Windows 10: DllHost.exe combase.dll crash when start Skype

Hi,


since a few version of Skype can't say since when, when always I start Skype and check the Reliability Monitor, I get a critical alert about DllHost.exe.

So when I check for Details, as I said, this happens when Skype start:





Skype itself is running fine. So if I wouldn't check the Reliability Monitor, I wouldn't notice.


Troublshooting steps I have done:

• Un-/installed the App -> same issue
• sfc /scannow -> no issue
  
• Today I did an In-Place Upgrade to 20H2 with the official MVS ISO file -> same issue

Did anyone else notice it? What could be the reason?

:)

 

Windows Rundll32 (child process of DllHost) is crashing. How can I even identify it?

Windows 10 Home / "x64-based PC" / Dell XPS 13 9360

In Reliability Monitor, I have many "app failures" every day. They go back all the way to 2017-12-04 without variation (the details below are identical), when I believe this machine was first used. The problem is marked as having been reported (apart from problem instances in the past few minutes).

@magicandre1981 also suggested I open a public problem in the Windows app Feedback Hub for some reason.

My question is: How can I identify this? What causes the crashes? Can they be resolved somehow?

Problem details

• Faulting Application Path: C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe
  
• Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
  
• Fault Module Name: Windows.UI.Immersive.dll
  
• Fault Module Version: 10.0.16299.125
  
• Exception offset: 00000000000ac885
  
• Exception code: c0000005
  
• OS Version: 10.0.16299.2.0.0.768.101
  
• Bucket ID: ab5106f0b0020ee0d7e0c2d4f71642fb (1720589277589816059)
  

"Anti-virus" is installed (McAfee VirusSafe) and running with no alerts, no quarantined items, no significant logs that I can find. sfc /scannow gives the system a clean bill of health.

Triggering the problem manually

It seems possible to trigger the crash by logging in. This isn't what has been causing it in the past, because the machine doesn't usually have a user logging in and out (or even turning the machine on and off).

Process Monitor allows to trace process creation and exit. Running it as a second user, I am able to see the crashing process:

• Command line: "C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe" -localserver 22d8c27b-47a1-48d1-ad08-7da7abd79617.
  

It's not really clear what this UUID is. The -localserver option does not appear to be documented. Google finds a question, the only answer claims it is "Process Profiling Performance Analysis Program (Windows Performance Counter Program)". Admittedly I can see that profapi.dll and powrprof.dll are loaded in this process.

• Parent process: DllHost.exe ("COM Surrogate").
  

Described as "I don't feel good about this code, so I'm going to ask COM to host it in another process. That way, if it crashes, it's the COM Surrogate sacrificial process that crashes instead of me".

• Command line: C:\WINDOWS\system32\DllHost.exe /Processid:{133EAC4F-5891-4D04-BADA-D84870380A80}
  

This UUID in the parent's command line can be found in the registry. It is associated with the name "Shell Create Object Task Server". Using the registry tracking in Process Monitor, I see DllHost loads shell32.dll, located via HKCR\CLSID\{133eac...}\InProcServer32).

=> I think we can identify this parent process, as shell32.dll / "Shell Create Object Task Server", and that it is part of the OS.

Both processes run as the user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM. This seems a possible venue of investigation. What is the privileged part of the GUI software doing, that needs to be run in a separate process?

Crash backtrace

After running procdump -ma -i C:\dumps, I am able to capture crash dumps. (procdump -u to stop capturing). The analyzer from DebugDiag is able to open them and run the CrashHangAnalysis:

PID 1160 is an svchost.exe instance for "RPC" and "RPC Endpoint Mapper", according to Process Explorer.

 

Explorer.exe crashes whenever I try to open a network computer

I have a Windows 10 computer that is experiencing some unusual problems accessing networked computers and devices.

If I go to "This PC" (My Computer) and expand the "Network" section in the left-hand navigation bar, I can see all of the computers on our network. However, if I double click on the icon for one of those networked computers, explorer.exe will crash, I temporarily lose the start bar and then moments later explorer.exe restarts.

I captured a dump of the crash and this is the stack:

It would appear that Windows_UI_Xaml is causing the crash somehow, but unfortunately that DLL seems to be a pretty central part of Windows 10. Googling for issues with the DLL and crashes related to networked computers has turned up nothing.

For what it's worth, this computer also cannot find any of the shared networked printers on my network and I've been unable to get it to join the "Homegroup" to share devices. I do not have these problems for other computers on the network.

Any ideas on the root cause of the crashing? Any suggestions for additional troubleshooting steps?

 

UT3.EXE Kernel32.DLL error

Kernell32.dll is not the piece being shut down, it is UT3.EXE with mod name kernel32.dll.