Error 0x8007007f: A problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the license for this computer

SYMPTOMS After you install SP2 for Windows Server 2003 x64 you get the following error message when you try to login using local console or RDP:

A problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the license for this computer: Error Code 0x8007007f

Un problema impide que Windows compruebe con precisión el estado de la licencia para este equipo. Código de error: 0x8007007f

RESOLUTION Some days after having approved SP2 for Windows Server 2003 x64 in WSUS and having it installed on several servers without any problem, I tried to log in using RDP on another one of them and noticed the former error message. Then I went to the local console and see a bunch of error messages on screen (without having anyone logged on) such as "not enough virtual memory...", "application xxxx will now terminate", and so on, poping up in front of the usual "press ctrl+alt+del to log in" dialog. So I needed to accept all those error messages before being able to actually log in the server from the console. After having read and accepted 5 or 6 of them, I started to just press Ok without even read the messages... Finally I was able to press ctrl+alt+del and try to log in... and the same error regarding code 0x8007007f appeared, logging me off automatically (logging in process did not even finish). So I went back to my XP client and used the Event Viewer to remotely connect to the server experiencing the problem and see the System event log. Quite near the top of the list of events I found:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: NtServicePack
Event Category: None
Event ID: 4371
Date:  21/03/2007
Time:  15:21:52
User:  NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer: SERVERNAME
Description:
Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 was installed (Service Pack 1 was previously installed).

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Windows Update Agent
Event Category: Installation 
Event ID: 19
Date:  21/03/2007
Time:  15:21:59
User:  Not available
Computer: SERVERNAME
Description:
Installation Successful: Windows successfully installed the following update: Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 for x64 Editions

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Windows Update Agent
Event Category: Installation 
Event ID: 22
Date:  21/03/2007
Time:  15:21:59
User:  Not available
Computer: SERVERNAME
Description:
Restart Required: To complete the installation of the following updates, the computer will be restarted within 5 minutes: 
- Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 for x64 Editions

But no trace of the expected reboot was found at on the rest of the System event log. So I just used shutdown -i to interactively shutdown the server and restart it again. That solved the problem completely. SCENARIO

• Dell PowerEdge 2950 (Dual Xeon, 4Gb RAM)
• Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 R2 + SP1
• SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition
• WSUS is used to deploy updates to computers in the domain
• Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) for x64 Editions is released and aproved in WSUS for automatic install

KEYWORDS Windows 2003 Server, R2, x64, 64 bits, SP2, Service Pack 2, WSUS, 0x8007007f, licence, problem, error, prevent, accurately, check, license 2007-03-27 UPDATE Only 5 days have passed since the original date of this post and I have noticed a big amount of traffic (compared to my historic) directed by Google regarding this Error 0x8007007f. It seems it is a relative common problem but I would like to have some feedback about it: If your problem is fixed only with a reboot, I would like to hear about it; if it does not, I would like you to drop some lines too; if you solved your problem in any other way, it would be interesting for everybody to know. Thanks. 2007-04-07 UPDATE Due to the limited feedback I have received, I am investigating this issue on myself (even though my servers do not show this error anymore). It seems there is a workaround for this error, in Microsoft's Knowledge Base 914232: You may receive error code 0x80004005 or other error codes when you try to start a Windows XP-based computer:

Error code 0x8007007f or error code 0x8007007e
This problem frequently occurs after you upgrade a service pack. After you upgrade, there appears to be a corrupted file, a missing file, or a file mismatch.
[...]
Workaround for error code 0x8007007f or error code 0x8007007e
To work around this problem, uninstall the service pack that you installed. Then, reinstall the service pack.

This does not seem to be in contradiction with what happened to me: If the server, for whatever the reason, did not reboot, it seems feasible that this error 0x8007007f appears because of a file mismatch (since the reboot did not occur the files that were in use were not replaced). Before you uninstall and reinstall SP2, I would check if the reboot did take place and, if not, doing a remote reboot of the server might solve the problem.

Top 10 searches that lead to this blog during february '07

Keywords	Visits	Blog entry
mssql$microsoftsmlbiz	10	Showing posts with label business contact manager
messenger sharing folders usn journal reader service	9	Microsoft Live Messenger released
sql server cte csv	9	INNER JOIN with a comma separated values CSV field
fwsrv	7	ISA Server 2004: fwsrv stopped responding to all requests
sqlagent$microsoftsmlbiz	7	Outlook 2003 Business Contact Manager served by SQL Server 2005
could not find row in sysindexes for database id 7, object id 1, index id 1. run dbccchecktable on sysindexes.	6	Outlook 2003 Business Contact Manager served by SQL Server 2005
"msdewriter" informó acerca de un error 0x800423f4. esto forma parte del estado del sistema. la copia de seguridad no puede continuar.	5	VSS & ntbackup errors
schema_option	5	How to deploy foreign keys to subscribers that are using queued updates
select permission denied on object 'sysobjects', database 'mssqlsystemresource',schema'sys'	4	Showing posts with label sql server.
microsoftsmlbiz	4	Showing posts with label business contact manager.
Totals:	1277

It might seems not to be much visits at first glance, but if you consider that this blog has only 32 entries up to now, they are rather technical, and it has less than 9 months old... well, maybe you change your mind. Thanks to you all. I am willing to hear your comments.