Run time error: 429 - ActiveX Component Cant Create Object - VBA Excel Code

NOTE: This article is for Advanced Users who know exactly what they are upto when they modify the REGISTRY keys. I stand no assurance for any damage that would after following this article. But, this certainly solved my problem with no issues.

Hello There -

For the past 3 Days, I have been breaking my head to get to the details of why machine which used to execute VBA Excel code, failed to work. I did not realize that some registry tool that was trusted would actually delete genuine registry entries. Anyways, the error was that I was not able to connect to the Database from VBA code in Excel to the SQL server. The error that I got was the standard -

"Run time error: 429

ActiveX Component Cant Create Objects."

So, I thought may be repairing my Office 2007 Suite would solve the purpose. So, I repaired it. That did not solve the problem. Then I un-installed it and re-installed it, nope no resolution. I repaired the Startup of my Computer using the Original OS disk. Nope that too did not solve the problem. So, now again I manually un-installed all instances of Office 2007 suite and then Installed Fresh Office 2010 suite. Well hello, that too did not solve my problem. I still got the same error.

Strangely, the code I have written on my machine doesn't work on the same machine. So, I decided to get to the root of the problem. After doing all the combinations above, I felt that something was missing from the Registry. So, what I did was to download Process Monitor exe (from SysInternals.com which is now part of Microsoft - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645) and then ran it on my machine filtering to show only EXCEL.EXE process name details. The tool captured the interceptions and what I found was that there were references being made to the Registry. So, I knew for sure somehow my registry got corrupted or is missing the required elements for the code to work.

Next, I sent the excel code file to another colleage of mine. Executed the excel code while ProcMon.exe was running. Filtered the interceptions to display only EXCEL.EXE process name details. Then scanned through all the Registry items one by one. Compared the same with my machine. I did find as many as 7 registries missing the crucial information for my excel code to connect to SQL. After making the changes, voila, I was able to re-run my good old VBA Excel Code.

For your information, the following are the settings in the registry that should be present so that your code can connect to SQL -
[
My machine OS: Windows 7
SQL Server: SQL Server 2008
]

1) Missing Entries for 0C7FF16C-38E3-11D0-97AB-00C04FC2AD98

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0C7FF16C-38E3-11d0-97AB-00C04FC2AD98}]
@="SQLOLEDB"
"OLEDB_SERVICES"=dword:ffffffff

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0C7FF16C-38E3-11d0-97AB-00C04FC2AD98}\ExtendedErrors]
@="Extended Error Service"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0C7FF16C-38E3-11d0-97AB-00C04FC2AD98}\ExtendedErrors\{C0932C62-38E5-11d0-97AB-00C04FC2AD98}]
@="SQLOLEDB Error Lookup"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0C7FF16C-38E3-11d0-97AB-00C04FC2AD98}\Implemented Categories]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0C7FF16C-38E3-11d0-97AB-00C04FC2AD98}\Implemented Categories\{D267E19A-0B97-11D2-BB1C-00C04FC9B532}]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0C7FF16C-38E3-11d0-97AB-00C04FC2AD98}\InprocServer32]
@=hex(2):25,00,43,00,6f,00,6d,00,6d,00,6f,00,6e,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,\
00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,\
74,00,65,00,6d,00,5c,00,4f,00,6c,00,65,00,20,00,44,00,42,00,5c,00,73,00,71,\
00,6c,00,6f,00,6c,00,65,00,64,00,62,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
"ThreadingModel"="Both"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0C7FF16C-38E3-11d0-97AB-00C04FC2AD98}\OLE DB Provider]
@="Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0C7FF16C-38E3-11d0-97AB-00C04FC2AD98}\ProgID]
@="SQLOLEDB.1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0C7FF16C-38E3-11d0-97AB-00C04FC2AD98}\VersionIndependentProgID]
@="SQLOLEDB"

