Error Map problem- "Failed to create the Microsoft Component Manager component"

PWI000077

Context

this document applies to :

  1. PowerINSPECT 2000

Summary

When you try to select an error map you may get an error message saying  "Failed to create the Microsoft Component Manager component..."  This is caused by a faulty Windows NT 4.0 installation which is quite widespread.  The solution is
1. Find comcat.dll on your system. This will normally be in C:\winnt\system32.
2. Rename the file or delete it. I would recommend renaming it to comcat_v5.dll.
3. Re-run PWISystemUpdate from the install area of the CD. This will install and register comcat.dll 4.71.

Description

This applies only to PowerINSPECT running under Windows NT 4.0.   If you try to select an error map you may get a PowerINSPECT 2000 error message as follows:  

Failed to create the Microsoft Component Manager component. 

Ensure that the component is correctly installed and registered on your system. 

Identification of components that can be used for error mapping is not possible.

 

Problem cause

Microsoft Knowledge Base article "Q201364 - PRB Mismatched Ole32.dll and Comcat.dll" (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q201/3/64.ASP) describes the problems in full.

It seems that there are one or more software installations that incorrectly install comcat.dll 5.0. It is likely that these originate from Microsoft as the problem seems widespread. There are many Knowledge Base articles on Microsoft products not working correctly due to this problems ("Q241385 - PRB MSDN Library Topics Display ActiveX Control Warning" [http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q241/3/85.ASP], "Q254936 - Errors Messages Occur Registering OCX Files During Windows Media Services Installation" [http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q254/9/36.ASP] and "Q251365 - Error Message An ActiveX Control on This Page Is Not Safe" [http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q251/3/65.ASP] are just a handful of the more notable ones).

For the minority of users who do want to use error mapping but have comcat.dll 5.0 incorrectly installed, the CMMDriver will attempt to register the component category again when they attempt to select the error map from the CMMDriver configuration dialog. If the registration fails at this point then they will get a message box as above.

Solution/Workaround

According to Microsoft, the way to fix your system for this problem is replace comcat.dll with the earlier version. For our customers the best way to do this is as follows:

1. Find comcat.dll on your system. This will normally be in C:\winnt\system32.

2. Rename the file or delete it. I would recommend renaming it to comcat_v5.dll.

3. Re-run PWISystemUpdate from the install area of the CD. This will install and register comcat.dll 4.71.