Windows 7 Event Viewer Error "Failed to connect to the driver: (-2147024894)"

Thanks for jumping in 7 months into the issue.  I've since moved on to another product, but maybe your "hours" of effort will help someone else.  Heck there have been days of effort burned by people who use your product.  

Now that the beta is out, hopefully this will be fixed by January 2018.  

I've been having this issue for a while now. I found the fix on my own of disabling the dbx service but it eventually comes back to life because the dbupdate service will kick on and clean up the fact that the dbx service is disabled. I've found that my PC randomly blue screens with the service enabled and after disabled, it's fine. I'm pretty frustrated at the lack of attention this issue has gotten as it's been going on for quite some time.

Also, the problem is not the frequency you write this error to the event log. The problem is that it installs this when it doesn't need to be installed. It also is causing stability issues on many users computers so it's not a benign error that we can just look past.

I agree with the stability issues. I've now uninstalled the application to avoid them. I'll probably come back in say 6 months time and see if this isue has been fixed.

I noticed the problem because my computer makes the USB connect/disconnect sound every time it happens. It seems that it happens every second for a while then it resets to try in an hour so there is a gap before more multiple attempts. I am using an HP Spectre with Windows 10 Pro, fully updated. Looks like I also need to disable this service as a temporary workaround. I will flag re-enabling it in 3 months in case Dropbox have fixed it by then. It only started for me about a week ago.

Hi Ross,

Thanks for your belated input.

I am glad Dropbox is looking at the issue but, when you consider how long it has been going on, surely there should have been some sort of resolution by now.

Really it is not good enough to say that "It should be failing to connect. This is by design, the actual issue you’re facing is due to the frequency we're writing to the logs".  If it is "by design" then it is pretty poor design that the repetitive logging is taking place throughout a computer session - the key to good design is that function is achieved effectively; other aspects, including aesthetics etc. are subordinate so if the main function is impaired, then the design is flawed.  That is the case with Dropbox at present - expecting users to use a beta version is not the answer; yes, users prepared to explore a beta version to feedback to Dropbox is one thing but to expect all users to do that for very limited improvement is not acceptable.

You can see that many users are 'voting with their feet' and dropping Dropbox.  You should not experiment with your main body of users if you want to keep them on board but restrict all such experimentation within the beta test versions and only releasing the changes into the everyday versions once all snags have been resolved.  Your disregard for your users is an unhealthy and disrespectful approach that is not good for Dropbox - it is sad to say that, what was a a good, effective facility, is now tainted and developing a quite negative reputation.

For the moment I will keep Dropbox but only with dbxsvc disabled (I don't particularly require 'Smart Sync' and neither will I update to a beta version for little gain) - I have to say, however, that I am trialling a competitor, namely Box, which gives me five times more storage space (in the free personal version) and, so far, has run very smoothly.

OMG!  I've been getting that sound too for the past few weeks at sporadic times.  I thought it was my PC playing up, and it might still be.  Now that I've uninstalled DropBox today I'll see if the sound is gone for good or not.

UPDATE: Well after removing DropBox I've had no intermittent beeping as though a USB device was unplugged. It was happening at least once a day before the removal.  A few times over the past couple of months my keyboard and mouse (both wired) also froze after the beeps so I wonder if those events were caused by DropBox as well. Time will tell.

I posted earlier today that I have the USB connect and disconnect sounds coming up and thought it might be connected with the Dropbox messages - reckon I was wrong - I am seeing a system event log information message that says it is to do with 'nhi' - whatever 'nhi' is. I have the Dropbox messagess as others describe but it is not casuing me grief so I will let that one go for the time being.

Same problem, entry to eventlog EVERY SECOND!!!

Coupled with another problem (selective sync not working) I'm seriously considering dropping Dropbox after multiple years of usage :-(

I had this same issue on a Windows 7 desktop and 8.1 laptop. I disabled dbxsvc on each system (via task manager on 8.1, via "services" on 7). That stopped the event logging every second. On 7/13 Dropbox was updated to version 30.4.22 on both computers and the event logging issue reappeared, likely due to dbxsvc restarting with the Dropbox app restarted. So, on 7/13 I disabled dbxsvc on both computers again to prevent this "failed to connect to driver" error from flooding event viewer every second.

However, just now I've noticed that sync is not working correctly between the two systems. For example, there's a file I update almost every day mainly from my desktop (most recently 7/20/2017). Yet, the last version uploaded from the desktop in the file history on the Dropbox website is 7/14/2017), with the last version from the laptop uploaded on 7/15/2017. In addition the file properties on my laptop for this spreadsheet file show a last modified date of 7/15/2017 - the newer version of this file from my desktop PC has not been synced to my laptop for 5-6 days.

So, it seems that disabling Dbxsvc might have screwed up my sync. As far as I can tell files from my Windows 7 desktop PC are not uploading properly to the cloud or syncing to my Win 8.1 laptop. No other settings have since been changed on either PC, no other programs recently installed, etc. I just have a personal Dropbox account (non-business).

Has anyone else noticed this behavior/issue after disabling Dbxsvc?