2) Missing entries for - 3FF292B6-B204-11CF-8D23-00AA005FFE58

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{3FF292B6-B204-11CF-8D23-00AA005FFE58}]
@="FoxOLEDB 1.0 Object"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{3FF292B6-B204-11CF-8D23-00AA005FFE58}\InprocServer32]
@=hex(2):25,00,43,00,6f,00,6d,00,6d,00,6f,00,6e,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,\
00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,\
74,00,65,00,6d,00,5c,00,6d,00,73,00,61,00,64,00,63,00,5c,00,6d,00,73,00,61,\
00,64,00,63,00,65,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
"ThreadingModel"="both"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{3FF292B6-B204-11CF-8D23-00AA005FFE58}\ProgID]
@="FX.Rowset.1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{3FF292B6-B204-11CF-8D23-00AA005FFE58}\VersionIndependentProgID]
@="FX.Rowset"

3) Missing entries for - 00000507-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000507-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}]
@="ADODB.Command"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000507-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}\InprocServer32]
"Class"="ADODB.CommandClass"
"Assembly"="ADODB, Version=7.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"
"RuntimeVersion"="v1.0.3705"
"ThreadingModel"="Both"
@="C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\System\\ado\\msado15.dll"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000507-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}\InprocServer32\7.0.3300.0]
"Class"="ADODB.CommandClass"
"Assembly"="ADODB, Version=7.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"
"RuntimeVersion"="v1.0.3705"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000507-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}\ProgID]
@="ADODB.Command.2.8"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000507-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}\VersionIndependentProgID]
@="ADODB.Command"

4) Missing entries for - 00000514-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000514-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}]
@="ADODB.Connection"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000514-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}\InprocServer32]
"Class"="ADODB.ConnectionClass"
"Assembly"="ADODB, Version=7.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"
"RuntimeVersion"="v1.0.3705"
"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"
@="C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\System\\ado\\msado15.dll"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000514-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}\InprocServer32\7.0.3300.0]
"Class"="ADODB.ConnectionClass"
"Assembly"="ADODB, Version=7.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"
"RuntimeVersion"="v1.0.3705"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000514-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}\ProgID]
@="ADODB.Connection.2.8"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000514-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}\VersionIndependentProgID]
@="ADODB.Connection"

5) Missing entries for - 00000535-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000535-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}]
@="ADODB.Recordset"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000535-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}\InprocServer32]
"Class"="ADODB.RecordsetClass"
"Assembly"="ADODB, Version=7.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"
"RuntimeVersion"="v1.0.3705"
@="C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\System\\ado\\msado15.dll"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000535-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}\InprocServer32\7.0.3300.0]
"Class"="ADODB.RecordsetClass"
"Assembly"="ADODB, Version=7.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"
"RuntimeVersion"="v1.0.3705"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000535-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}\ProgID]
@="ADODB.Recordset.2.8"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000535-0000-0010-8000-00AA006D2EA4}\VersionIndependentProgID]
@="ADODB.Recordset"

6) Missing entries for - 2206CDB0-19C1-11D1-89E0-00C04FD7A829

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2206CDB0-19C1-11D1-89E0-00C04FD7A829}]
@="MSDAINITIALIZE Class"
"AppID"="{2206CDB0-19C1-11D1-89E0-00C04FD7A829}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2206CDB0-19C1-11D1-89E0-00C04FD7A829}\ExtendedErrors]
@="Extended Error Service"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2206CDB0-19C1-11D1-89E0-00C04FD7A829}\ExtendedErrors\{2206CDB3-19C1-11D1-89E0-00C04FD7A829}]
@="MSDASC Error Lookup"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2206CDB0-19C1-11D1-89E0-00C04FD7A829}\InprocServer32]
@=hex(2):25,00,43,00,6f,00,6d,00,6d,00,6f,00,6e,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,\
00,61,00,6d,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,\
74,00,65,00,6d,00,5c,00,4f,00,6c,00,65,00,20,00,44,00,42,00,5c,00,6f,00,6c,\
00,65,00,64,00,62,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
"ThreadingModel"="Both"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2206CDB0-19C1-11D1-89E0-00C04FD7A829}\ProgID]
@="MSDASC.MSDAINITIALIZE.1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2206CDB0-19C1-11D1-89E0-00C04FD7A829}\VersionIndependentProgID]
@="MSDASC.MSDAINITIALIZE"

