Problems installing VPN client 3.1on Win2000

[mbergh]

I have problems installing VPN Client 3.1 on a Win2000 Professional (SP2) client.

During install I get an error message "svchost has generated errors". This happens probably near the end of installation (icons have been created).

After rebooting I get the same error message again. Several other services will not be able to start properly, like "Com+ Event System", "IIS Admin Service" and several others (but the previous two has a status "starting and it is not possible to either restart or stop those services). Also the last part of the installation which is executed on first reboot will not run and I get an error that it need the RPC server running".

Installation does not create uninstall information and not the file reboot.ini which isused by the last part of installation (after reboot).

The problems with other services not working will remain.

The strange thing is that the VPN client seems to work fine.

I have run the VPN 3000 client before with no problems.

I have tried to back to a Win2000 installation with neither an old VPN 3000 client or 3.1 client installed. But same thing happens. Of course, there might be a another problem causing it. I have not tried to reinstall Win2000 (but it was not that long time since I did that).

Any ideas?

Magnus

[rjphillips]

Magnus

We had the same problem with a couple of Toshiba Laptops. They were the Satellite 4000 series with built in modems. The problem seemed to occur when we had the NIC cards in the PCMCIA slots (D-Link 650's, Intel chipset) with the cable connected. The really irritating thing when the svchost crashed was that you couldn't change any network settings. The VPN client worked fine though.

Cisco never did get back to me about this problem. The only way we found round this was to remove the cable from the NIC card before boot. This worked 9 out of 10 times we tried it. Upgrading from 3.0 to 3.1 did not fix this problem. Reinstalling 2000 didn't fix it either.

I'm pretty sure that your circumstances won't be the same as this, so the suggestions won't help.In the end this was so annoying that new Laptops were purchased.

Anyone else ?

Rhodri

[mbergh]

Did svchost crash during install as well?

The question is if the installation did break anything else concerning svchost and that your solution to unplug the cable didn't solve anything that had to with the VPN client. Or is it that the VPN client by it self cause this?

I tried to disable the VPN Client service but the problem still remains. I wonder if there is anything else that starts which cause this?

Svchost crashes when you logon to the workstation. If it was a service then the crrash should probably happen before the logon. Maybe it has to do with GINAs? It seems that it replaces the current GINA.

I will try to unplug the network cables before booting to see if this helps. But it is not a laptop (but I have a Toshiba Satellite 4000 as well, would be interesting to see if this happens there as well.

Did you try to use any other NIC with your laptop?

[rjphillips]

It didn't crash during install.

The only time this service had problems was when the user logged in. If you left the laptop at the logon screen after startup, there were no problems.

When we removed the VPN client from the Laptops we found that the problems with this service stopped. It certainly indicated that the client was causing the problems. I think you would probably find the same thing if you removed it.

As it happens, I do have a Satellite Pro 4600 with a built in NIC, that I use personally. This has had no problems with the Client (3.0 or 3.1).

strange...

Rhodri

[mbergh]

On my computer it crashed during install so it did not finish creating uninstall information. I have not been able to remove the client except by going back to a previous installation of Win2000.

Since it crashes when you logon I suspect that it is the GINA (Graphical Identification and Authentication, dll that controls logon) that the VPN client installs that might cause the crash. I will try to change the registry setting for this so it loqads the original GINA instead.

BTW, did you have PCanywhere or Novell Client32 installed on the computers that did not work?

Both these products install their own GINAs.

Magnus

[mbergh]

I have solved the problem. I changed NIC drivers and now it works fine.

Magnus