VSS not working a nd Com+ event errors

Hi,
you're not alone with these VSS problems. It seems to be an unstable part of Windows. My experience is that with Win 2008 R2 and Win 7 it has been done a lot better.

Because we receive reports from our customers regarding VSS errors, we wrote this guide:
http://backupchain.com/Volume-shadow-copy-service-error-troubleshooting.html

The VSS writer error faf53cc4-bd73-4e36-83f1-2b23f46e513e is there as well, usually it has to do with a backup app still being in the system. Follow the instructions for re-registering and cleaning up the registry. That usually helps.
If you come across a solution that's not listed there, please let me know.

Tried these but to no avail. I was hopeful the reregister vss and com+ dlls might work and despite errors during registering the vss writers did seem to be registered after doing this. However the next day they were gone again. The errors I got were when registering eventcls.dll. this failed with error code 0x000FFFF. Also vsapi.dll failed with error vssapi.dll was loaded but the dllregister server entry point was not found. the file cannot be registered.

sounds like things got pretty much messed up. Have you tried uninstalling Virtual Server or whatever virtualization platform you're using?
I came across a situation once where this solved the problem. Also, try removing any backup software from your system.
If you come up with  a solution in the meantime, please let us know so we can improve the guide as well.

Uninstalled backup exec but still no joy. Its a physical server not virtual.

Looks like the server needs replacing as there are other issues and its five years old.

i agree, a clean Windows installation does miracles sometimes ;-)

none