7) Missing entries for - ECABB0C0-7F19-11D2-978E-0000F8757E2A

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{ecabb0c0-7f19-11d2-978e-0000f8757e2a}]
@="DispenserManager"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{ecabb0c0-7f19-11d2-978e-0000f8757e2a}\InprocServer32]
@=hex(2):25,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,72,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,63,00,6f,00,\
6d,00,73,00,76,00,63,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
"ThreadingModel"="Both"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{ecabb0c0-7f19-11d2-978e-0000f8757e2a}\ProgID]
@="COMSVCS.DispenserManager"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{ecabb0c0-7f19-11d2-978e-0000f8757e2a}\VersionIndependentProgID]
@="COMSVCS.DispenserManager"

I had all the above registry entries missing in HKCR\CLSID Registry folder.

You can try to copy each of the above registry entries to a notepad and save it with ".reg" extension. Then execute it, so that they get copied over to the registry on the machine that they are run.

Let me know if this article helped you.

Cheers.

Deccan Charges - IPL T20 2009 Champions

Deccan Chargers made a remarkable fightback to rout Royal Challengers Bangalore by six runs in a nail-biting, tub thumping final to win the second edition of the Indian Premier League at Johannesburg on Sunday.

Chasing a modest 144 to win, Bangalore could make only 139 for nine in their quota of overs.

Pragyan Ojha was Hyderabad's most successful bowler, with figures of three for 28 followed by a double whammy by Symonds who plucked the danger man Ross Taylor & Virat Kohli. The credit also goes to the entire team for their didication and hard work on the field by doing excellent piece of fielding and not missing any catches. Gilli did a wonderful stumping of Virat which left the batsman drooling.

It was sheer irony that the team that finished with last in the inaugural edition of the tournament went on to lift the trophy in the second season.

It can also be accrued to fate that the two teams that occupied the bottom of the table in the inaugural edition contested the final this year. Both, along with Delhi Daredevils, qualify for the inaugural Champions League T20, to be held in India in October.

Hyderabad's Deccan Chargers triumph meant that for the second year running an Australian captain lifted the coveted trophy -- Adam Gilchrist following in the footsteps of the legendary Shane Warne of Rajasthan Royals.

Earlier, a superb spell of bowling by Anil Kumble (4-0-16-4) helped Bangalore restrict the Chargers to a paltry 143 for six.

Herschelle Gibbs scored a sublime & steady 53 not out off 48 balls (3x4, 2x6) to keep the Hyderabad challenge alive. The South African combined aggression with caution to good effect to anchor the team's innings to perfection after the early dismissal of Adam Gilchrist for zilch.

All in all 143 was an easy achievable task for Bangalore. Ross Taylor & Dravid looked steady, but some cheeky shots by them cost them their wicket. Robin Uthappa was the duck in the team. He is a batsman and could not perform at all. He was trying to get singles and doubles instead of scoring maximums. He will remember this loss forever.

DC's RP Singh's excellent last over repeated again. Earlier too he boweled so well to not give away runs.

Deccan Charges - rulezzzzzzzzzzzzz !!!!!!!!!!

IPL T20 Matches

Hi,
You can watch the current IPL T20 matches @
FATGAYI - www.fatgayi.com
Justin TV - www.justin.tv
Cric7 - www.cric7.com
Cricket Heats -www.cricketheats.org

MMS Link : LIVE CRICKET

Have some fun time !!!

-KK

When does the Windows Aero Effect Work?

