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

[Kester]

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.

[joex]

Are you referring to your earlier post about changing to the dbx-dev.sys driver? While that might be a viable workaround we need the standard package to be fixed so anyone who installs the app doesn't get the event logger flooded with thousands of messages.

[NickG_UK]

That is a workaround and not a fix. The only fix is if installing a later version stops the problem from occuring so people's time is not wasted running into the issue and having to read this (long) thread and taking manual steps to work around the issue.

[Kester]

Hi Ebonato,

Your earlier post has been seen and is not being ignored.  I think that disabling DbxSvc is a reasonable temporary workaround for me so I do not need your rather more complicated approach but others may find your tempoary solution more appropriate for their individual needs so, of course, your suggestion was a useful inclusion in this thread.  However, whatever workaround we employ, it is incumbant on Dropbox to find a permanent solution as soon as possible.  This problem has been going on for many months now and soon will be approaching its anniversary (although there seem to be no plans for a celebration ) - new potential users will be downloading Dropbox to try and immediately be confronted with the issue, surely not agood advertisement for Dropbox.  Those who have been using Dropbox for longer and who visit this forum, are likely to be aware of the possible workarounds and perhaps be a little more forgiving although clearly, from some of the posts in this thread, even some of the experienced users have had enough and moved on to one of the alternatives.

[ChinoSteve]

I was getting the message every second before trying anything. After trying a few things I finally looked in the registry and removed a couple of things that I thought may help. It wound up working OK for me. I do not want Dropbox starting with Windows so that is not an issue. I do not even want it updating by itself but there seems to be less control on that. Each application seems to be written as if it is the most important. Enough of these trying to work in the background slows my computer.

[JCoady]

Hi, I have had over 25,000 occurences of this event today, 7 July, 2017, in a little over six hours, so I believe it has to be having an effect on my system - which has crashed twice today.

[Kester]

Hi JCoady,

If you haven't already disabled DbxSvc, open the Windows Task Manager, open the Services tab, click the 'Services' button and then scroll down to 'DbxSvc' in the 'Services (Local) pane, right click 'DbxSvc', click 'Properties' and choose 'Disabled' in the 'Startup type' dropdown menu then click 'Apply'.

You should still be able to use Dropbox but the Event Viewer continuous logging of the driver problem should cease.

[Loopback]

Hi,

following the hints given by ebonato (but using dbx-stable.sys instead of dbx-dev.sys), I translated them to the following workaround actions which can be done using Registry-Editor (Start | Run | regedit):

• Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\dbx
• Change the value "ImagePath" from "system32\DRIVERS\dbx.sys" to "system32\DRIVERS\dbx-stable.sys"
• Change the Value "Start" from "3" to "2" (this will cause the service to "autostart")

Alternatively copy the following text to a file called dbx.reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\dbx]
"Start"=dword:00000002
"ImagePath"=hex(2):73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,44,00,\
  52,00,49,00,56,00,45,00,52,00,53,00,5c,00,64,00,62,00,78,00,2d,00,73,00,74,\
  00,61,00,62,00,6c,00,65,00,2e,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,00,00

Double click file dbx.reg to import its contents to the registry.

Restart Windows.

After that I can see the following event log (informational) messages:

System:

Source: FilterManager, EventID 6: "Der Dateisystemfilter "dbx" (6.1, ‎2017‎-‎01‎-‎27T21:53:28.000000000Z) wurde erfolgreich geladen und im Filter-Manager registriert."  (in an English system this should look similar to "The filesystem filter "dbx" () was successfully loaded and registered to the filter manager")

Application:

Source: DbxSvc, EventID 336: "Service started (1.0.23.0)."

Source: DbxSvc, EventID 341: "Connected to the driver"

Source: DbxSvc, EventID 258: "Pipe server thread started."

That's it.

Currently I'm using Dropbox Version 29.4.20.

I assume that the above registry changes will be overridden with the next Dropbox Update, hence you would have to repeat the actions (e.g. using the reg file), if the next version will not fix the problem.

<EDIT>:

Yet another approach:

Open a command prompt with administrative rights and enter the following commands:

sc stop dbxsvc
sc stop dbx
sc config dbx start= auto binPath= system32\DRIVERS\dbx-stable.sys
sc start dbx
sc start dbxsvc

</EDIT>

[JCoady]

Thank you.

[mopperle]

I'm really wondering about the poor support from dropbox. After opening a ticket a few days ago, today I got an email pointing me to some FAQs by far not adressing this specific problem, which is obviously not solved as you can see in this topic:

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Installation-and-desktop-app/DbxSvc-ID-320/m-p/230263#M45135

One more reason for me to get rid of dropbox as soon as possible.

[Loopback]

Hi again,

I created a workaround that consists of a task in the Windows task scheduler, that is triggered only if the well known unwanted event occurs (e.g. after a Dropbox update to the latest version, where the problem still isn't fixed).

If triggered, the task tries to "repair" the dbx driver in that it is configured to use dbx-stable.sys (if present) and to start automatically, so that the annoying per second events disappear, because afterwards the starting DbxSvc finds the running dbx driver to connect to.

