WSS 3.0 search not working. Getting a "Your search cannot be completed because of a service error. Try your search again or contact your administrator for more information".

No its not in a farm.  Yes i selected the server in the dropdown box.

Try restarting the service and check.  Else go thru the last post on this forum if it helps: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sharepointsearch/thread/2a0673e0-7b15-448d-bed4-e3865d3b96f6

Can you try another search, note the exact time, then check if there are any events in the ULS logs (c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\logs

Re the change in the name of the service, are you sure the name has changed? Are you using WSS or MOSS? I know that if you're using MOSS, the WSS search service gets named the WSS help search. It's exactly the same service, it's just that they rename it to differentiate it from the vastly better Office Server Search. It's called the Help search service by the way, because the only place it's used in MOSS is to search the online help files!!

Here is what I get in the logs.  i searched at 1:01





10/19/2009 13:01:06.11       w3wp.exe (0x077C)                             0x0630      Search Server Common                GatherPI                            0      Monitorable      SearchDB GetSession failed application cdad17f6-98f5-4b12-8408-93005f3d007a Error is 0xc0041228 or Session pointer is null - File:d:\office\source\search\search\gather\gthrsvc\srchschema.cxx Line:3384       
10/19/2009 13:01:06.11       w3wp.exe (0x077C)                             0x0630      Search Server Common                GathererSql                         0      Monitorable      GetManagedProperties: Failed in GetSession, Error is 0xc0041228 - File:d:\office\source\search\search\gather\gthrsvc\srchschema.cxx Line:2294       
10/19/2009 13:01:06.11       w3wp.exe (0x077C)                             0x0630      Search Server Common                Exceptions                          0      Monitorable      <Exception><HR>0xc0041228</HR><eip>16DFDF55</eip><module>d:\office\source\search\search\gather\gthrsvc\srchschema.cxx</module><line>2295</line></Exception>       
10/19/2009 13:01:06.11       w3wp.exe (0x077C)                             0x0630      Search Server Common                Common                              0      Monitorable      Application cdad17f6-98f5-4b12-8408-93005f3d007a: The parent farm application root doesn't exist or access denied. - File:d:\office\source\search\search\searchdll\resourcemanagerimpl.cpp Line:703       
10/19/2009 13:01:06.11       w3wp.exe (0x077C)                             0x0630      Search Server Common                Common                              0      Monitorable      Application cdad17f6-98f5-4b12-8408-93005f3d007a: Database session creation error for resource type 0. - File:d:\office\source\search\search\searchdll\resourcemanagerimpl.cpp Line:555       
10/19/2009 13:01:06.11       w3wp.exe (0x077C)                             0x0630      Search Server Common                Common                              0      Monitorable      CAppConfig::DoQuery, Application 'cdad17f6-98f5-4b12-8408-93005f3d007a', Resource 'SearchDatabase': m_pParent->CreateSession failed. - File:d:\office\source\search\search\searchdll\resourcemanagerimpl.cpp Line:844       
10/19/2009 13:01:06.11       w3wp.exe (0x077C)                             0x0630      Search Server Common                Exceptions                          0      Monitorable      <Exception><HR>0xc0041228</HR><eip>16DBB08E</eip><module>d:\office\source\search\search\searchdll\resourcemanagerimpl.cpp</module><line>845</line></Exception>       
10/19/2009 13:01:06.11       w3wp.exe (0x077C)                             0x0630      Search Server Common                Common                              0      Monitorable      CAppConfig::GetProperty Exception caught. - File:d:\office\source\search\search\searchdll\resourcemanagerimpl.cpp Line:975       
10/19/2009 13:01:06.11       w3wp.exe (0x077C)                             0x0630      Search Server Common                Exceptions                          0      Monitorable      <Exception><HR>0xc0041228</HR><eip>16B3324A</eip><module>d:\office\source\search\ytrip\tripoli\icommand\qpcache.cxx</module><line>1008</line></Exception>       
10/19/2009 13:01:06.11       w3wp.exe (0x077C)                             0x0630      Windows SharePoint Services         Web Parts                           89a1      Monitorable      Error while executing web part: Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.WebControls.SrhdcGenericException: Your search cannot be completed because of a service error. Try your search again or contact your administrator for more information. ---> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0xC0041228): Exception from HRESULT: 0xC0041228     at System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHRInternal(Int32 errorCode, IntPtr errorInfo)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Query.Query._GetInterfaces(ICommand** ppCommand, IMSSApplicationCacheInterfaces** ppAppCache, IColumnMapper** ppColMapper, IApplicationSchema** ppAppSchema)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Query.KeywordQuery.Execute()     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.WebControls.SearchResultHiddenObject.GetResultData()     --- End of inner...       
10/19/2009 13:01:06.11*      w3wp.exe (0x077C)                             0x0630      Windows SharePoint Services         Web Parts                           89a1      Monitorable      ... exception stack trace ---     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.WebControls.SearchResultHiddenObject.get_ResultsReturned()     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Internal.WebControls.CoreResultsWebPart.ModifyXsltArgumentList(ArgumentClassWrapper argList)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.DataFormWebPart.PrepareAndPerformTransform()       
10/19/2009 13:01:06.11       w3wp.exe (0x077C)                             0x0630      Windows SharePoint Services         Web Parts                           89a2      Monitorable      InnerException 1: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0xC0041228): Exception from HRESULT: 0xC0041228     at System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHRInternal(Int32 errorCode, IntPtr errorInfo)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Query.Query._GetInterfaces(ICommand** ppCommand, IMSSApplicationCacheInterfaces** ppAppCache, IColumnMapper** ppColMapper, IApplicationSchema** ppAppSchema)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Query.KeywordQuery.Execute()     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.WebControls.SearchResultHiddenObject.GetResultData()       
10/19/2009 13:01:13.19       OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0A04)                         0x10E8      Windows SharePoint Services         General                             0      Medium        Entering MRU trim routine.       
10/19/2009 13:01:13.19       OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0A04)                         0x10E8      Windows SharePoint Services         General                             0      Medium        Initial table size: 0 in 0 entries       
10/19/2009 13:01:13.19       OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0A04)                         0x10E8      Windows SharePoint Services         General                             0      Medium        Final table size: 0 in 0 entries       
10/19/2009 13:01:13.19       OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0A04)                         0x10E8      Windows SharePoint Services         General                             0      Medium        Exiting MRU trim routine.       