Hi,
I recently figured out when the Windows Vista Aero effect be enabled. First it was some 4 months back that I installed Windows Vista Business by running the OS start up from my existing XP OS. That time I chose a new drive on the hard disk and the installation went fine. I logged into the Vista OS and I tried a lot to enable the Aero Effect. But, there was no option. I thought the installation itself was not right. Checked the setup logs, but could not find anything related to the Aero effect.
After 2 months of this OS being used, one fine day it started giving me problems. I was able to log into the Vista OS, but it was slow and the moment I tried to access any file it used to BLUE SCREEN. I got many variations of the Bluescreen codes. So, the only option now was again to re-install Vista. Other than this problem, i should say Vista worked like a charm. It was pretty fast too.
The second installation had to be done. So, this time I tried to install VIsta by booting the OS from the CD. I continued to install the OS by connecting my NIC to the router for internet so that the setup will automatically get all the required Updates while installing the OS. After the setup/installation was done from the bootable OS CD, the first thing I observed was that I could see the Aero Effect enabled.
So, now I conclude that if anyone doesn't see the Aero effect after installing Vista, then it means that they have started the Vista installation from an existing OS. Get the Vista Aero effect by installing the OS from the bootable OS CD.

thanks,
-KK

Windows VistaOSX09 Theme Problems with Windows Vista

Recently I installed the VistaOSX09 theme on my windows vista - business and initially it looked great. all the icons, dialogs were resembling OS X. it even changed my boot logo to Apple. Nice.
But off late i find that the system was not performing good with this in place and hence planned to uninstall this theme. But, i faced a problem with uninstallation. The uninstallation failed to remove the theme and this in-turn corrupted the themeui.dll as it got modified during the vistaOSX theme installation.
I restarted my m/c expecting that everything will be alright as is the case most of the times with windows. Restart and things look better. But, this time it was the opposite. My themeui.dll got messed up and the system was a drab and extremely slow !! I previously saved my theme and tried to load and thats when i got to know that the themes services was hacked by the VistaOSX theme installation.
I get that the theme could not be loaded as the service was not running. I went and tried to start the services in Services.msc. But now I get the standard message:
---------------------------
Services
---------------------------
Windows could not start the Themes service on Local Computer.Error 126: The specified module could not be found.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------
when i try to start the service. from my previous windows knowledge while I worked in Microsoft, i knew that I need to repair my system to get the original dlls. So, running "sfc /scannow" and "sfc /verifyfile=\Windows\System32\themeui.dll" solved my problem. After running the above commands, I restarted my m/c and voila the Windows Aero theme and other visual goodies started working :).
Remember that when the sfc detects any files corrupted. In order to repair it I will prompt for the original OS CD to copy files from. Make sure that you have the original ones.

thanks,
-Kiran Mantrala

Global Imbalance - Imminent Dollar Crisis

Folks,
This video is one of my favs. The orator has such a good depth in WORLD ECONOMY that he makes you think to know that whatever is happening currently is all Bull crap with the US dollar. Its WE (literally OTHER BUDDING COUNTRY people) who own america and not the americans. We breed them, give them food, give them money, give them service and also vest our hard services with them.
Have some patience in listening to the complete video and you will surely appreciate his thoughts. I like the sentences that he used at: 41st minute about the planning commision of INDIA folks.

The LINKY: Global Imbalance

Enjoy,
-Mantrala, Kiran

Failed On Start (Retrying) - Error Moss 2007 Sharepoint Services

All,

I have been under the scanner in my office to resolve one of the most complex (atleast in my office) Sharepoint issues. Its the standard 'Failed on Start(retrying)' error message that shows up whenever a workflow associated with the list fails. The workflow developed in SPD fails almost on all of my lists.

