Vista loosing audio service

[Stonking]

Ha, success. I copied and pasted what you put and I got C, lots of writing scrolling past.

 

[LookinAround]

That's good! (assuming it was the output from my first example... So now try this

findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log >%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt

and file sfcdetails.txt should appear on your desktop

to see the full directory path to the file it will create

echo %userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt

Also am running out for a bit. an hour or so before i can reply again

/edit/
p.s. if output only occurs with my second example in my earlier post it means [SR] isn't being found in the cbs.log file.. in which am not sure the next step. would have to look online for some info before i could say

 

[Stonking]

OK, both give me the message "The system cannot find the path specified."

 

[Stonking]

Tried running findstr /c:"I" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log and if gave me loads and loads of scrolling lines.

 

[LookinAround]

This is most bizarre. Let’s step through the whole thing once more. I’ll first explain what should be happening and then step through the instructions. (And if all fails again this time may be best to move on reinstall or repair install Vista)

What should happen

1. You must be in that Administrator window for any of these commands to work
2. Certain Windows components trace what they are doing by writing diagnostic data to the cbs.log (Everything written to cbs.log is text data so you can see it easily when the text is displayed on the screen)
3. System File Checker (SFC), every time it runs, is supposed to be writing text data to the cbs.log. Each text line it writes includes the text [SR] with the text line
4. So, supposedly, since SFC ran (till 92%) it should have written SOMETHING into the cbs.log file
5. I know its amazing Vista makes users go through these very non-user friendly steps to get to this data for troubleshooting.. but that’s Vista for ya!
6. The findstr command means “find string”. The command we enter searches the cbs.log and will output every text line which includes the text [SR] which,should be, all the text lines output by SFC when it ran
7. The things you see like %windir% and %userprofile% in the command lines are variables one can use that windows is supposed to expand with the variable’s definition. You can view each of their definitions by entering as follows (and seeing what windows returns)

echo %windir%
echo %userprofile%

So let’s try the following

1. Make sure you start and remain within an Administrator Window
2. Since SFC ran before we won’t rerun it right now. But if need be we’ll be back here to run it again
2. In the Admin command prompt window enter

findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log

3. This should match [SR] with some lines of text from what SFC wrote earlier when it ran and some lines of text should match and be output
4. Does anything appear?
==> If yes, try this command which simply reruns the command above but tells Windows to write to a file vs. the screen (THIS TIME it writes to whatever is your current directory to a file named stephen.txt. You should see the current directory displayed in the command window prompt

findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log > stephen.txt

==> If the command simply ends with no text lines appearing something is very wrong. It means NO text lines match. If this is the case, we may as just skip to repairing or reinstalling your Vista system (after you complete backing up your data)
5. You might go back to re-run SFC one more time and repeat these steps to check one more time..
​

/* Edit */
Here's a link you might also find helpful explaining all this also

 

[LookinAround]

I know, already plenty of info in my last post.. but here's a bit more

1. While nothing is impossible in the world of computers, i'd be quite surprised if we found SFC was running (even if only 92% complete) yet we can't find any lines of text in cbs.log with the [SR] string. So please follow my directions above carefully and let me know

2. Also, i happened to just find a technical article about Vista protected files.. It was interesting as it specifically named audiodg.exe as one of Vista's protected files!! So trying get SFC to run (or at least seing its output) becomes even MORE interesting to see what it reports about the file (as to whether it is corrupted or not and just what gets repaired)

Anyway... let me know what up when you can and we can go from there

 

[Stonking]

OK, I copied and pasted "findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log" and once again loads of writing went scrolling by. So that was a yes.
I then copied and pasted findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log > stephen.txt and nothing happened other than it just went back to c:\ user etc.
Right now I am running sfc/scannow again and when it is finished I will copy and pasted in findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log > stephen.txt again.
OK it got to 92% again. Said it wrote to the cbs log. I pasted and it did nothing.
Regards

 

[LookinAround]

OK, I copied and pasted "findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log" and once again loads of writing went scrolling by. So that was a yes.
I then copied and pasted findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log > stephen.txt <snip>

OK! This is good in fact!
The first command is finding the SFC output matching strings (that's what's scrolling by on the screen)

The second command redirects all the screen output to the file stephen.txt. So seeing nothing on your screen is good!

Look for the file stephen.txt in the current directory that is being displayed by the command prompt window.

