Why does my .NET Windows service not start automatically sometimes?

Question

I have modified a working Windows service that had always been starting beforehand. After adding the System.Management reference it now sometimes will not start automatically. I get the following error:

Service cannot be started. System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80010002): Call was canceled by the message filter. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80010002 (RPC_E_CALL_CANCELED))

I found another post here on SO with someone having the same issue.

Why won't my .Net Windows service start automatically after a reboot?

However, the proposed solution was to have the service start after the services it depends on have started. However, when I go to the Dependencies tab for my service, I see:

Should I just use the workaround method of putting the thread to sleep, or is there a more proper way of getting this service to start correctly? Is this happening because .NET has not started before my service starts?

Thanks,

Tomek

EDIT: I have added a try-catch statement to catch the exception. Here is the code that I added to the OnStart() method of my service (which is where the exception is being thrown)

        try
        {
            _watcher = new ManagementEventWatcher(query);
            _watcher.EventArrived += new EventArrivedEventHandler(watcher_EventArrived);
            _watcher.Start();  
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            EventLog.WriteEntry("Could not create Sleep/Resume watcher" + ex.Message);
        }

The service does start now but without the functionality that I have added. I am new to .NET, but I took the watcher code from a sample I found online, so I am pretty sure it is correct. The Event Log displays the same exception:

Could not create Sleep/Resume watcher Call was canceled by the message filter. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80010002 (RPC_E_CALL_CANCELED))

Solution 1

I ended up using Thread.Sleep(10000) right before I create the ManagementEventWatcher (before the try statement)

It is kind of a workaround, but it did fix the problem.

Solution 2

I've had this problem myself and apparently it only occurs on Windows XP (not on Vista or Win 7). To fix this you need to add a dependency to the Windows Management Instrumentation service. Adding this dependency to your existing service is done in three simple steps:

1. Open the command prompt (Windows+R -> cmd -> enter)
2. Type: sc config "NAME_OF_YOUR_SERVICE" depend= winmgmt
3. Press enter, you should see: [SC] ChangeServiceConfig SUCCESS

Restart your computer and your service should now start correctly.

Solution 3

The problem isn't with the service itself, it's that the new component you added a reference to is throwing an unhandled exception (Call was canceled by the message filter). Troubleshoot that error message with whatever code you added, and/or put in better error handling so that an error in that component will not bubble up to the top and cause the service to stop :-)

Comments

[Tomek]

how can I find out which services my service depends on other than the Services applet?

[Tomek]

@Joel Martinez I have added the try-catch but am getting the same exception (see my edit)

[Andre Hofmeister]

This is the correct answer! You can also add the dependency to the service installer.