From 7/10/17 untill noon on 7/13/17 I have an event logged by DbxSvc every second saying "Failed to connect to the driver: (-2147024894) retrying in 1000 miliseconds". These events are still occuring but the retry time has become 86400000 milliseconds (24 hours). In the event properties of these entries it says the "Event 320, DbxSvc". I am using Windows 7 64 bit. 

This odd event behavior is very similar to that of virus behavior. Looks like it might be an underflow error? Can someone explain what the software is attempting to do that is causing this event to be logged?

Hi,

This issue still drags on with only half-hearted part solutions offered by the developer.  Contrast this with one of their competitors, Box. 

To find a replacement service I checked reviews on-line and decided to give Box a try.  Their free service is more generous than that of Dropbox in that they provide 10 gb of storage.  All went well with Box for several days until on booting my system one morning, I had an error message to say that the sync program could not contact the website.  I could still access my files on-line but just could get any communication between my computer and the website. 

Using the Box community forum did not provide a solution so I was advised to set up a ticket with the Box support facility.  I was contacted by email after a little delay (obviously free service users are prioritised lower than the paying customers as one would expect).  It was suggested that I undertake various checks to rule out anything on my computer as the cause.  When these did not resolve the issue I was emailed again to submit logfiles and so on.  I was always contacted by the same member of the support staff who kept me updated on a regular basis.  The box internal team kept working on the problem until yesterday, when I booted the system, the sync was working perfectly once more.

The notable difference between Box and my experience with Dropbox is the interest that Box takes in their users, their willingness to communicate and their effort to find a solution.  I really feel that Dropbox takes its users for granted and has little interest in making its service run smoothly for users while it has some other agenda to explore.

I have also been trying pCloud which, like Box offers 10 gb of free storage.  pCloud is interesting in that its on computer folder is in the form of a virtual drive so does not use up more than minimal drive space.  So far pCloud is running very smoothly for me.  Whilst I am not posting here as an advertising campaign for these alternatative products,  Dropbox would do well to realise that users of their free service may well consider the alternatives as better options particularly as they offer considerably more free storage and they should recognize too that users of free services may well move on to paid for services if they like what they experience.

Right now, I cannot see any reason to stay with Dropbox and may therefore be closing my account shortly

Well, it's back again, getting the "Failed to connect to the driver: -2147024894, retrying in 1000 milliseconds" event every second for some time now, after getting rid of it for a few weeks by disabling service DbxSvc.  Then, for no apparent reason, it dropped to once per minute, but that's still too often for my liking, as that is 1440 unnecessary events per day.  I will try disabling DbxSvc again, and if I ever see it again, my next step will be to uninstall Dropbox.  Dropbox version is 30.4.22.

Here is the solution to this problem:

Step 1: Back up your data

Step 2: Migrate to another cloud storage provider

Step 3: There is no step 3!

since that error (thousends of them in eventviewer on 2 PCs ) i'm on Onedrive, fortunatly , or luckly... i dont know yet

Hi,

Version 31.4.24 has not really provided a fix but it has decreased the nuisance level to a tolerable position.  On my Windows 7 system,  Event Viewer actually shows two instances of 'Failed to connect to the driver: (-2147024894) The system cannot find the file specified. , retrying...' after each system startup.  The two instances are 30 seconds apart.  So the issue is still there but no lonbger irritating enough for me to disable dbxsvc.  Dropbox has a little more time now before I decide whether or not to get rid of it.

The problem does seem to at least be vastly improved, if not completely fixed, with version 31.4.24 on my Windows 10 system.  I've had less than 10 events reported with DbxSvc as the source in the past 24 hours, and those have been at random times, or system startup.  About half of those events have also been more normal things, like "Server started," or "Pipe server thread started."  I am satisfied with that, as long as the original problem stays away.

Hi,

I receive email notifications when a new post is added to this thread so I was surprised to receive the following today (Monday 14 August 2017) which does not appear to have been added to this thread so I have included it in italics below :

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There are several versions listed in the table, both beta builds and stable versions, that are later versions than the quoted 31.3.15.

I would presume that later versions would include any debugging and improvements from earlier versions.

UPDATE:

I've just realised that the post was from Ross and actually made a month ago and was notified of it then.  Why I have received it a second time, I just do not know.  Sorry to have wasted so much space but there now seems to be a bug in the forum's email notification system as well as my memory.

I know this thread has been dormant for a while, but have there been any findings or updates as to why dbx.sys is triggering numerous security, application and system errors in the event log? Not to mention Smart Sync has not worked as it is dependent on this driver. I have an end user who needs Smart Sync to work as he has a huge amount of data he wants to see on his C drive, and if it all syncs locally, he blows up his computer. I've been actively in touch with support from Dropbox, and they are stumped as well.

Hi katnappa,

 This thread is about dbx.sys writing to the error log when it doesn't connect - which is expected behavior. If you are seeing security, application or systems error then I'd suggest opening a new thread as they will be unrelated to this.

 This thread is about the driver connection frequency. Originally it was connecting too frequently for people to be able to read other events in the logs so we reduced the frequency it wrote to the log.

Hope this helps you.

Thanks Ross!