IE not responding, connection tab hangs & MSI stuck!

[mhaney]

Hello everyone! I hope someone can help shed some light on a very odd
problem I'm having, I've spent the last 4 hours searching Microsoft
Support and various groups & forums for answers and have come up blank.

Here is what is happening:

- I first found these problems when my nightly Exchange mailbox backup
using Backup Exec did not run successfully, complaining that the backup
hardware was offline. The weekly Exchange information store backup
does run without complaints (same server, same backup device) so I
deleted & recreated the nightly backup job to find that when trying to
browse the server under the "Selections" tab it stated that it could
not connect to the server. From here I tried to go to the Veritas
website, and encountered the next issues.

- Internet Explorer does not load any pages. Upon opening IE, the
world logo in the top right corner spins but there is no text in the
status bar, and no pages load. I get the same result no matter what
URL I place in it (local or remote, DNS name or IP), but it will work
if I specify a local filesystem (c:\temp for example). I can also load
local HTML files without troubles, and I can close the IE window
without any troubles.

- If I try to access the Connections tab in Internet Options (via IE or
Control Panel) the dialog freezes. This also causes any open IE
windows to freeze, as well as Windows Explorer.

- I tried to install IE again from Microsoft, but the MSI installer
sits at "Preparing to install..." indefinately (waited over 30 mins).
I also tried the ClearIECache.msi and for kicks tried to install
WindowsDefender.msi and had the same results. I also cannot uninstall
programs from Add/Remove programs, it gets stuck as well.

Things I have done:
- Ran a full virus scan. None found.
- Ran a spyware/bot check using Spybot SD. None found.
- Checked event viewer logs. Did not find anything outside of normal
messages (compared with saved logs).
- Rebooted the server (several times). No change.
- Installed another browser (Firefox), it works fine.
- Tried running any MSI files using msiexec /i file.msi /L!*vx log.txt,
the log file stops right after it locates the machine policy value for
DisableUserInstalls.
- Checked registry keys and re-registered DLL's as per
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q281679. No
change.

Server Configuration:
- Windows 2000 Server SP4 (Build 2195)
- Internet Explorer 128bit v5.00.2920.000 (Update Versions: 0)
- Windows Installer v 3.01.4000.1823
- Server also has MS Exchange 2000 installed, everything seems to be
working fine there.

Any help or suggestions to fix this problem would be greatly
appreciated, thank you very much in advance!

Mike

 

[Stefan Krueger [MVP]]

- Tried running any MSI files using msiexec /i file.msi /L!*vx log.txt,
the log file stops right after it locates the machine policy value for
DisableUserInstalls.

Does it say they are enabled or disabled?
Can you go back to a system restore point where it works?

--
Stefan Krueger
Microsoft Windows Installer MVP

Please post your questions in the newsgroup or vist one of these web sites:

Windows Installer FAQ
http://www.msifaq.com - http://www.msifaq.de

InstallSite - Resources for Setup Developers
http://www.installsite.org
http://www.installsite.de (GERMAN)

 

[mhaney]

Hi Dave & Stefan;

As this is a production Exchange server I am sure we did not install
any toolbars (intentionally at least), and I have checked and do not
see any listed in Add/Remove Programs, buried under Program Files, or
anything visible through the IE interface. Is there any program I can
use or area I can search (other directories or registry keys) that will
tell me if/where something non-standard is being loaded?

Unfortunately I can't reboot the machine frequently through the day,
but before the majority of our staff came in today I rebooted this
server into safe mode, and everything worked just fine. I reset the IE
settings via Control Panel (and saw nothing out of the ordindary in the
Connections tab) and reinstalled IE 6 SP1 without any troubles.

When I brought the system back into normal mode the IE installation
completed and it still did not function. The Connections tab still
hangs IE, IE cannot load any web pages, and my Backup Exec software
still cannot browse the server filesystem/exchange system for backup
materials.

Stefan, I have not yet tried a system restore point, but I am going
to reboot once more now and try it out. If anything changes I will
post it as a reply to this message within the next 20 minutes. As for
the Windows Installer log, it says that the "DisableUserInstalls"
setting is 0. Here is a full copy of the log file generated:

=== Verbose logging started: 2/21/2006 10:29:03 Build type: SHIP
UNICODE 3.01.4000.2435 Calling process: C:\WINNT\system32\msiexec.exe
===
MSI (c) (68:90) [10:29:03:437]: Resetting cached policy values
MSI (c) (68:90) [10:29:03:453]: Machine policy value 'Debug' is 0
MSI (c) (68:90) [10:29:03:468]: ******* RunEngine:
******* Product: c:\temp\cleariecache.msi
******* Action:
******* CommandLine: **********
MSI (c) (68:90) [10:29:03:484]: Machine policy value
'DisableUserInstalls' is 0


Any other tips/ideas are really appreciated, I feel like I'm banging
my head against a wall here.

Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

[mhaney]

Ok here is another update... System restore points do not alleviate
the problem and I have noted a new condition, I don't think this
existed before but I'm not 100% sure. I noticed that I could not load
the Exchange System Manager, it pops up this error:

The RPC server is unavailable.
Facility: Win32 ID no: c00706ba
Exchange System Manager

I went to check my network connections and see if something was wrong
there, and found that I can't open Network & Dial-up Connections. No
matter what way I try to get to it, the window hangs and I have to End
Task it. I've also noticed that the network connection icons in the
system tray no longer appear...

I've checked the connections via ipconfig and everything seems fine
there.

 

[mhaney]

One last update:

- Cannot open Add/Remove Windows Components (it hangs)
- Cannot start the following services (they give a 1053 did not start
in a timely fashion)
- Network Connections
- Remote Access Connection Manager
- Telephony

 

[Stefan Krueger [MVP]]

Machine policy value 'DisableUserInstalls' is 0

Looks good.
Could your problems be caused by some sort of security policy, firewall
setting, security update? Is this Windows Server 2003?

--
Stefan Krueger
Microsoft Windows Installer MVP

Please post your questions in the newsgroup or vist one of these web sites:

Windows Installer FAQ
http://www.msifaq.com - http://www.msifaq.de

InstallSite - Resources for Setup Developers
http://www.installsite.org
http://www.installsite.de (GERMAN)

 

[mhaney]

This is on Windows 2000 SP4... Throughout the day I've been attempting
various fixes and checks, and have found one that "somewhat works":

- Boot into safe mode with networking (everything works fine here)
- Delete all network cards present in Device Manager (had 2)
- Reboot into normal mode
- Allow network cards to be reinstalled with drivers Windows found
(found 2)
- Reconfigure cards with proper IP's & default route, as well as static
routes

Everything at this point is back to normal, I can browse websites with
IE, work with my backup software, access network connections &
properties... Because I booted with no network interfaces several
services (most importantly Exchange) did not start. To ensure
everything boots up OK, I just rebooted the server once more into
normal mode. After the reboot, all of the original problems have
returned.

Tomorrow AM I am going to try updated drivers (if I can find them, it
is the 3COM 3C905 series of cards) and see if that helps. If not, I
will probably pull the cards and put in a different vendor/model and
try different drivers and see if that reproduces the issues.

 

[WraithTDK]

*This is on Windows 2000 SP4... Throughout the day I've been
attempting
various fixes and checks, and have found one that "somewhat works":

- Boot into safe mode with networking (everything works fine here)
- Delete all network cards present in Device Manager (had 2)
- Reboot into normal mode
- Allow network cards to be reinstalled with drivers Windows found
(found 2)
- Reconfigure cards with proper IP's & default route, as well as
static
routes

Everything at this point is back to normal, I can browse websites
with
IE, work with my backup software, access network connections &
properties... Because I booted with no network interfaces several
services (most importantly Exchange) did not start. To ensure
everything boots up OK, I just rebooted the server once more into
normal mode. After the reboot, all of the original problems have
returned.

Tomorrow AM I am going to try updated drivers (if I can find them,
it
is the 3COM 3C905 series of cards) and see if that helps. If not, I
will probably pull the cards and put in a different vendor/model and
try different drivers and see if that reproduces the issues. *

Did you ever find a fix for this? I'm going through it now...

 

[nonlinear]

*....Internet Explorer does not load any pages. Upon opening IE
the
world logo in the top right corner spins but there is no text in the
status bar, and no pages load......

......If I try to access the Connections tab in Internet Options (vi
IE or
Control Panel) the dialog freezes. This also causes any open IE
windows to freeze, as well as Windows Explorer.....*

I have also experienced -exactly- the same situation as you with I
freezing as soon as I click on the "Connections" tab. I did som
Googling and found a solution that worked.
Check this link, and find the section titled "Repair Layered Servic
Provider problems":
http://tinyurl.com/edl4w

I am using Windows XP SP2, so I used the *netsh winsock reset* comman
to fix the problem. But as you are using Windows 2000, you would hav
to use LSPfix. It may or may not fix your problem, but it worked fo
me so it might be worth a try.

Cheers
:


-
nonlinea

 

[harry_infosys]

Running Exchange 2000 with SP3 installed

The way I fixed this exact same issue was by re applying an Exchange 2000 SP3 rollup update which I installed by accident in a terminal services session as a diffrent user other than the administrator.
This user was deleted and recreated and then the problem soon occured after that.

heres the link....

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=363a57a4-8bed-4bbb-bbe4-abc11ab04611&DisplayLang=en

Re apply this update logged in as the domain administrator account, I didnt even have to reboot and everything started working again.

Hope this helps!!!

Thanks
Harry

 

[SKACS]

Damaged 3rd party service in "starting" state

I have had exactly the same situation symtops:

"IE not responding, connection tab hangs & MSI stuck! " on Windows 2003 server with installed Exchange. Windows starts very slowly: about 1 hour before login input and succesfully logins 1.5 hour after that.
I tried to fix and had fixed a lot of issues from system log and other diagnostics. This happened within previous shortage disk space on system disk.
But nothing changed. At last I noticed that something wrong was also with APC UPS server service v7.0.4. It didn't started and and was kept in "starting" condition all the time. I disabled this service in "SAFE" mode. And all became OK! After full reinstall APC also works ok now.