System Event Notification Service Not Starting On Windows

Posted by on February 15, 2009 Leave a comment (162) Go to comments

Ok I was woke up this morning by my better half saying that the computer was taking ages to log in and when it did it was popping up error messages. The main error message/problem was:

Failed to connect to a windows service

Windows could not connect to the System Event Notification Service service. This problem prevents limited users from logging on to the system. As an administrative user, you can review the System Event Log for details about why the service didn’t respond.”

So I booted up the laptop and began Googling for fixes. Searching for “failed to connect to a windows service” returns a ridiculous amount of results. I found multiple fixes (changing Remote Registry setting, manually setting network IP addres etc), none of which sorted my problem out 😥

Anyway I finally found a solution that worked (for me anyway).

Firstly we need to run the Command prompt with administrator privledges if on Vista/Windows 7 or be logged in as an Administrator on XP.

  1. Click Start then click on All Programs
  2. Now click on Accessories
  3. Right click on Command Prompt and select ‘Run as administrator‘.

or

  1. Click Start then click Computer (or open it from your desktop if thats where it is).
  2. Go to your C drive (or whatever drive you have Windows installed on)
  3. Open up the Windows folder
  4. Find and open the System32 folder.
  5. Find the file cmd (might be shows as cmd.exe).
  6. Right click on it and select ‘Run as administrator‘.

Once the command prompt window opens type ‘NETSH WINSOCK RESET CATALOG‘ and press the Enter/Return key.

It then says you have to reboot and after that my computer was working fine 😀 no more “failed to connect to a windows service”

Now I’m not saying this will work for you but it definitely fixed my problem.

<update> A friend of mine has written a small program that should do the fix for you. You can download it here.

Computers
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162 Comments.

  1. Young March 15, 2009 at 02:44

    Wow great~!!! It works!!! Thanks for solution~~!!
    (Maybe it’s because of socket error. I’ve seen socket error message before.) Oh god~~~~~~gooooood~~~:-)thxthxthx~

    Reply
  2. Ori March 16, 2009 at 12:51

    Thank you sooo much
    Your solution fixed the problem!!!
    I was ready to formatting my system…. when vi found your thread/
    Thanks again
    Ori

    Reply
  3. Alistair Macdonald March 31, 2009 at 21:54

    Fantastic! I hate vista about as much as I love your solution, I have spent the whole day on this (without internet) and just used my partner’s laptop to google and found your post – this is a common problem and you are the only one who has a solution! Nice one and thanks!

    Reply
  4. kito neto April 2, 2009 at 09:13

    gostei de visitar a vossa pagina a vossa explicação ajudou me muito obrigado pela ajuda

    Reply
  5. William Osigoth April 6, 2009 at 03:29

    Your solution worked beautifully. Thanks so much!!!

    Reply
  6. Britta April 7, 2009 at 20:14

    THANk you soooooooooo much
    it even worked here in Germany 🙂

    Took me hours to find your solution
    but now I’m all and only happy again

    cheers

    Reply
  7. Kaushal April 8, 2009 at 21:18

    Hi buddy

    Thanks a lot. I thought that my computer needs to be formated. But fortunately I found this link. T

    THANK YOU SO MUCH

    Reply
  8. Mo April 12, 2009 at 12:57

    Thank you very much.
    I spent my whole morning solving this problem, and your one was the last i found and solved my problem like magic.
    Great u!

    Reply
  9. Sanju April 15, 2009 at 05:04

    Hellp Dear

    This was a fantastic help – I was pulling my hair over this problem for a while now trying out all sorts of setting changes etc. & was about to format the disk – . However, this one worked like magic …

    Thanks very much sharing this with all …

    Tx
    Sanju

    Reply
  10. Ray April 22, 2009 at 19:43

    This hep was right on the money, thanks a lot, this is much appreciated!!!….:-)

    Reply
  11. Arun April 24, 2009 at 03:36

    “Initialization Function InitHelperDll in NSHHTTP.DLL failed to start with error code 11003
    The requested operation requires elevation” please help 🙁

    Reply
  12. Paul Julier April 30, 2009 at 10:44

    this was spot on – excellent thanks very much .

    Reply
  13. celso costa May 11, 2009 at 23:34

    outro sucesso fenomenal, obgdo
    another great success, thnkx

    Reply
  14. Andrew Seale June 2, 2009 at 07:23

    Thanks!! Worked perfectly……amazing that Vista does not or can’t give this infomation out!! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!

    Reply
  15. Nick June 12, 2009 at 08:05

    What a lifesaver. Brilliant.

    Reply
  16. David June 19, 2009 at 07:04

    Fantastico! worked instantly, you just saved me hours tonight. Very gratefull

    Reply
  17. Tom June 19, 2009 at 07:05

    That did the trick! Thanks so much!
    Fixed my Vista computer right up.

    Reply
  18. Shaneil June 24, 2009 at 16:58

    Great! It worked. Thanx a lot

    Reply
  20. gomathi July 17, 2009 at 06:03

    thank you very very much… i could not sleep well because of my laptop show this error msg. you’re really great..you solved my laptop problem… thanks yar….

    Reply
  21. David July 21, 2009 at 13:41

    Worked like a charm. I was worried that I would spend the day trying many other things, but this worked perfectly.

    THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

    Reply
  22. steve July 25, 2009 at 15:19

    oh my god it worked…..thank you!

    Reply
  23. Keith August 6, 2009 at 01:11

    Amazing! Simply amazing…I have four different machines i’m working on and I almost registered for a Vista License so i could format and reload every one of them….this fix has worked on all of them!

    Thank you so much…who would have thought such an advanced (Cough!) OS could hang on the winsock

    Reply
  24. Joe August 26, 2009 at 04:11

    Thanks so much, was starting to panic. Worked perfectly.

    Reply
  25. Gary September 9, 2009 at 15:58

    Thank you – great fix that actually works!

    Reply
  26. JR September 15, 2009 at 18:16

    Thanks for posting the fix.

    Reply
  27. Haseeb September 16, 2009 at 02:02

    dude i love you for this…..
    thanks for the help man…
    i really appreciate it.. it worked

    Reply
  28. Brian September 20, 2009 at 17:00

    WOW…thanks! Works like a charm!

    Reply
  29. Anthony October 6, 2009 at 02:03

    This worked. I remember running a similar script on Windows 3.1 troubleshooting winsock errors about 15 years ago! thanks for the reminder! I lost connectivity for a client when they had a blackout while connected to the net. Winsock catalog errors can happen. I also ran regclean.exe and rebooted and after a few router reboots, VOILA! Thanks dude! Anthony in Los Angeles

    Reply
  30. Anthony October 6, 2009 at 02:05

    For an explanation, it’s a simple (albeit hair losing, profane filled, windows sux) issue:

    http://windowsxp.mvps.org/winsock.htm

    Reply
  31. raul October 17, 2009 at 04:16

    thanks man
    your freakin awesome

    Reply
  32. Tinku October 27, 2009 at 09:34

    THANKS A LOT!!!!!!!! Appreciate your help!!!!!!

    Reply
  33. blake October 29, 2009 at 23:55

    thank you sooooo much!!! helped me and its now working 100 percent, (:

    Reply
  34. los angeles computer networking November 2, 2009 at 11:05

    To skip the first few steps and go directly to the command prompt, simply click Start and on the Search box, type cmd and hit “enter.” That should automatically bring up the command prompt for Win Vista.

    Reply
  35. Dan November 3, 2009 at 15:01

    woo thanks, worked perfectly!

    Reply
  36. boji November 9, 2009 at 06:47

    unfortunately,, my same problem still exists “Initialization Function InitHelperDll in NSHHTTP.DLL failed to start with error code 11003
    The requested operation requires elevation” please help 🙁

    Reply
  37. larry November 10, 2009 at 05:24

    Boji
    The requested operation requires elevation can be solved by the following steps;
    1. click start
    2. Type cmd in the search box
    3. Right click on the result “cmd” on the menu click on run as administrator
    OR
    Go to start-all programs – Accessories – cmd, right click on cmd and click on run as administrator

    Reply
  38. def November 25, 2009 at 23:24

    Thanks a lot after testing numbers of other fixes that didn’t work, yours worked just fine. The problem personally showed up right after an installation of windows live suite.

    Reply
  39. Paul November 30, 2009 at 13:51

    Had the same problem on Windows 7 Professional today. This resolved the problem. Thanks so much – I was at my wit’s end trying to figure out the problem.

    Reply
  40. Mariusz December 17, 2009 at 02:40

    Thanks a lot!!! It solved finally my problem.

    Reply
  41. Mikael January 2, 2010 at 17:47

    You are my Hero, I have tried many things now but you had the solution 🙂
    ‘NETSH WINSOCK RESET CATALOG’ is the magis command 😀

    Reply
  42. lll January 3, 2010 at 23:13

    It works, thank very much! we lucky have you here beside the stupid vista

    Reply
  43. Meg January 3, 2010 at 23:32

    Thank you so much! Fixed the problem 🙂

    Reply
  44. Sri Beldona January 10, 2010 at 03:09

    Thanks a ton for sharing this. My laptop reported this problem just before I was leaving for a long trip. Finding this post and working on the solution has easily been the most gratifying experience for me on the Internet.

    Reply
  45. Flavio E. Goncalves January 10, 2010 at 18:36

    Worked like a charm. Computer saved.

    Reply
  46. Adam January 11, 2010 at 23:07

    Thank you so much! Only took a minute and you saved me a couple of hours of reimaging time 😛 Thanks again

    Reply
  47. Nadine January 20, 2010 at 01:32

    I am at a loss for words! I was ready to buy a MAC!!!!! I was on the window site for the past 24 hours! I lost sleep and I just said there is got to be a simple way to do this.. Thank you for posting this. I am now back online. This happened right after I got a Desktop Defender 2010 virus a few days go.! Thanks so much, I did not want to reformat my computer!

    Reply
  48. starlight January 20, 2010 at 16:14

    worked pefectly after 4 days of pc not working at all

    Reply
  49. Najool from Kuwait January 24, 2010 at 09:34

    Thanx for your post It worked so well :)))

    Reply
  50. Kiarash January 26, 2010 at 11:54

    Thank you so much,that’s really work

    Reply
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