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| Vista Tutorial - Event Viewer Error 4201 Event Viewer Error 4201
How to Fix the Event Viewer 4201 Error in Vista
Published by Brink
06-05-2007
| | How to Fix the Event Viewer 4201 Error in Vista Information | | This will show you how to fix the Event viewer if you are getting this error : ERROR_WMI_INSTANCE_NOT_FOUND 4201 The instance name passed was not recognized as valid by a WMI data provider |  | NOTE | | One usual cause of this error is a corrupted Repository file. |  | RELATED LINK: Here's How:1. Restart the computer into Safe Mode (without networking). 2. In Safe Mode, open a elevated command prompt. 3. In the elevated command prompt, type net stop winmgmt and press Enter. NOTE: This is to make certain the wmi service is not running. 4. Wait until the successful message appears, then close the elevated command prompt. 5. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to: C:\Windows\System32\wbem 6. Right click on the Repository folder and click on Rename. 7. Type in RepositoryOld and press Enter. NOTE: This is to make this a backup of the original Repository folder. 8. Restart the computer back into normal mode to an administrator account. 9. When it is done starting up, open a elevated command prompt. 10. In the elevated command prompt, type net stop winmgmt and press Enter. NOTE: This is to make certain the wmi service is not running. 11. Wait until successful message appears, and then type winmgmt /resetRepository in the elevated command prompt and press Enter. 12. Wait until the successful message appears and then close the elevated command prompt. 13. Take ownership of these two files:- C:\windows\logs
- C:\windows\system32\logfiles
14. Restart the computer. 15. Test the Event Viewer. It should be working now. 16. If it is working again, then go back and delete the RepositoryOld folder. (See step 7) 17. If it is still not working for you, then do a System Restore using a restore point dated before the problem. 18. If a System Restore did not help, then other than a clean reinstall, then you can do a Repair (upgrade) install to fix the problem. That's it,
Shawn |  Published by | | | Administrator Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Texas, USA
Posts: 23,768
Rep Power: 150 | |
 Tutorial Tools | | |
 Applies to | | All Vista Versions | | 64 Bit & 32 Bit | |
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07-15-2008
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| | IT Consultant Vista Home Premium 32bit Fort Lauderdale FL
Rep Power: 8
 | Re: Event Viewer Error 4201 I tried your suggestion but the system security will not allow me to rename the repository folder. I tried changing ownership and adding my specific user to the folder and contents with full control but no such luck.
Attached is a screen print of "Access Denied" error message.
By the way I did this with the "Administrator" user.
Now what? | My System Specs | | OS Vista Home Premium 32bit CPU Core 2 Duo E6550 Motherboard ASUS P5N-E SLI Memory 2048MB Corsair™ DDR2 PC6400 DDR2-800 Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600 GTS Hard Drives 400GB 7200RPM SATA (OS)
160GB 7200RPM ATA
07-15-2008
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| | Administrator Vista x64 Ultimate SP2 Texas, USA | Re: Event Viewer Error 4201 Hi Rocky, and welcome to Vista Forums.
I updated the steps a little to help. Try again and see what you get this time.
Hope this helps,
Shawn | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Custom OS Vista x64 Ultimate SP2 CPU Core2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 12MB Motherboard Gigabyte X48-DQ6 Memory 8 GB (4x2) DDR2 PC2-8500 1066 MHz Patriot Extreme Graphics Card BFG GeForce 9600 GT OC 512MB Sound Card Realtek HD Audio ALC889A Integrated Chip Monitor(s) Displays 28" Hanns-G HG281DJB and 17" eMachines E17T4 Screen Resolution 28" 1920x1200 and 17" 1280x1024 Keyboard Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution Mouse Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution PSU Antec NeoPower 500 Watt Case Tagan El-Diablo Full Tower Cooling 250 mm Front, 360 mm Side, stock CPU, 120 mm SiLenX Rear Hard Drives 64GB Patriot SSD (v2)
750GB Samsung HDD HD753LJ SATA 32MB Internet Speed 3382 kb/s Download and 312 kb/s Upload Other Info Creative WebCam Instant
08-28-2008
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| | Newbie vista home premium 32bit sp1 Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Rep Power: 7
 | Re: Event Viewer Error 4201 Hi Shawn,
I have been trying this approach to getting my event viewer running so that i can install vista sp1 and have religiously followed these steps. All the confirmations have worked and the repository folder has been reset yet I still get the same error message when i try and manually start the event viewer service. I would restore to a point before the problem but it seems the problem has always been there as I reinstalled vista only about a month ago. I am worried about doing a repair install as I have several software's on this machine worth a fortune and no install files for them. Are there any other ways to get the event viewer running or sp1 installed without having to take those steps?
Thanks a million
Evan | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Lenovo OS vista home premium 32bit sp1
08-28-2008
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| | Administrator Vista x64 Ultimate SP2 Texas, USA | Re: Event Viewer Error 4201 Hi Evan, and welcome to Vista Forums.
Have you already tried setting this Event Viewer service to just Automatic and restart the computer to allow it to start that way? You might also double check to make sure that all of it's Dependencies (other required services) are started to.
If you had to, a Repair install will not delete any installed software. It may remove the shortcuts for some of them in the Start menu, but you can easily recreate those from the program's exe file if needed.
