Error 0x80248011 in a day old install

I have the same problem as many seem to have, but this one is a real pest.

I have tried (everything has been done according to given instructions so
don't
come asking if I remembered to stop and start this and that service
before/after doing so)

1) Destroying Catroot2
2) Destroying SoftwareDistribution
3) Running Cleanup.exe
4) Running Dial-a-fix.exe (this also should reregister all windows update
dlls)
5) Emptying IE Cache
6) Running sfc /scannow
7) Disabling the anti-virus program
8) Disabling ZoneAlarm firewall (don't worry, I still have the university
firewall and the router firewall protecting me).


This Windows XP SP 2 install is only one day old! Firstly Windows Update
worked fine (when dling those 62 security patches) but now it doesn't work
anymore. Also System restore tells me that it is not able protect the
computer and I should restart the machine.

The System restore service is not running and if I try to start it, I get an
Error 15: Cannot find the drive specified. RPC and Cryptsvc are running and
so is BITS though I think initially it was not running (with manual start)
and then I changed it to start automatically (does this matter or can I put
it back to manual?)

Computer is a home computer as a part of a workgroup, worked fine until a
week ago. After desperate attempts I decided to do a clean (formatting and
all that) install but now I have the same problem again!!!

No proxy server is in use. Here is the WindowsUpdate.log for the latest
attempt:

2006-11-08 17:54:42 2928 72c Misc =========== Logging initialized (build:
5.8.0.2469, tz: +0200) ===========
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2928 72c Misc = Process: C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2928 72c Misc = Module: C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuaueng.dll
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2928 72c DtaStor FATAL: Failed to initialize datastore,
error = 0xC8000408
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2928 72c Misc =========== Logging initialized (build:
5.8.0.2469, tz: +0200) ===========
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2928 72c Misc = Process: C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2928 72c AUClnt FATAL: Error: 0xc8000408. wuauclt
datastore: failed to spawn COM server
2006-11-08 17:54:42 1304 678 DtaStor FATAL: DS: Out of proc datastore
process exited with error 0xc8000408 before signalling ready event.
2006-11-08 17:54:42 3988 cb0 Misc =========== Logging initialized (build:
5.8.0.2469, tz: +0200) ===========
2006-11-08 17:54:42 3988 cb0 Misc = Process: C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe
2006-11-08 17:54:42 3988 cb0 Misc = Module: C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuaueng.dll
2006-11-08 17:54:42 3988 cb0 DtaStor FATAL: Failed to initialize datastore,
error = 0xC8000408
2006-11-08 17:54:42 3988 cb0 Misc =========== Logging initialized (build:
5.8.0.2469, tz: +0200) ===========
2006-11-08 17:54:42 3988 cb0 Misc = Process: C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe
2006-11-08 17:54:42 3988 cb0 AUClnt FATAL: Error: 0xc8000408. wuauclt
datastore: failed to spawn COM server
2006-11-08 17:54:42 1304 678 DtaStor FATAL: DS: Out of proc datastore
process exited with error 0xc8000408 before signalling ready event.
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2564 130 Misc =========== Logging initialized (build:
5.8.0.2469, tz: +0200) ===========
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2564 130 Misc = Process: C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2564 130 Misc = Module: C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuaueng.dll
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2564 130 DtaStor FATAL: Failed to initialize datastore,
error = 0xC8000408
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2564 130 Misc =========== Logging initialized (build:
5.8.0.2469, tz: +0200) ===========
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2564 130 Misc = Process: C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2564 130 AUClnt FATAL: Error: 0xc8000408. wuauclt
datastore: failed to spawn COM server
2006-11-08 17:54:42 1304 678 DtaStor FATAL: DS: Out of proc datastore
process exited with error 0xc8000408 before signalling ready event.
2006-11-08 17:54:42 1304 678 Agent * WARNING: Exit code = 0x80248011
2006-11-08 17:54:42 1304 678 Agent *********
2006-11-08 17:54:42 1304 678 Agent ** END ** Agent: Finding updates
[CallerId = WindowsUpdate]
2006-11-08 17:54:42 1304 678 Agent *************
2006-11-08 17:54:42 1304 678 Agent WARNING: WU client failed Searching for
update with error 0x80248011
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2052 18c COMAPI >>-- RESUMED -- COMAPI: Search
[ClientId = WindowsUpdate]
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2052 18c COMAPI - Updates found = 0
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2052 18c COMAPI - WARNING: Exit code = 0x00000000,
Result code = 0x80248011
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2052 18c COMAPI ---------
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2052 18c COMAPI -- END -- COMAPI: Search [ClientId =
WindowsUpdate]
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2052 18c COMAPI -------------
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2052 bc8 COMAPI WARNING: Operation failed due to earlier
error, hr=80248011
2006-11-08 17:54:42 2052 bc8 COMAPI FATAL: Unable to complete asynchronous
search. (hr=80248011)
2006-11-08 17:54:46 1304 678 Report REPORT EVENT:
{39AF3A0E-6794-4E82-84D3-715351E169DB} 2006-11-08
17:54:41+0200 1 148 101 {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000} 0 80248011 WindowsUpdate Failure Software
Synchronization Error: Agent failed detecting with reason: 0x80248011

Yay!

