TechTips - How to Fix the 'COM Surrogate Has Stopped Working' Error

An all too common error with Vista is when you get this error message:

"COM Surrogate has stopped working."

The error is a huge pain because it can be caused by so many different things and it is truly hard to pin point the cause of the error. Even when looking at event logs it can be hard to find the cause of this problem. So I have come up with a list of steps to try to fix the problem, starting with the easiest way to fix the problem and then I move on down to other steps that might resolve the issue. I hope at least one of these helps you fix your computer.

The first thing I would do is a system restore. This will basically restore your system to a saved state, hopefully prior to the error. This will only work if you have system restore on, and if you have a restore point that is before the error started, but if you have had this error for a year you probably won't have a restore point that far back that will resolve the issue. If either of the above is true then skip this step.

To do a system restores in Vista follow these steps:

1 - Click Start

2 - Click All Programs

3 - Click Accessories

4 - Click System Tools

5 - Click System Restore

6 - Click Choose a different restore point

7 - Click Show restore points older than 5 days

8 - Choose a restore point that is old enough that you know the error wasn't happening (if the errors started 4 days ago choose a restore point of 5 or more days ago.)

Note - System restore will not affect your files, documents, pictures, etc...so you don't have to worry about that. It will affect your registry, programs and system files.

Once the system is done restoring to an earlier point, test your computer and see if the error is gone. If it is you are done, but I would say when you install future programs or tools test each out and make sure they aren't causing the error. Most of the time a program or feature is what causes the "COM Surrogate has stopped working" error.

If the above didn't help or you didn't have system restore on we will have to try something else. Another common cause of this is the dllhost.exe being blocked by the DEP (date execution protection) portion of Vista. We can go in and make an exception to for this file, there are some security risks involved in this though. So do this at your own risk, this wasn't what fixed my error but others have reported that it worked for them.

To add the dllhost.exe to the (DEP) ignore list do the following:

1 - Click Start

2 - Click Control Panel

3 - Double Click System

4 - Click advanced system settings (upper left hand corner)

5 - Click Advanced Tab

6 - Click Settings Button (under performance)

7 - Click the Data Execution Prevention Tab

8 - Click the Radio button that says "turn on DEP for all programs and services except the ones I select"

9 - Click the Add button

10 - Navigate to the dllhost.exe typically found here - (C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllhost.exe)

11 - Click OK to close the window

12 - Click OK to close the window

13 - Now test and see if the problem is gone

If the problem is gone then you are done if it still exists there are a few other things we can do to trouble shoot the issue.

Note - If you change the DEP to all programs you might have to add other programs to the allow mode, you will do the above steps for all the programs that have issues, only change step 10 to whatever the executable is for the program you want to allow.

If the other two fixes didn't work then you probably have one of the following installed.

Nero

Windows media player

DivX

Other Codec packages

(Any new programs you recently installed)

Now I know all of these are probably considered essential to you, so first try updating all of them and see if that fixes the issue.

If updating doesn't fix the error, then you will either need to uninstall them and find an alternative or live without them so the errors stop coming up. So to find out if one of the programs is causing the problem, uninstall them one at a time, reboot and test. If the error is gone then you know what caused it.

To uninstall a program do the following:

Click Start

Click Control Panel

Click Programs and features

Click on program you want to uninstall

Click Uninstall

Let it run through the uninstall

Reboot

Test

If it fixes the issue you are done, if it doesn't then you can move on to the next program. I don't suggest reinstalling any of the programs until you have uninstalled the others and verified the problem is fixed. Then install the programs that you didn't fix the problem.

Now if you find that one of the above programs did cause the problem and you really need the program then I suggest the following FREE alternatives to each of them programs.

Nero - BurnAware

Windows Media Player - VLC (will play anything you throw at it, much better than WMP)

DivX - VLC (you don't need DivX if you have VLC it will seriously play anything)

Codecs - VLC (I am not kidding this thing will play all videos)

I also read on this thread about a program called Urge that I guess is the online music store for Windows Media player, can also cause this error. The solution is to uninstall Urge using the above listed method through control panel.

If none of the above fixes your problem with the "COM Surrogate has stopped working." Error then I would direct you to my good friend Google.com! Hopefully if none of this worked someone else out there has a solution that I haven't listed.

Sources

COM Surrogate has stopped working

"http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/itprovistadesktopui/thread/8625c34c-300b-45ed-8d9c-d22104e83fe3" - Microsoft