Hope this helps,
Shawn | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Custom OS Vista x64 Ultimate SP2 CPU Core2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 12MB Motherboard Gigabyte X48-DQ6 Memory 8 GB (4x2) DDR2 PC2-8500 1066 MHz Patriot Extreme Graphics Card BFG GeForce 9600 GT OC 512MB Sound Card Realtek HD Audio ALC889A Integrated Chip Monitor(s) Displays 28" Hanns-G HG281DJB and 17" eMachines E17T4 Screen Resolution 28" 1920x1200 and 17" 1280x1024 Keyboard Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution Mouse Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution PSU Antec NeoPower 500 Watt Case Tagan El-Diablo Full Tower Cooling 250 mm Front, 360 mm Side, stock CPU, 120 mm SiLenX Rear Hard Drives 64GB Patriot SSD (v2)
750GB Samsung HDD HD753LJ SATA 32MB Internet Speed 3382 kb/s Download and 312 kb/s Upload Other Info Creative WebCam Instant
08-28-2008
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| | Newbie vista home premium 32bit sp1 Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Rep Power: 7
 | Re: Event Viewer Error 4201 Hi Shawn,
Thank you for replying to my post. I had tried that to no avail but after some persistance I managed to follow some instructions on a post which solved the issue about an hour ago.
Thanks once again for your suggestions
Evan | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Lenovo OS vista home premium 32bit sp1
08-28-2008
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| | Administrator Vista x64 Ultimate SP2 Texas, USA | Re: Event Viewer Error 4201 I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted out Evan. Could you post the link to that post so that others with the same problem may be able solve their problem as well.
Thank you,
Shawn | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Custom OS Vista x64 Ultimate SP2 CPU Core2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 12MB Motherboard Gigabyte X48-DQ6 Memory 8 GB (4x2) DDR2 PC2-8500 1066 MHz Patriot Extreme Graphics Card BFG GeForce 9600 GT OC 512MB Sound Card Realtek HD Audio ALC889A Integrated Chip Monitor(s) Displays 28" Hanns-G HG281DJB and 17" eMachines E17T4 Screen Resolution 28" 1920x1200 and 17" 1280x1024 Keyboard Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution Mouse Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution PSU Antec NeoPower 500 Watt Case Tagan El-Diablo Full Tower Cooling 250 mm Front, 360 mm Side, stock CPU, 120 mm SiLenX Rear Hard Drives 64GB Patriot SSD (v2)
750GB Samsung HDD HD753LJ SATA 32MB Internet Speed 3382 kb/s Download and 312 kb/s Upload Other Info Creative WebCam Instant
08-28-2008
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| | Newbie vista home premium 32bit sp1 Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Rep Power: 7
 | Re: Event Viewer Error 4201 Hi All,
After trying a few things after having started with the process at the top of this page I ended up following the steps at the following link and it has solved the problem: Re: Serious security concern: event log error 4201 - MSDN Forums
It all started when I couldn't install vista SP1 and then traced back to the eventlog and viewer services being unable to start - it seems a few folk have been having the issue and I'm pleased to announce that this has worked (well so far - I'm only an hour and a half in  ). The services now run and so far as I can tell there are no other deleterious effects. Vista sp1 has also now finally installed without difficulty. It all looked way too complicated at the beginning but if a simple plant breeder can pull it off - hopefully so can you. I hope this helps.
Evan | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Lenovo OS vista home premium 32bit sp1
08-28-2008
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| | Administrator Vista x64 Ultimate SP2 Texas, USA | Re: Event Viewer Error 4201 Thank you Evan for posting this link so that it can help others.
Shawn | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Custom OS Vista x64 Ultimate SP2 CPU Core2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 12MB Motherboard Gigabyte X48-DQ6 Memory 8 GB (4x2) DDR2 PC2-8500 1066 MHz Patriot Extreme Graphics Card BFG GeForce 9600 GT OC 512MB Sound Card Realtek HD Audio ALC889A Integrated Chip Monitor(s) Displays 28" Hanns-G HG281DJB and 17" eMachines E17T4 Screen Resolution 28" 1920x1200 and 17" 1280x1024 Keyboard Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution Mouse Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution PSU Antec NeoPower 500 Watt Case Tagan El-Diablo Full Tower Cooling 250 mm Front, 360 mm Side, stock CPU, 120 mm SiLenX Rear Hard Drives 64GB Patriot SSD (v2)
750GB Samsung HDD HD753LJ SATA 32MB Internet Speed 3382 kb/s Download and 312 kb/s Upload Other Info Creative WebCam Instant
12-09-2008
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| | da Cleaner Vista Home Premium 64bit Cambridge, UK | Re: Event Viewer Error 4201 In my case taking ownership of c:\windows\logs and c:\windows\system32\logfiles\ resolved the issue. | My System Specs | | System Manufacturer/Model Number Self built OS Vista Home Premium 64bit CPU Intel E8400 3GHz Motherboard Intel DX48BT2 Memory Kingston PC3-10666 4Gb Graphics Card XFX 9800 GTX XXX Sound Card Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeMusic Monitor(s) Displays 2x Samsung SM-T220HD 22" Screen Resolution 1680x1050 on two monitors Keyboard Dell Multimedia Enhanced USB Mouse Razer Diamondback 3G PSU Thermaltake ToughPower 850w Case Thermaltake Armor Cooling Tuniq Tower 120 Hard Drives WD Raptor X 150Gb
WD Raptor 36gb
3x Samsung F1 1Tb Internet Speed 8128/832 Other Info Thermaltake Muse esata caddy | Tutorial Tools | | | | Display Modes | Linear Mode | Vista Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows Vista", the Start Orb, and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp. © Designer Media Ltd Tutorial powered by GARS 2.1.8m ©2005-2006
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