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.
