigger to write to the log. Your data is safe, this process is just used to install a driver. As covered in the above section we expect it to do what you are seeing.
 
With that in mind, we understand that some of you do wish to see this behaviour.
 
 
Why aren't we fixing this?:
 
We are, we take our user feedback very seriously and we have spent many hours working on this. As fixes have many dependencies, and are just one components of a version release, I'm always reluctant to jump onto a thread and give a firm release date for a fix as these are regularly subject to change.
You may have noticed that we took the original connection attempt frequency down from every 1 second to every minute. This was an improvement we took onboard based on the feedback you've supplied here and also via other channels. Our new release, 31.3.15, has further improved this, the process will run 3 times daily. This should reduce the errors written to the logs and not clutter the report.
 
The new beta version is the first to include a fix:
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't know who wrote it, there was no name attached, but I presume it was Ross as his name appears in the versions table at https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Desktop-client-builds/bd-p/101003016.   The contents are a bit confusing too.  For example the reference 'Our new release, 31.3.15, has further improved this, the process will run 3 times daily' does not tie up the versions table.

 

There are several versions listed in the table, both beta builds and stable versions, that are later versions than the quoted 31.3.15.

 

I would presume that later versions would include any debugging and improvements from earlier versions.

Kester
Collaborator | Level 8
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UPDATE:

I've just realised that the post was from Ross and actually made a month ago and was notified of it then.  Why I have received it a second time, I just do not know.  Sorry to have wasted so much space but there now seems to be a bug in the forum's email notification system as well as my memory.

katnappa
Explorer | Level 3
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I know this thread has been dormant for a while, but have there been any findings or updates as to why dbx.sys is triggering numerous security, application and system errors in the event log? Not to mention Smart Sync has not worked as it is dependent on this driver. I have an end user who needs Smart Sync to work as he has a huge amount of data he wants to see on his C drive, and if it all syncs locally, he blows up his computer. I've been actively in touch with support from Dropbox, and they are stumped as well.

Ross_S
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

Hi @katnappa,

 

 This thread is about dbx.sys writing to the error log when it doesn't connect - which is expected behavior. If you are seeing security, application or systems error then I'd suggest opening a new thread as they will be unrelated to this.

 

 This thread is about the driver connection frequency. Originally it was connecting too frequently for people to be able to read other events in the logs so we reduced the frequency it wrote to the log.

 

Hope this helps you.

katnappa
Explorer | Level 3
Go to solution

Thanks Ross!

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