This will be more readable.

I would try resetting the index, by stopping and starting the service. Note when you restart you will need to enter all the search info again (accounts, passwords etc) and may be asked to create a new database, depending on what state it's in.

I am using WSS 3.0

I went and clicked stop within sharepoint central administration and got this error.

An update conflict has occurred, and you must re-try this action. The object SPSearchJobDefinition Name=SharePoint Services Search Refresh Parent=SPSearchService Name=SPSearch is being updated by TRICOUNTY\administrator, in the w3wp process, on machine TCHSQL.  View the tracing log for more information about the conflict.

You can still restart the service?

TRiCounty:

I would suggest to go to timer job definition and delete the timer job and then stop the Search service.
Also you coudl disable the Windows sharepoint search service and reboot the box and then try manually restarting it again.

When i try to disable that in teh timer job defenition I get this error.  


 
 
An update conflict has occurred, and you must re-try this action. The object SPSearchJobDefinition Name=SharePoint Services Search Refresh Parent=SPSearchService Name=SPSearch is being updated by TRICOUNTY\administrator, in the w3wp process, on machine TCHSQL.  View the tracing log for more information about the conflict.  
 

I followed that article and it seemed to get me farther.  Now I can stop the search service.  When I try to start it I get this error.  

WSS_Search_TCHSQL on np:\\.\pipe\MSSQL$Microsoft##SSEE\sql\query contains user-defined schema.  Databases must be empty before they can be used.  Delete all of the tables, stored procedures and other objects or use a different database

it looks like you haven't deleted or emptied the database before restarting the search service. You'll need to do this as sharepoint either expects the db not to exist, or that a new, empty database exists.

How do i do that exactly?

Either just delete the search db entirely (probably best and easiest), or delete all of the rows in all of the tables.

I tried creating a new database and I got this error when I tried to connect to it from sharepoint.  How do i change the collation?


The specified database has an incorrect collation.  Rebuild the database with the Latin1_General_CI_AS_KS_WS collation or create a new database.

Aha, I thought that might be the case! I think this is what was causing your original search problem, I saw this in another posting somewhere and was trying to get you to this point.

I don't think there is any way to change the collation of a database after it has been created. I would just create it again - you should be prompted for the collation when you create it. I believe the proper collation is Latin1_General_CI_AS_KS_WS

I dont get any prompts to change collation when I create the database.  Maybe it would be easier to delete the data in the old one.  Can I just delete tables?  Or how does that work?

GUI I am not much of a scripter.

I was able to find the collation when creating the database.  Sharepoint is building the tables right now....I think.