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Author Topic: Sick and tired of this message!  (Read 5075 times)

BCHOWDHURY

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Sick and tired of this message!
« on: August 02, 2010, 02:19 AM »
"At least one service or driver failed during system startup.  Use Event Viewer to examine the event log for details."
What could be the reason behind this message on Windows Server 2003? How can I know which service or driver is causing this? Checked event viewer. There are some services marked red. Starting or stopping them has not solved the problem. What's most surprising is that internet has become very slow. Even Google takes a minute to load on my 512 kbps internet. Any solutions?

40hz

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Re: Sick and tired of this message!
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2010, 09:44 AM »
1.Most likely reason for slow web access is the DNS settings on your internal network interface are configured (or have been reconfigured) incorrectly. The Microsoft knowledgebase has extensive articles on configuration and troubleshooting DNS. Start there. Sorry for not providing direct links. I'm on the road this week so my Internet access is sporadic and limited.

2. Starting and stopping services doesn't always (actually, it very often won't) fix errors on a Win2k server. You need to look at what details the log provides and go from there. If you can get and post the specifics, maybe we can help you out.

FYI: Windows server errors seldom occur in isolation. Usually something will cause an error that causes an error that causes the error you're looking at. So you'll need to go back and see if you can find when the red flags began. That gives you your first clue about what might have changed to cause your headaches. Also look at any warnings and errors that come up near and around the one you're looking at. I had a client that thought his Active Directory was screwed up because he saw an AD error. What he didn't notice was there were earlier errors flagged on one of his NIC cards which resulted in a huge number of time sync, DNS, and replication errors.  Once the NIC was replaced, the server "healed" itself. I only mention this to make the case for looking at everything in the logfiles when you start troubleshooting.  

Addendum:

Just thinking. A device or service failure isn't necessarily a problem. I have one client that is using a document scanning/archiving solution that absolutely requires an oddball proprietary virtual PDF printer be present on the server. It cannot be completely removed even though we don't use it. If it's not installed, the rest of the program flags an error and asks to be reinstalled. As a compromise, we just disabled this virtual printer to prevent it being used. This results in the archive manager throwing a service error everytime it starts up (or the server gets rebooted) since it can't connect the virtual printer. Since it doesn't effect anything we're doing or cause any other problems, we just disregard this particular error message.    
 
« Last Edit: August 02, 2010, 10:08 AM by 40hz »

mouser

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Re: Sick and tired of this message!
« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2010, 09:45 AM »
i'm just glad this wasn't a thread complaining about the DC license key system as i feared it would be when i read the title  :P

40hz

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Re: Sick and tired of this message!
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2010, 10:08 AM »
Quick question: you mentioned web pages loading slowly.

Is this server also being used as your desktop?  :tellme:

BCHOWDHURY

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Re: Sick and tired of this message!
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2010, 11:55 AM »
If you can get and post the specifics, maybe we can help you out.
What specifics? Screenshots of event viewer?

Is this server also being used as your desktop?
Yes. You are absolutely correct.

Stoic Joker

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Re: Sick and tired of this message!
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2010, 12:01 PM »
As a second example to 40Hz's addendum: I frequently see Veritas/now Symantec BackupExec causing NLB (Network Load Balancing) service startup failures errors, because it automatically references the NLB service even if it's not installed/used/available.

Stoic Joker

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Re: Sick and tired of this message!
« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2010, 12:04 PM »
If you can get and post the specifics, maybe we can help you out.
What specifics? Screenshots of event viewer?
That's a good place to start - at least then we can see the surrounding events leading up to the service failure. Also knowing what (or which) service(s) is/are failing would be helpful.

40hz

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Re: Sick and tired of this message!
« Reply #7 on: August 03, 2010, 09:34 AM »
^Yup! What SJ said!  :Thmbsup:

We'd need some of the details in the log. Specifically what failed and what the message(s) said about it. Also which log reported the error: system/applications/security etc. Might want to check them all while you're in there. Anything that occured around when you started having problems is potentially useful info for troubleshooting.  

If you're new to using the Event Viewer or analysing log files here's a very good article to get you started. My GF (who is very smart - but definitely not what you'd call a "computer person") successfully solved her first major W2k3 server problem (all by herself - Yay!) by starting with the advice in this article.  

Link: http://www.brighthub.../articles/42353.aspx
 :Thmbsup:
« Last Edit: August 03, 2010, 09:37 AM by 40hz »