If still not certain, just do a Vista file search for it. When you open it, it should be filled with all those text lines that scrolled by before. Attach the file to your post

 

[LookinAround]

OK, I copied and pasted "findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log" and once again loads of writing went scrolling by. So that was a yes.
I then copied and pasted findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log > stephen.txt <snip>

OK! This is good in fact!
The first command is finding the SFC output matching strings (that's what's scrolling by on the screen)

The second command redirects all the screen output to the file stephen.txt. So seeing nothing on your screen is good!

Look for the file stephen.txt in the current directory that is being displayed by the command prompt window.

If still not certain, just do a Vista file search for it. When you open it, it should be filled with all those text lines that scrolled by before. Attach the file to your post

/*edit */
Note that second commands does the same as the 1st command except with one change: All the command output of the 2nd command is sent to a file vs. your screen! So look for that file stephen.txt!

 

[Stonking]

found it and file attached. I also found one from last night called sfc so I have attached that as well.

 

[Stonking]

Lets try that again. file is too big. I will zip it.

 

[Stonking]

lets try again

 

[LookinAround]

well.. we're makin progress.. albeit slowly

I think there's a problem with the way these were compressed (none of them will decompress without errors.) In fact i'd expect a compressed file should simply have a .zip extension vs. .txt.zip

Don't know what you used but here's a friendly and easy tool ALZIP that handles .zip as well as 30 something other types of compression formats as well

 

[Stonking]

Hope this works

 

[LookinAround]

:grinthumb fyi Yes! I can read these.... Will get back to you..

/* EDIT1 */
Update: This is to confirm audiodg.exe is, in fact, corrupt and Windows SFC couldn't fix (along with several other files). I only list the error message for audiodg.exe below

2009-04-28 19:43:56, Info CSI 0000005f [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:22{11}]"audiodg.exe" of Microsoft-Windows-Audio-AudioCore, Version = 6.0.6001.18000, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_AMD64 (9), Culture neutral, VersionScope = 1 nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}, Type neutral, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, hash mismatch
2009-04-28 19:44:00, Info CSI 00000061 [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:22{11}]"audiodg.exe" of Microsoft-Windows-Audio-AudioCore, Version = 6.0.6001.18000, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_AMD64 (9), Culture neutral, VersionScope = 1 nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}, Type neutral, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, hash mismatch
2009-04-28 19:44:00, Info CSI 00000064 [SR] Could not reproject corrupted file [ml:520{260},l:46{23}]"\??\C:\Windows\System32"\[l:22{11}]"audiodg.exe"; source file in store is also corrupted

Will have to get back to you about what's best next (we may just have to do that repair install but will let you know)

 

[Stonking]

Thank you.

Stephen

 

[LookinAround]

Good new, bad news....

Bad news: You have several dozen corrupted files (including audiodg.exe)

Good news By a stroke of very good luck none of those files are system critical as to providing basic Windows functionality. Meaning, in spite of having upwards of 50+ different corrupt files, your computer is still booting and running! All those "bad" disk sectors at least aren't the "worst possible" bad sectors!

Unlike many others, you have a chance to back up all your stuff from a still running Vista system environment before you then must rebuild your Windows system. Personally, i suggest using "ghost' imaging backup software which can both digitially capture a full snapshot of your disk drive as well provide all traditional file/folder backup functions (i personally use Acronis True Image 2009. If you should buy it online, IMMEDIATELY build a Rescue CD - so you can also use it to boot from/use if Windows ever crashes on you and you need a method to boot first to then use Acronis backup/recovery) You can read the different opinions on backup approaches [post=747827]in the this thread[/post]

Once you're all backe up then try to do a Vista Repair install.

Vista will try to repair/replace the Vista Operating System files using your DVDs.​

If that should fail, you'll need to wipe out your data while it attemapts a full install.

Let us know how it works out. Good luck!

 

[Stonking]

Thanks for all your help. I will do a re-store in about 10 days (if the system lasts that long). Have you any idea why / how I got into this position? Is it the hard disc that's faulty or have I had a virus or what?


Thanks again, your a star.

 

[LookinAround]

You're welcome! Glad to help...

Of course all the corrupt files must be the result of the all bad sectors we found. As to just why all the bad sectors, i couldn't say with any certainty based on what i've seen

But would advise (to know if your disk might be going bad)
=> Periodically check your Windows System Event log to look for any new bad sector messages after the old bad sectors were taken out of service when you ran chkdsk
=> A couple free ware tools to also help you monitor your disk (including its SMART sensor data which is disk error statistics maintained by sensor data on your hard drive)
+ Emsa CheckDisk
+ HD Tune