# Windows VEP/eLicenser issue - anyone seen this?



## whinecellar (Jan 11, 2017)

Hey Guys,

I have a Win10-based PC slave for almost a year and it's been flawless. Just today though I've started getting this error message every time I try to connect or disconnect from VE Pro instances:

"Application Vienna Ensemble Pro has caused the following error:

DCOM connection to program 'Synsopos.exe' failed. Error: The object invoked has disconnected from its clients"

First thing that pops up in a search is a Steinberg forum recommending to turn on DEP in advanced system settings for Synsopos.exe, but I'm a bit wary of messing with that stuff, especially since it's worked without issue until now? Haven't changed a thing about this rig - no installs or updates, etc. - I just started getting this message today, and it happens every time VEP tries to connect.

The other suggestion was to reinstall eLicenser Control, but again - nothing's changed.

Any thoughts? I'm a Mac guy so not sure of the best route to troubleshoot on a PC.

Thanks!

Jim


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## garyhiebner (Jan 11, 2017)

What happens if you put the eLicensor on your master machine and run VEP from there? Then you can rule out if its an eLicensor or VEP issue


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## Matt Riley (Jan 11, 2017)

garyhiebner said:


> What happens if you put the eLicensor on your master machine and run VEP from there? Then you can rule out if its an eLicensor or VEP issue


I don't see how that would rule anything out. His master machine is mac. His problem is on a PC. 

Jim has your PC been connected to the internet and may have updated something without you knowing? Mine updated some drivers automatically without me knowing a while back and caused some serious trouble. I had to restore from a previous restore point and it saved me. I have since taken steps so that Windows can never update without my approval.


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## whinecellar (Jan 11, 2017)

garyhiebner said:


> What happens if you put the eLicensor on your master machine and run VEP from there? Then you can rule out if its an eLicensor or VEP issue


All 5 of my machines have their own eLicensers already. I suppose I could swap this one with one of the others to rule that out, but I thought it odd that I would just start seeing this out of the blue one day. I went ahead with the DEP setting in system prefs since I figured I could always revert back, and that seems to have fixed it - but again, not sure why today is different than any other day...

Thanks!


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## whinecellar (Jan 11, 2017)

Matt Riley said:


> Jim has your PC been connected to the internet and may have updated something without you knowing?...



Well, I was concerned about that so I had Jim Roseberry (highly recommended builder who built my slave) remote in and disable any and all auto-updates when I first got it. So I'm doubtful that has occurred, but I guess I have no way of knowing? Out of curiosity, what do you use to make a bootable clone of your Windows install? You'd think that were an easy question but I've found a plethora of conflicting answers. Wish there were a PC version of SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner - those are so easy to use!

Thanks,

Jim


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## JohnG (Jan 11, 2017)

@whinecellar 

Hi Jim,

Periodically, one of my PCs seems to lose track of dongles -- not sure why. One is the PACE iLok software. For some reason known only to Bill Gates, sometimes it just doesn't start. The solution may sound alarming to a non-PC veteran, but is not actually that invasive.

1. Simultaneously hit Ctrl_Alt_Del

2. Select "Task Manager"

3. Choose the "Services" tab

4. Scroll down to the service that your computer is complaining about. If it says in the "Status" column that it is Stopped, right-click on it and select "Start."

For me, this has been a once-in-a-while problem, not a constant one. I am sure there is a solution that is better than manually starting the service, but it works. And typically it works for a period of time (some number of restarts) and then it stops again.

Apologies if you already know all this.

Good luck,

John


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## garyhiebner (Jan 11, 2017)

Seems like others have also had that issue, and was related to an eLicensor update:

https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=99228

http://forums.dv247.com/cubase/5927-dcom-connection-program-synsopos-exe-failed.html

So maybe try reinstalling eLicense Control.


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## Guillermo Navarrete (Jan 12, 2017)

Hello,



whinecellar said:


> All 5 of my machines have their own eLicensers already. I suppose I could swap this one with one of the others to rule that out, but I thought it odd that I would just start seeing this out of the blue one day. I went ahead with the DEP setting in system prefs since I figured I could always revert back, and that seems to have fixed it - but again, not sure why today is different than any other day...
> 
> Thanks!



This is a very old issue, you might have installed another application that turned on DEP, and that is why the eLicenser Control Center stopped working. Turning it off does not affect your computer at all, any how you should always have the latest version of the eLicenser Control Center installed as well. 

Best regards,
GN


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## whinecellar (Jan 12, 2017)

Guillermo Navarrete said:


> This is a very old issue, you might have installed another application that turned on DEP, and that is why the eLicenser Control Center stopped working...



Thanks Guillermo. As I mentioned, I hadn't changed or updated anything on this rig for several months, and all auto-updates have been disabled, so I'm not sure why it would have just started happening. I'm pretty paranoid about not touching *anything* in the middle of a project 

Anyway, it's working now as of the above fix.

Thanks again!


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## whinecellar (May 4, 2017)

So this issue is back with a vengeance for me, and again, I haven't changed *anything* on this machine. All auto-updates are disabled.

I now get the "DCOM..." error message every time Logic tries to connect or disconnect from a VEP instance, and there are probably 25 or so instances on this PC template - so I have to keep hitting "OK" for each instance every time I open or close a Logic session. That gets old FAST.

I downloaded the latest eLicenser update, ran the maintenance routine, reorganized the key's memory, etc., and nothing helps. Also completely disabled the system-level fix, re-enabled it, etc., and it makes no difference.

Seems like the key itself is fine because everything works - after I hit "OK" all day long!

Thoughts/suggestions? Thanks!


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