The workflows used to work fine till sometime and suddenly got to fail one day. Now, i thot this can be solved easily by googling it, but it was not. I did not get to the exact solution, but, i did get some nice references like the following: Look at the logs first, Rodney Langley's blog about application pool credentials, Workflow Bugs etc. The best link is the 3rd one which i got to get good leads as to why the workflows suddenly started to fail. THis happened on both our test and production servers with 3 days difference.

First i went to look into the log files immediately after running the workflow on a list. Checked the time stamp when the workflow failed and went to %ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\LOGS to open the latest log file. Then searched for 'Workflow Infrastructure'. The Level for this entry was: Unexpected. The full details were something like this:

06/11/2008 10:05:34.65 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x1A8C) 0x12EC Windows SharePoint Services Workflow Infrastructure 72fu Unexpected Load Workflow Class: System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.InvalidOperationException: The requested Performance Counter is not a custom counter, it has to be initialized as ReadOnly. at System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter.Initialize() at System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter..ctor(String categoryName, String counterName, String instanceName, Boolean readOnly) at System.Workflow.Runtime.PerformanceCounterManager.CreateCounters(String name) at System.Workflow.Runtime.Hosting.DefaultWorkflowSchedulerService.OnStarted() at System.Workflow.Runtime.Hosting.WorkflowRuntimeService.HandleStarted(Object source, WorkflowRuntimeEventArgs e) at System.EventHandler`1.Invoke(Object sender, TEventArgs e)... 06/11/2008 10:05:34.65* OWSTIMER.EXE (0x1A8C) 0x12EC Windows SharePoint Services Workflow Infrastructure 72fu Unexpected ... at System.Workflow.Runtime.WorkflowRuntime.StartRuntime() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOeHostServices..ctor(SPSite site, SPWeb web, SPWorkflowManager manager, SPWorkflowEngine engine) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeConstructor(Object[] args, SignatureStruct& signature, IntPtr declaringType) at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeConstructor(Object[] args, SignatureStruct signature, RuntimeTypeHandle declaringType) at System.Reflection.RuntimeConstructorInfo.Invoke(BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture) at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceImpl(BindingFlags bindingAttr, Binder binder, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture, Object[] activationAttributes) at System.Ac... 06/11/2008 10:05:34.65* OWSTIMER.EXE (0x1A8C) 0x12EC Windows SharePoint Services Workflow Infrastructure 72fu Unexpected ...tivator.CreateInstance(Type type, BindingFlags bindingAttr, Binder binder, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture, Object[] activationAttributes) at System.Reflection.Assembly.CreateInstance(String typeName, Boolean ignoreCase, BindingFlags bindingAttr, Binder binder, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture, Object[] activationAttributes) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowManager.LoadPluggableClass(String classname, String assembly, Object[] parameters) 06/11/2008 10:05:34.66 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x1A8C) 0x12EC Windows SharePoint Services Workflow Infrastructure 98d8 Unexpected System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.InvalidOperationException: The requested Performance Counter is not a custom counter, it has to be initialized as ReadOnly. at System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter.Initialize() at System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter..ctor(String categoryName, String counterName, String instanceName, Boolean readOnly) at System.Workflow.Runtime.PerformanceCounterManager.CreateCounters(String name) at System.Workflow.Runtime.Hosting.DefaultWorkflowSchedulerService.OnStarted() at System.Workflow.Runtime.Hosting.WorkflowRuntimeService.HandleStarted(Object source, WorkflowRuntimeEventArgs e) at System.EventHandler`1.Invoke(Object sender, TEventArgs e) at System.Workfl... 06/11/2008 10:05:34.66* OWSTIMER.EXE (0x1A8C) 0x12EC Windows SharePoint Services Workflow Infrastructure 98d8 Unexpected ...ow.Runtime.WorkflowRuntime.StartRuntime() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWinOeHostServices..ctor(SPSite site, SPWeb web, SPWorkflowManager manager, SPWorkflowEngine engine) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeConstructor(Object[] args, SignatureStruct& signature, IntPtr declaringType) at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeConstructor(Object[] args, SignatureStruct signature, RuntimeTypeHandle declaringType) at System.Reflection.RuntimeConstructorInfo.Invoke(BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture) at System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceImpl(BindingFlags bindingAttr, Binder binder, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture, Object[] activationAttributes) at System.Activator.CreateInstanc... 06/11/2008 10:05:34.66* OWSTIMER.EXE (0x1A8C) 0x12EC Windows SharePoint Services Workflow Infrastructure 98d8 Unexpected ...e(Type type, BindingFlags bindingAttr, Binder binder, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture, Object[] activationAttributes) at System.Reflection.Assembly.CreateInstance(String typeName, Boolean ignoreCase, BindingFlags bindingAttr, Binder binder, Object[] args, CultureInfo culture, Object[] activationAttributes) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowManager.LoadPluggableClass(String classname, String assembly, Object[] parameters) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowManager.GetService(String objClass, String objAssm, SPSite parentSite, SPWeb parentWeb, SPWorkflowEngine engine) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Workflow.SPWorkflowManager.RunWorkflowElev(SPWorkflow originalWorkflow, SPWorkflow workflow, Collection`1 events, SPRunWorkflowOptions runOptions)

