Cannot Start IIS on my PC: COM+ System Application: Access is Denied

Question

I'm trying to do some web development. I cannot start IIS (I need to run some Web Services).

As of about a month ago, the "COM+ System Application" service has started failing with this error:

The COM+ System Application service failed to start due to the following error: Access is denied.

DCOM also logs an error in the event log:

DCOM got error "Access is denied. " attempting to start the service COMSysApp with arguments "" in order to run the server: {ECABAFBC-7F19-11D2-978E-0000F8757E2A}

When I start IIS and the WWW service, everthing seems to work until I hit port 80 on my machine at which time the IIS/WWW services both crash unexpectedly:

The World Wide Web Publishing service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s).

The following event is placed in the application log as well:

The run-time environment has detected an inconsistency in its internal state. This indicates a potential instability in the process that could be caused by the custom components running in the COM+ application, the components they make use of, or other factors. Error in f:\xpsp3\com\com1x\src\comsvcs\package\cpackage.cpp(1184), hr = 80070005: InitEventCollector failed

I have searched google until my fingers are numb. I've searched this site to no avail as well.

I have tried:

• running the COM+ System Application service as an administrator.
• reinstalling SP3 for XP
• giving the "SERVICE" account full control to %SYSTEMROOT%\Registration
• removing XP Security hotfixes installed about the time it stopped working
• I've removed and reinstalled COM+ (it's possible, check google)

Any insight on the COM+ subsystem, it's files and settings or just how it operates would be greatly appreciated.

I need to get this problem resolved so I can get back to work.

Thank you in advance for your time,

Robert

Answer 1

Have you seen this link?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/909444

I'm having the same problem, and it appears it might have fixed it for me - though I did have to reboot afterwards which isn't explicitly in the kb instructions.

(Though it's hard to tell right now if this actually fixed it, because sometimes for me the problem would disappear on its own after a reboot (which doesn't make a lot of sense given the steps in the kb)).

Answer 2

Sorry all.

I forgot to update this when I found the solution... Well, it was self-inflicted. Some months ago, I removed the execute permissions from dllhost.exe. I hadn't been coding asp.net web apps at the time so I didn't notice the problem and couldn't put two and two together very quickly.

I eventually found it by turning on file system failed auditing on my Windows folder hive. I saw a mess of access denied messages related to dllhost.exe and remembered what I'd done.

Thanks for the help.