Found a fix while doing some extra research all over the net. Please check
out:

http://ms-os.com/showthread.php?t=34308

Problem was that some buggy program had decided to strip my computer's
SYSTEM account of any rights to the C: drive of my machine. This prevented
the SYSTEM from doing its do.

The linked discussion talks about another error number 0xC8000408 (though
which was actually in my update log as one of the errors.), but it fixes the
0x80248011 at least in my case. My System Restore has also started work again.

There was a thread about this possibility of problem by echsb here in the
newsgroups, I'm putting this same text there.

Nice going, vuakko. That's very useful info. Now this snippet in the
WU.log can be attributed solely to the missing Permissions for System on
the root drive.
I wonder if we could track down which buggy program changed the Perms ?
Perhaps a security related program or suite ?


> 2006-11-08 17:54:42 2564 130 Misc = Process: C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe
> 2006-11-08 17:54:42 2564 130 AUClnt FATAL: Error: 0xc8000408. wuauclt
> datastore: failed to spawn COM server
> 2006-11-08 17:54:42 1304 678 DtaStor FATAL: DS: Out of proc datastore
> process exited with error 0xc8000408 before signalling ready event.
> 2006-11-08 17:54:42 1304 678 Agent * WARNING: Exit code = 0x80248011




MowGreen [MVP 2002-3007]
===============
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
===============



vuakko wrote:

> Yay!
>
> Found a fix while doing some extra research all over the net. Please check
> out:
>
> http://ms-os.com/showthread.php?t=34308
>
> Problem was that some buggy program had decided to strip my computer's
> SYSTEM account of any rights to the C: drive of my machine. This prevented
> the SYSTEM from doing its do.
>
> The linked discussion talks about another error number 0xC8000408 (though
> which was actually in my update log as one of the errors.), but it fixes the
> 0x80248011 at least in my case. My System Restore has also started work again.
>
> There was a thread about this possibility of problem by echsb here in the
> newsgroups, I'm putting this same text there.
>

BTW, what happened when the system attempted to access WU ? I don't see
that part described in any of your posts.


MowGreen [MVP 2003-2007]
===============
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
===============


vuakko wrote:

> Yay!
>
> Found a fix while doing some extra research all over the net. Please check
> out:
>
> http://ms-os.com/showthread.php?t=34308
>
> Problem was that some buggy program had decided to strip my computer's
> SYSTEM account of any rights to the C: drive of my machine. This prevented
> the SYSTEM from doing its do.
>
> The linked discussion talks about another error number 0xC8000408 (though
> which was actually in my update log as one of the errors.), but it fixes the
> 0x80248011 at least in my case. My System Restore has also started work again.
>
> There was a thread about this possibility of problem by echsb here in the
> newsgroups, I'm putting this same text there.
>

Well it rolled around the progress bar, but in a few seconds it just put
that error message in the screen. The same thing seemed to have incurred
several problems, because after the fix both my WU and System Restore started
working but also some mysterious problems with shutting down the computer
disappeared.

First I thought that it could have been the new ATI Catalyst 6.10 Driver
package, but now I think that I myself did something wrong. I can't recall,
but this may have happened after I did some security changes in my Cygwin
system, though I never straightforwardly touched any of the Windows's
security settings. Oh well, hope this helps someone.

vuakko

"MowGreen [MVP]" wrote:

> BTW, what happened when the system attempted to access WU ? I don't see
> that part described in any of your posts.
>
>
> MowGreen [MVP 2003-2007]
> ===============
> *-343-* FDNY
> Never Forgotten
> ===============
>

Thanks for the information. I'll post it on my blog along with other
fixes for WU. As to when I get around to that ...

MowGreen [MVP 2003-2007]
===============
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
===============

vuakko wrote:

> Well it rolled around the progress bar, but in a few seconds it just put
> that error message in the screen. The same thing seemed to have incurred
> several problems, because after the fix both my WU and System Restore started
> working but also some mysterious problems with shutting down the computer
> disappeared.
>
> First I thought that it could have been the new ATI Catalyst 6.10 Driver
> package, but now I think that I myself did something wrong. I can't recall,
> but this may have happened after I did some security changes in my Cygwin
> system, though I never straightforwardly touched any of the Windows's
> security settings. Oh well, hope this helps someone.
>
> vuakko
>
> "MowGreen [MVP]" wrote:
>
>
>>BTW, what happened when the system attempted to access WU ? I don't see
>>that part described in any of your posts.
>>
>>
>>MowGreen [MVP 2003-2007]
>>===============
>> *-343-* FDNY
>>Never Forgotten
>>===============
>>