Almost all the times i ran the workflow i get the above entries in the logs. Then i figured out that the reason was because of a "bug" with Windows Workflow Foundation which doesnt set one of the dirtry boolean bits to true or false accordingly. This is tied up with the Performance Counters values which trigger the OSTIMER.exe to schedule the workflows to run whenever the list items are updated. So, the following URL points you to get the hotfix which fixes this dirty boolean bit accordingly. WWF HOTFIX(this is the .NET 3.0 WWF hotfix).
So, now i formulated the steps to repair this stupid error which i know for sure most of them have no clue why its caused.

1) Open the Performance Counter MMC. (in the run prompt enter perfmon.exe). Expand the 'Performance Logs and Alerts' item. Click on the 'Counter Logs' item. Open the 'System Overview' properties.Click on 'Add Counters' button. In the Performance Object list box, check to see if there is an entry for 'Windows Workflow Foundation'. If its not there then this the problem. Somehow the counters got messed up. This means you need to add the right perf counters to this list so that all the associations of timer jobs are kicked off correctly.

2) If the .NET Framework 3.0 is installed on the system, then please repair it from Add/Remove Programs snap-in. Or else, my suggested method would be to RE-INSTALL .NET 3.0 framework.

3) After the .NET 3.0 is installed, install the .NET 3.0 hotfix. Link: WWF Hotfix.

4) After the .NET 3.0 Hotfix is installed, stop and start all the Application Pool instances and also the Web-Sites in the IIS Manager.How to do it? Here are the steps:
a) In the run prompt enter: inetmgr.exe. From the IIS snap-in, expand the server to see the details.
b) Expand the 'Application Pools' item. Now click on each of the pool identity, hit the Stop button. Then hit the Start button.
c) Repeat the above steps (b) for 'Web Sites' item.
[Stop and Start the relevant items specific to Sharepoint]

5) Once this is done, reset the IIS just to make sure that everthing works fine. To do this: in the run prompt enter: iisreset.

6) Now the final step is to re-associate all the Performance Counters with the windows workflow foundations instances. In the run prompt enter: cmd. Basically opening a command prompt.Change your working directory to the following: \WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.0\Windows Workflow Foundation

Now execute the following command: "LodCtr PerfCounters.ini" (excluding the quotes). If its success you do not get any message. Assume that if there is no message, the command executed successfully.

Now repeat the steps indicated in Step - 1. Now you should see 'Windows Workflow Foundation' counter in the list.
Re-execute any workflow on any list that has workflows. It should be successful. For me these steps worked like a charm albeit for all the efforts i had to put in to find out the root cause. If you liked my blog, please add your comments. That surely motivates me :).

thanks,
-Mantrala, Kiran