Otherwise, if some set of conditions isn't met (e.g. if after a Dropbox update file dbx-stable.sys isn't present anymore), as an alternative workaround DbxSvc is simply stopped and its start type is set to disabled.

Here is how you can configure this workround (tested in Win7 x64, maybe that it must be adapted to other Windows systems):

First create some Folder, e.g. D:\CMD. Within this folder create a batch file named dbx.cmd

Open dbx.cmd (e.g. using notepad) and copy the following code to the file:

@echo off
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION

set ROOT=%~dp0
set LOG=%ROOT%dbx.log
call :clear "%LOG%"
echo Log for last execution: >>"%LOG%"
echo ----------------------- >>"%LOG%"
echo %DATE% %TIME% >>"%LOG%"
if not exist %windir%\System32\drivers\dbx.sys (
    echo File system32\DRIVERS\dbx.sys not found. >>"%LOG%"
    for /f "tokens=3" %%i in ('sc qc dbx ^| find "BINARY_PATH_NAME"') do (
        if /I "%%i"=="system32\DRIVERS\dbx.sys" (
            echo But file system32\DRIVERS\dbx.sys is referenced by Dropbox Mini-Filter Driver dbx^^! >>"%LOG%"
            call :svc DbxSvc stop
            if "!RETURN!"=="FALSE" (
                goto :EOF
            )
            if exist %windir%\System32\drivers\dbx-stable.sys (
                echo File dbx-stable.sys exists, trying to fix Dropbox Mini-Filter Driver dbx: >>"%LOG%"
                call :svc dbx stop
                if "!RETURN!"=="FALSE" goto :EOF
                sc config dbx start= auto binPath= system32\DRIVERS\dbx-stable.sys >nul
                echo Changing parameters of Dropbox Mini-Filter Driver dbx: >>"%LOG%"
                echo      Setting ImagePath to System32\drivers\dbx-stable.sys >>"%LOG%"
                echo      Setting Start type to auto >>"%LOG%"
                call :svc dbx start
                if "!RETURN!"=="FALSE" goto :EOF
                call :svc DbxSvc start
                if "!RETURN!"=="FALSE" goto :EOF
            ) else (
                sc config DbxSvc start= disabled >nul
                echo File dbx-stable.sys doesn't exist, disabling service DbxSvc:  >>"%LOG%"
                echo      Setting Start type to disabled >>"%LOG%"
            )
        )
    )
)
goto end

rem - function :clear (file)
rem   Deletes "file", if present.
:clear
if exist %1 del /f %1
goto :EOF

rem - function :svc (service, start|stop)
rem   Break, if "service" is in a pending state (neither stopped nor running)
rem   "stop": If running, try stopping "service", break if "service" hasn't stopped after 10 seconds.
rem   "start": If stopped, try starting "service", break if "service" isn't running after 10 seconds.
:svc
if "%2"=="stop" (
    set beginstate=4
    set finalstate=1
) else if "%2"=="start" (
    set beginstate=1
    set finalstate=4
)
for /f "tokens=3" %%i in ('sc query %1 ^| find "STATE"') do (
    if "%%i"=="!beginstate!" (
        sc %2 %1 >nul
        echo Trying to %2 service %1 ... >>"%LOG%"
    ) else if "%%i"=="!finalstate!" (
        set RETURN=TRUE
        goto :EOF
    ) else (
        echo Service %1 is in a pending state, script was aborted^^! >>"%LOG%"
        set RETURN=FALSE
        goto :EOF
    )
)
set /a SECONDS=0
:loopwait
for /f "tokens=3" %%i in ('sc query %1 ^| find "STATE"') do (
    if not "%%i"=="!finalstate!" (
        ping -n 1 localhost >nul
        set /a SECONDS+=1
        echo Process to %2 service %1 still in progress ... >>"%LOG%"
        if !SECONDS! EQU 10 (
            echo Process to %2 service %1 failed to terminate within 10 seconds, script was aborted^^! >>"%LOG%"
            set RETURN=FALSE
            goto :EOF
        ) else (
            goto loopwait
        )
    ) else (
        echo      ... terminated successfully. >>"%LOG%"
        set RETURN=TRUE
    )
)
goto :EOF

:end
ENDLOCAL

Safe and close dbx.cmd.

Then start the Windows Task Scheduler and create a new task:

On the General tab:

• Name it as you like, e.g. "DbxSvc-Workaround"
• Select a user with administative rights (Change User or Group)
• Select it to be executed independent from the User Login (Run whether user is logged on or not)
• Select (check the checkbox) "Run with highest privileges"

On the Trigger tab:

• Add a new trigger "On an event" and select the Protocol "Application", the Source "DbxSvc" and the Event-ID 320

On the Actions tab:

• Add a new action "Start a program" and specify the path: D:\CMD\dbx.cmd

All other settings can be left with their default values.

Note:

1. Once the problem is fixed, the task will never be scheduled anymore.
2. The task only consumes computing resources if triggered by the unwanted event. After the repair (via the script) it goes back to sleep.

Have fun!

<EDIT>

Did some code optimization - less code now due to use of functions.

In addition, the activities executed by the script are logged in a file dbx.log.

</EDIT>

Loopback